As with the increasing technology, the way data centers operate has changed over the years due to virtualization. Over the years, different software has been launched that has made it easy for companies to manage their data operating center. This allows companies to operate their open-source object storage data through different operating systems together, thereby maximizing their resources and making their data managing work easy and useful for their business.


they work through hypervisor removing hardware systems and enabling to run the data operating systems.

work by extracting operating systems and enable one to run data through applications and they have become more famous recently.

Although container technology has been in use since 2013, it became more engaging after the introduction of Docker. Thereby, it is an open-source object storage platform used for building, deploying, and managing containerized applications.


The container’s system always works through the underlying operating system using virtual memory support that provides basic services to all the applications. Whereas hypervisors require their operating system for working properly with the help of hardware support.


Containers as well as hypervisors, work differently and have distinct and unique features, both technologies share some similarities such as improving IT-managed service efficiency. The profitability of the applications used and enhancing the lifecycle of software development.


And nowadays, it is becoming a hot topic and there is a lot of discussion going on whether containers will take over and replace hypervisors. This has been becoming of keen interest to many people as some are in favor of containers and some are with hypervisor as both the technologies have some particular properties that can help in solving different solutions.

Let’s discuss in detail and understand their functioning, differences, and which one is better in terms of technology.

Virtual machines are software-defined computers that run with the help of cloud-hosting software thereby allowing multiple applications to run individually through hardware. They are best suited when one needs to operate different applications without letting them interfere with each other.

As the applications run differently on VMs, all applications will have a different set of hardware, which helps companies reduce the money spent on hardware management.

Virtual machines work with physical computers by using software layers that are lightweight and are called a hypervisors.

A hypervisor that is used for working virtual machines helps in providing fresh service by separating VMs from one another and then allocating processors, memory, and storage among them. This can be used by cloud hosting service providers in increasing their network functioning on nodes that are expensive automatically.

Hypervisors allow host machines to have different operating systems thereby allowing them to operate many virtual machines which leads to the maximum use of their resources such as bandwidth and memory.

Containers are also software-defined computers but they operate through a single host operating system. This means all applications have one operating center that allows them to access from anywhere using any application such as a laptop, in the cloud, etc.

Containers use the operating system (OS) virtualization form, that is they use the host operating system to perform their function. The container includes all the code, dependencies, and operating system by itself allowing it to run from anywhere with the help of cloud hosting technology.

They promised methods of implementing infrastructure requirements that were streamlined and could be used as an alternative to virtual machines.

Even though containers are known to improve how cloud platforms are developed and deployed, they are still not as secure as VMs.

The same operating system can run different containers and can share their resources and they further, allow streamlining of implemented infrastructure requirements by the system.

Now that we have understood the workings of VMs and containers, let’s see the benefits of both technologies

They allow different operating systems to work in one hardware system that maintains energy costs and rack space for cooling, thereby allowing economic gain in the cloud.

This technology provided by cloud-managed services is easier to spin up and down and it is much easier to create backups with this system.

Allowing easy backups and restoring images, it is easy and simple to recover from disaster recovery.

It allows the isolated operating system, hence testing of applications is relatively easy, free, and simple.


They are light in weight and hence boost significantly faster as compared to VMs within a few seconds and require hardware and fewer operating systems.

They are portable cloud-hosting data centers that can be used to run from anywhere which means the cause of the issue is being reduced.

They enable micro-services that allow easy testing of applications, failures related to the single point are reduced and the velocity related to development is increased.

, looking at all these differences one can make out that, containers have an added advantage over the old virtualization technology. Containers are faster, more lightweight, and easier to manage than VMs, and are way beyond these previous technologies in many ways,


In the case of hypervisor, virtualization is performed through physical hardware having a separate operating system that can be run on the same physical carrier. Hence each hardware requires a separate operating system to run an application and its associated libraries.

Whereas containers virtualize operating systems instead of hardware, thereby each container only contains the application, its library, and dependencies.

Containers in a similar way to a virtual machine will allow developers to improve the CPU and use physical machines’ memory. Containers through their managed service provider further allow microservice architecture, allowing application components to be deployed and scaled more granularly.


As we have seen the benefits and differences between the two technologies, one must know when to use containers and when to use virtual machines, as many people want to use both and some want to use either of them.

Let’s see when to use hypervisor for cases such as:


Many people want to continue with the virtual machines as they are compatible and consistent with their use and shifting to containers is not the case for them.

VMs provide a single computer or cloud hosting server to run multiple applications together which is only required by most people.

As containers run on host operating systems which is not the case with VMs. Hence, for security purposes, containers are not that safe as they can destroy all the applications together. However, in the case of virtual machines, as they include different hardware and belong to secure cloud software, only one application will be damaged.

Container’s turn out to be useful in case of,


Containers enable DevOps and microservices as they are portable and fast, taking microseconds to start working.

Nowadays, many web applications are moving towards a microservices architecture that helps in building web applications from managed service providers. The containers help in providing this feature making it easy to update and redeploy the part needed for the application.

Containers contain a scalability property that automatically scales containers, reproduces container images, and spins them down when they are not needed.

With increasing technology, people want to move to technology that is fast and has speed, containers in this scenario are way faster than a hypervisor. That also enables fast testing and speed recovery of images when a reboot is performed.

Hence, will containers replace hypervisor?

Although both cloud hosting technologies share some similarities, both are different from each other in one or the other aspect. Hence, it is not easy to conclude. Before making any final thoughts about it, let’s see a few points about each.


Still, a question can arise in mind, why containers?


Although, as stated above there are many reasons to still use virtual machines, containers provide flexibility and portability that is increasing its demand in the multi-cloud platform world and the way they allocate their resources.

Still today many companies do not know how to deploy their new applications when installed, hence containerizing applications being flexible allows easy handling of many clouds hosting data center software environments of modern IT technology.

These containers are also useful for automation and DevOps pipelines including continuous integration and continuous development implementation. This means containers having small sizes and modularity of building in small parts allow application buildup completely by stacking those parts together.

They not only increase the efficiency of the system and enhance the working of resources but also save money by preferring to operate multiple processes.

They are quicker to boost up as compared to virtual machines that take minutes to boost and recover.

Another important point is that they have a minimalistic structure and do not need a full operating system or any hardware for its functioning and can be installed and removed without disturbing the whole system.

Containers replace the patching process that was used traditionally, thereby allowing many organizations to respond to various issues faster and making it easy to manage applications.

As containers contain an operating system abstract that operates its operating system, the virtualization problem that is being faced in the case of virtual machines is solved as containers have virtual environments that make it easy to operate different operating systems provided by vendor management.

Still, virtual machines are useful to many

Although containers have more advantages as compared to virtual machines, still there are a few disadvantages associated with them such as security issues with containers as they belong to disturbed cloud software.

Hacking a container is easy as they are using single software for operating multiple applications which can allow one to excess the whole cloud hosting system if a breaching occurs which is not the case with virtual machines as they contain an additional barrier between VM, host server, and other virtual machines.

In case the fresh service software gets affected by malware, it spreads to all the applications as it uses a single operating system which is not the case with virtual machines.

People feel more familiar with virtual machines as they have been well established in most organizations for a long time and businesses include teams and procedures that manage the working of VMs such as their deployment, backups, and monitoring.

Many times, companies prefer working with an organized operating system type of secure cloud software as one machine, especially for applications that are complex to understand.

The final thought is that, as we have seen both the containers and virtual machine cloud hosting technologies are provided with different problem-solving qualities. Containers help in focusing more on building code, creating better software, and making applications work on a faster note whereas virtual machines, although they are slower, less portable, and heavy still people prefer them in provisioning infrastructure for enterprise, running legacy, or any monolithic applications.


Stating that, if one wants to operate a full operating system, one should go for a hypervisor and if one wants to have service from a cloud-managed service provider that is lightweight and in a portable manner, one must go for containers.


Hence, it will take time for containers to replace virtual machines as they are still needed by many for running some old-style applications and hosting multiple operating systems in parallel even though VMs have not had so many cloud-native servers. Therefore, it can be said that they are not likely to replace virtual machines as both technologies complement each other by providing IT-managed services instead of replacing each other and both technologies have a place in the modern data center.

Will Container Replace Hypervisor

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