The Pros and Cons of Virtual Machines and Containers

Virtual machines (VMs) and containers are both virtual environments that use software instead of a physical machine to isolate applications into a self-contained unit. But VMs and containers are built and run differently, which affects their capabilities and the costs of using them.

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Servers

To understand VMs, let’s start with a basic understanding of servers. They’re called servers because they serve up applications, information, or other services to other computers. VMs are actually virtual servers in that they serve up an application to other computers. VMs are deployed on a physical computer or server, called the host. You could run a VM on your personal computer, but companies, which run dozens or hundreds of VMs, typically house their VMs on a physical server.

Before hosting company applications in the cloud, companies housed them on physical servers, which were stored in racks in a company’s data center. In contrast to commercial applications like Word and Excel, company applications are created by companies to allow employees and customers to do things like download documents or order items or services. Each individual company application would sit on an individual physical server. Each time IT planned to create a new application, the team would have to decide how big of a server to buy to host the application. Deciding on the size of the server to purchase was always a conundrum as IT could never be sure how much computer resources—computation (CPU), memory, and storage—would be needed to host a new application. If IT ordered a server that had far more resources than was needed to host a particular application, IT could get scolded for spending too much money without cause. IT could almost always buy a server that fit the application’s needs for the first few months. But if the application turned out to be more popular than expected, in time the server’s resources would not be enough to handle the traffic, which would hinder the application’s performance. Hence, IT could get scolded for not thinking ahead and planning for growth in traffic.

When an application on a physical server lacks needed resources to handle increased traffic, the application slows down or, worse, crashes. If you’ve ever tried to complete a form on a website and sat there waiting for the app to let you proceed from one question to the next, you know how frustrating it is to interact with an app that lacks resources to work well. But those problems became rare when companies began using VMs because more resources could easily be allocated to handle nearly any amount of traffic.

Virtual Machines

As stated above, a virtual machine is a virtual computer that serves information to a user. To better understand what a VM is, let’s start with something we know: a Word document. Although a VM is­­ more complex than Word document, a VM is kind of like a Word document in that they are both virtual—meaning you can’t touch them—and they both contain information. The VM contains images and code just as a Word document may contain images and text, which is a type of code, or language. The text in a Word document could be in English, Spanish or some other language, and the code in the VM could be in Java, C#, or another language.

To create a Word document, you need special software like Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, or Google Docs. So, too, to create a VM you need software like VMware, VirtualBox, or QEMU.

Creating a VM

Using a physical computer and software, a user can create a VM. The VM can reside on a physical computer, but VMs take up a lot of resources, so users at organizations typically use their computer to create a VM but save it on a VM server, which is a physical server. These days, VM servers are just referred to as servers, but they’re called VM servers because they were purpose-built to house virtual machines. VM servers can host dozens of VMs and can be located in a company’s data center, in a data center the company rents, or in a data center belonging to a cloud service provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.

Just as you can create many instances of the exact same Word document and can save them in different folders on your computer, on other computers, on storage devices, or in the cloud like in Dropbox, you can also create different instances of a VM containing an application that can be stored on various computers, servers, storage devices, and in the cloud. The benefit of having different instances of a VM is that if one gets too much traffic at any point, you can spin up another instance of the VM quickly to handle the extra traffic. And if one VM breaks, another VM can come on line automatically and take over seamlessly, so users are totally unaware of the troubles behind the scenes.

Resources

A computer or server that hosts a VM is known as the host, while the VMs that reside on it are known as guests. There is a layer of software in between the host OS and the VM called the hypervisor, which creates and runs VMs on a server (See fig. 1).  The hypervisor allows one host to support multiple guest VMs by sharing the server’s resources—memory, processing and storage.

Speed enforcement is one of local law enforcement agencies’ main jobs as speeders always find opportunities and good excuses to put some weight behind the gas pedal. As Police Departments are sometimes spread thin, tools like the VMS boards (Variable Message Sign) helps them partially replace an in-person officer to make sure limits are acknowledged and messages are delivered on specific high-traffic roads. 

In this article, we’ll break down the main benefits of the VMS boards regarding Speed Enforcement: 

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• Effectiveness at slowing down drivers
• Remote Operation
• Versatility
  

THEY ARE EFFECTIVE AT SLOWING DOWN DRIVERS.

A driver speeding on an unfamiliar road can cause a severe accident; that’s when a well-placed VMS can help these drivers to slow down and pay attention to the message displayed. Even drivers who are somewhat knowledgeable of their usual route tend to slow down when seeing a warning message. 

We usually see the usual warning about some issue on the road ahead: a specific speed limit to keep in mind due to a particular situation, or simply a kind reminder of what the cruising speed must be on that particular road. According to the Virginia Department of Transportation, relevant neutral messages used to be the norm, and yes, they are effective. Still, a new kind of message is taking over road messages. 

Using pop culture references, puns, or rhymes can catch a driver’s attention. After a careful study involving more than 300 drivers by the Virginia Transportation Research Council, it was found that humor and wordplay, followed by holiday or seasonal messages, garnered the most brain activity. 

REMOTE OPERATION

Like the Smart VMS II/HT by Kustom Signals, many VMS can display different messages without having someone at the sign’s location. With a local wifi connection and a modem for remote access, departments can turn displays on and off from anywhere, access the display status, and dynamically adapt the displayed message if the situation needs it. 

Remotely accessing a VMS saves costs for police departments, given that a single officer can cost up to $150,000/year, and teams need to remain efficient and be where they are genuinely required. 

VERSATILITY 

With a simple but powerful software implementation, VMS can provide many different advantages and can adapt to many situations, for example: 

• Changeable Messages: Create, edit and activate custom messages 
• Permanent messages: Activate pre-programmed system messages that consist of industry-standard traffic messages such as ‘ACCIDENT AHEAD’ and animations, such as growing chevrons. 
• Quick Edit: Access the quick edit function. 
• Radar Settings: Set the speed thresholds used to activate specific messages. 
• Sequences: Allows multiple existing messages to be displayed concurrently without re-creating them. 

Another advantage of VMS is their ability to be attached to different elements; this allows for a great variety of placement like standard trailer bases, street poles, overhead road signs, bridges, trucks, etc. When a warning is needed, a VMS can be placed on-site and help the officers in charge to pass messages swiftly and clearly. 

VMS boards are helpful in various situations; they are easily deployable, effective, and mobile. They are the best choice for signs where you need to display clear messages to inform the public. 
This article was brought to you by Kustom Signals, a leading provider of law enforcement speed enforcement and video solutions.

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: Urban Policing

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