Virtualization vs Containerization: Key Differences Explained
In today’s fast-moving IT world, businesses and developers are constantly searching for efficient, scalable, and cost-effective ways to deploy applications. Two technologies that often get mentioned are virtualization and containerization . They might sound similar, and both aim to isolate environments — but they work in very different ways. Let’s clear up the confusion and break down exactly how these two stack up. What Is Virtualization? Virtualization allows you to run multiple operating systems on a single physical machine. Each OS runs inside a virtual machine (VM), which includes its own CPU, memory, storage, and network interface — all emulated. You’ll need a hypervisor like VMware, Hyper-V, or KVM, which acts as the middle layer between your hardware and the virtual machines. The hypervisor allocates resources and keeps each VM isolated. Think of virtualization like running several computers inside one physical box. What Is Containerization? Containerization, o...