How do containers differ from virtual machines?
Containers and virtual machines are both parts of virtualization systems, where hardware environments are abstracted into a series of virtual or logical components. However, containers and virtual machines are different technologies, and parts of differently arranged virtualization systems.
With a virtual machine system, a hypervisor sits on top of bare metal hardware architectures, and virtual machines are provisioned from that system. Virtual machines are planned individually with their own operating systems and workloads.
With a container system, the operating system gets installed, and then container instances share that host operating system.
The main difference is that since containers do not each have their own operating systems, they are less resource-intensive. This leads to the opportunities offered by container technology. Companies can do more with the system, because they do not have to give each container instance its own operating system. The shared architecture of containers is a large part of the appeal of these alternative systems.
On the other hand, the insular nature of virtual machines, where cloned virtual machines can operate independently of each other, offers more redundant and failsafe results for businesses. Experts talk about a single point of failure that is a vulnerability for container systems. Many types of security concerns about containers go along with this philosophy – like the idea is that a single malware attack can more easily destroy the entire container system.
Both container and virtual machine technologies are fairly new, though container systems have evolved more recently as an alternative, and both of these technologies are being innovated to produce new kinds of results for IT systems.
Tags
Written by Justin Stoltzfus | Contributor, Reviewer

Justin Stoltzfus is a freelance writer for various Web and print publications. His work has appeared in online magazines including Preservation Online, a project of the National Historic Trust, and many other venues.
More Q&As from our experts
- What is the difference between little endian and big endian?
- How can unstructured data benefit your business's bottom line?
- What are some of the dangers of using machine learning impulsively without a business plan?
Related Terms
- Cloud Computing
- Citrix Server
- Application Virtualization
- Clean Computing
- Desktop Virtualization
- Full Virtualization
- Network Virtualization
- Paravirtualized Operating System
- Server Virtualization
- Virtualization
Related Articles

AI in the Army: How Virtual Assistants Will Impact US Military Ranks

Finite State Machine: How It Has Affected Your Gaming For Over 40 Years

How Cloud Computing is Changing Cybersecurity
Tech moves fast! Stay ahead of the curve with Techopedia!
Join nearly 200,000 subscribers who receive actionable tech insights from Techopedia.
- The CIO Guide to Information Security
- Robotic Process Automation: What You Need to Know
- Data Governance Is Everyone's Business
- Key Applications for AI in the Supply Chain
- Service Mesh for Mere Mortals - Free 100+ page eBook
- Do You Need a Head of Remote?
- Web Data Collection in 2022 - Everything you need to know