Docker and Virtual Machines are both technologies used to create isolated computing environments. However, they differ in several key ways.
The main difference between Docker and Virtual Machines is that Docker uses operating system-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers, while Virtual Machines are based on hardware virtualization and use hypervisors to create fully isolated virtual environments.
Docker containers are lightweight and fast, and they provide an easy way to package and distribute applications. They are also more portable and can be quickly deployed on any system that supports Docker. In contrast, Virtual Machines require a complete copy of the operating system and associated files, which can be quite large and slow to deploy.
For example, if you were to deploy a web application, you could use Docker to quickly package and deploy the application in a lightweight container. On the other hand, if you were to deploy a complex application with multiple services, you would likely need to use a Virtual Machine to ensure that the application has a fully isolated environment.