When should you use Docker container or a virtual machine?

The docker containers are suited for situations where you want to run multiple applications over a single operating system kernel. But if you have applications or servers that need to run on different operating system flavors, then virtual machines are required.

Which type of environment VMs or containers is preferred for a cloud computing server?

VMs for public, private or hybrid cloud. Users can gain all the benefits of containers in private cloud deployments. And for businesses with standardized operating systems and middleware, container-based private clouds are likely the best strategy.

Which is better containers or virtual machines?

Container Pros: Containers are more lightweight than VMs, as their images are measured in megabytes rather than gigabytes. Containers require fewer IT resources to deploy, run, and manage. A single system can host many more containers as compared to VMs.

What is the difference between a virtual machine and a Docker container?

Docker is container based technology and containers are just user space of the operating system. In Docker, the containers running share the host OS kernel. A Virtual Machine, on the other hand, is not based on container technology. They are made up of user space plus kernel space of an operating system.

When should I use a container?

Containers are a form of operating system virtualization. A single container might be used to run anything from a small microservice or software process to a larger application. Inside a container are all the necessary executables, binary code, libraries, and configuration files.

Are containers hardware agnostic?

Containers make the app components infrastructure agnostic, allowing organizations to move workloads between bare metal servers to virtualized environments to cloud infrastructure in response to changing business needs.

Why containers are preferred over VMs?

Containers are thus exceptionally “light”—they are only megabytes in size and take just seconds to start, versus gigabytes and minutes for a VM. Containers also reduce management overhead. In short, containers are lighter weight and more portable than VMs.