Containers vs. Virtual Machines: Why Containers Are More Popular
Cloud Native Now, April 19th, 2023
Imagine a ship carrying cars wrapped with different layers of packaging materials. Now imagine that same ship, but the cars are not wrapped and are just stacked on top of each other. Which ship would be more efficient?
The answer is obvious: The ship carrying the packaged cars. This is the same idea when it comes to software containers. That's because containers are a more efficient way to package and transport goods, so the 'cars' (as used in this example) are less likely to be damaged during transit.
Containers and virtual machines (VMs) are both ways to package software so it can be run in different environments. But while VMs virtualize the underlying software, containers virtualize the operating system, meaning each container can only hold one application and its libraries.