Docker Vs Hypervisor

The most significant difference between hypervisors and Dockers is the way they boot up and consume resources.

Hypervisors are of two types – the bare metal works directly on the hardware while type two hypervisor works on top of the operating system.

Docker, on the other hand, works on the host kernel itself. Hence, it does not allow the user to create multiple instances of operating systems.

Instead, they create containers that act as virtual application environments for the user to work on.

Number of Application Instances Supported A hypervisor allows the users to generate multiple instances of complete operating systems.

Dockers can run multiple applications or multiple instances of a single application. It does this with containers.

Memory Requirement Hypervisors enable users to run multiple instances of complete operating systems. This makes them resource hungry.

They need dedicated resources for any particular instance among the shared hardware which the hypervisor allocates during boot.

Dockers, however, do not have any such requirements. One can create as many containers as needed.

Based on the application requirement and availability of processing power, the Docker provides it to the containers.

Boot-Time As Dockers do not require such resource allocations for creating containers, they can be created quickly to get started.

One of the primary reasons why the use of Dockers and containers is gaining traction is their capability to get started in seconds.

A hypervisor might consume up to a minute to boot the OS and get up and running.

Docker can create containers in seconds, and users can get started in no time.

It only creates instances of the application and libraries.

Hypervisor though, has the host OS and then also has the guest OS further. This creates two layers of the OS that are running on the hardware.

Dockers help with the agile way of working. Within each container, different sections of the program can be developed and tested.

In the end, all containers can be combined into a single program. Hypervisors do not provide such capability. Security

Hypervisors are much more secure since the additional layer helps keep data safe.

One of the major differences between the two is the capability to run operating systems or rather run on operating systems.

OS Support Hypervisors are OS agnostic. They can run across Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Dockers, on the other hand, are limited to Linux only. That, however, is not a deterrent for Dockers since Linux is a strong eco-system. Many major players are entering into the Dockers’ fray.

Hypervisor Vs Docker: Tabular Comparison Tabular Comparison of Hypervisor Vs Docker