Comparative evaluation of virtualization technologies in the cloud

Abstract: The cloud has over the years become a staple of the IT industry, not only for storage purposes, but for services, platforms and infrastructures. A key component of the cloud is virtualization and the fluidity it makes possible, allowing resources to be utilized more efficiently and services to be relocated more easily when needed. Virtual machine technology, consisting of a hypervisor managing several guest systems has been the method for achieving this virtualization, but container technology, a lightweight virtualization method running directly on the host without a classic hypervisor, has been making headway in recent years. This report investigates the differences between VM’s (Virtual Machines) and containers, comparing the two in relevant areas. The software chosen for this comparison are KVM as VM hypervisor, and Docker as container platform, both run on Linux as the underlying host system. The work conducted for this report compares efficiency in common use areas through experimental evidence, and also evaluates differences in design through study of relevant literature. The results are then discussed and weighed to provide a conclusion. The results of this work shows that Docker has the capability to potentially take over the role as the main virtualization technology in the coming years, providing some of its current shortcomings are addressed and improved upon.