NexQloud Knowledge Base

Information about when to use each NexQloud technology

Side-by-side comparison of architectural approaches

How NexQloud technologies complement rather than compete

NexQloud's role as a partner in architectural design

Strategic guidance for choosing the right architectural approach

Discover tailored support solutions designed to help you succeed with NexQloud, no matter your question or challenge.

TOPICS

The following table outlines the key technical and operational differences:

Feature	Containers	Virtual Machines (VMs)
Virtualization Level	Operating System Level	Hardware Level
What's Virtualized	The OS Kernel	The Physical Server (CPU, Memory, Storage)
What's Included	Application, Libraries, Dependencies	Full Guest OS + Application + Libraries
Size	Lightweight (Megabytes)	Heavy (Gigabytes)
Startup Time	Seconds	Minutes
Performance	Near-Native (minimal overhead)	Good (some overhead from the hypervisor and guest OS)
Isolation	Process-Level (strong)	Hardware-Level (very strong)
Portability	Highly Portable (runs anywhere the container runtime exists)	Less Portable (may require adjustment for different hypervisors)
Primary Management	Orchestrators (e.g., Kubernetes)	Hypervisors (e.g., vSphere, Hyper-V)