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One of the frequent questions asked about Docker is how it differs from VM (virtual machine).
Thats precisely what Docker is.
Docker is a container-based technology that lets you develop distributed applications.
In this blog post, I will explain the differences between virtual machines and Docker containers.
What is a Virtual Machine?
A virtual machine is a system that acts exactly like a computer.
Each virtual machine requires its underlying operating system, and then the hardware is virtualized.
What is Docker?
It binds an tool and its dependencies inside a container.
Docker vs. VM
Now Ill tell you the significant differences between docker containers and virtual machines.
Well, the significant differences are their operating system support, security, portability, and performance.
So lets discuss each one of these terms one by one.
Operating System Support
The operating system support of Virtual machine and Docker container is very different.
Hence, the overhead to manage the container system is very low compared to that of virtual machines.
Hence, they are more secure as compared to Containers.
A container has a lot of security risks, and vulnerabilities as the containers have a shared host kernel.
Portability
Docker containers are easily portable because they do not have separate operating systems.
A container can be ported to a different OS, and it can start immediately.
But the lightweight architecture of docker, itsless resource-intensive featuremakes it a better choice than a virtual machine.
Unlike the case of virtual machines, there is no need to allocate resources permanently to containers.
Conclusion
Here is a table which concludes on a virtual machine and Docker container differences.
