VM vs Container vs Bare-Metal (Don't get confused)

In traditional virtualization, a hypervisor virtualizes the physical hardware. The result is that each virtual machine contains a guest OS running on it, a virtual copy of the hardware that the OS requires to run, and an application and its associated libraries and the dependencies.

Instead of virtualizing the underlying hardware part, containers virtualize the operating system (typically Linux) so each individual container contains only the application and its libraries and the dependencies. Containers are small, fast, and portable because unlike a VM, containers do not need to include a guest OS in every instance and can, instead, simply leveraging the features and resources of the host OS.

Just like the virtual machines, containers allow developers to improve CPU and memory utilization of the physical machines. Containers go even further because they also enable the microservice architectures, where application components can be deployed and are scaled more granularly. This is an attractive alternative to having to scale up an entire monolithic application because a single component is struggling with the load.

Choosing a virtual machine over a physical one, also known as a bare metal server, is less about competing capabilities, and more about knowing what you need, and when you need it.

Bare metal servers are all about raw hardware, power, and isolation. They’re single-tenant, physical servers completely void of hypervisor cycles (virtualization software), and entirely dedicated to a single customer – you.

Workloads that highly prioritize performance and seclusion, like data-intensive applications and regulatory compliance mandates, are typically best suited for bare metal servers – especially when deployed over sustained periods of time.