Two primary methods of enabling software applications to run on virtual hardware are through the use of virtual machines (VMs) and a hypervisor, and through container-based virtualization—also known as operating system virtualization or containerization.

The older and more pervasive virtualization method, which was first developed by Burroughs Corporation in the 1950s, is through the use of VMs and a hypervisor. That method was replicated with the commercialization of IBM mainframes in the early 1960s. The primary virtualization method that is used by platforms such as IBM VM/CMS, VMware ESXi, and Microsoft Hyper-V starts with a hypervisor layer that abstracts the physical components of the computer. The abstraction enables sharing of the components by multiple VMs, each running a guest operating system. A more recent development is container-based virtualization, where a single host operating system supports multiple processes that are running as virtual applications.

The following figure contrasts VM-based virtualization with container-based virtualization. In container-based virtualization, the combination of the guest operating system components and any isolated software applications constitutes a container running on the host server, as indicated by the App 1, App 2, and App 3 boxes.

Figure 1.                  Primary virtualization methods

Both types of virtualization were developed to increase the efficiency of computer hardware investments by supporting multiple users and applications in parallel. Containerization further improves IT operations productivity by simplifying application portability. Application developers most often work outside the server environments that their programs will run in. To minimize conflicts in library versions, dependencies, and configuration settings, developers must re-create the production environment multiple times for development, testing, and preproduction integration. IT professionals have found containers easier to deploy consistently across multiple environments because the core operating system can be configured independently of the application container.