Docker vs GraalVM

Overview

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

GraalVM

Stacks70

Followers76

Votes0

GitHub Stars21.3K

Forks1.8K

Docker vs GraalVM: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will explore the key differences between Docker and GraalVM. Both Docker and GraalVM are widely used in the software development industry, but they have distinct characteristics and purposes.

Containerization Technology: Docker is primarily a containerization platform that allows you to package applications and all their dependencies into standardized units called containers. These containers can be easily deployed and run on any machine that has Docker installed. On the other hand, GraalVM is a high-performance runtime that provides support for multiple languages and allows you to compile applications into native executables or standalone binaries.
Isolation Level: Docker provides a higher level of isolation by encapsulating an application and its dependencies in a container. This ensures that the application runs consistently across different environments. In contrast, GraalVM uses ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation to produce native executables that have very low overhead and are highly optimized, but they do not provide the same level of isolation as Docker containers.
Compatibility: Docker containers are platform-agnostic and can run on any operating system or cloud platform that supports Docker. This makes it easy to deploy applications across different environments without worrying about compatibility issues. On the other hand, GraalVM supports multiple languages and can be used to compile applications for different platforms, but it may require additional configuration and adjustments to optimize performance on specific platforms.
Resource Utilization: Docker containers are lightweight and share the host machine's operating system kernel, which results in better resource utilization and scalability. Additionally, Docker provides built-in tools for managing and monitoring containers, making it easier to manage resources efficiently. In contrast, GraalVM's native executables eliminate the need for an additional runtime, resulting in reduced resource usage and faster startup times for applications.
Development Workflow: Docker simplifies the development workflow by providing a consistent environment for developers to build, test, and deploy applications. With Docker, developers can easily package their applications along with all the required dependencies into containers, ensuring consistent behavior across different development environments. GraalVM, on the other hand, offers the advantage of AOT compilation, which enables developers to create native executables that can be easily distributed and run without requiring the GraalVM runtime.
Supported Languages: Docker is language-agnostic and supports running applications written in any programming language, as long as the language runtime is available within the container. In contrast, GraalVM provides support for multiple programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and R. GraalVM's polyglot capabilities allow developers to mix and match languages within the same application and leverage the high-performance optimizations provided by GraalVM.

In summary, Docker is primarily a containerization platform that offers isolated and consistent environments for running applications across different platforms, whereas GraalVM is a high-performance runtime that enables ahead-of-time compilation and provides support for multiple languages. Docker focuses on ease of deployment and scalability, while GraalVM emphasizes performance optimization and native executable generation.

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Advice on Docker, GraalVM

Florian

IT DevOp at Agitos GmbH

Oct 22, 2019

Decided

lxd/lxc and Docker aren't congruent so this comparison needs a more detailed look; but in short I can say: the lxd-integrated administration of storage including zfs with its snapshot capabilities as well as the system container (multi-process) approach of lxc vs. the limited single-process container approach of Docker is the main reason I chose lxd over Docker.

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Detailed Comparison

Docker	GraalVM
The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere	An ecosystem and shared runtime offering performance advantages not only to JVM-based languages such as Java, Scala, Groovy, and Kotlin, but also to programming languages as JavaScript, Ruby, Python, and R. Additionally, it enables the execution of native code on the JVM via LLVM front-end.
Integrated developer tools; open, portable images; shareable, reusable apps; framework-aware builds; standardized templates; multi-environment support; remote registry management; simple setup for Docker and Kubernetes; certified Kubernetes; application templates; enterprise controls; secure software supply chain; industry-leading container runtime; image scanning; access controls; image signing; caching and mirroring; image lifecycle; policy-based image promotion	Polyglot - Zero overhead interoperability between programming languages allows you to write polyglot applications and select the best language for your task; Native - Native images compiled with GraalVM ahead-of-time improve the startup time and reduce the memory footprint of JVM-based applications; Embeddable - GraalVM can be embedded in both managed and native applications. There are existing integrations into OpenJDK, Node.js, Oracle Database, and MySQL
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 21.3K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.8K
Stacks 194.2K	Stacks 70
Followers 143.8K	Followers 76
Votes 3.9K	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 823 Rapid integration and build up 692 Isolation 521 Open source 505 Testability and reproducibility 460 Lightweight Cons 8 New versions == broken features 6 Documentation not always in sync 6 Unreliable networking 4 Moves quickly 3 Not Secure	No community feedback yet
Integrations
Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant	Node.js Oracle MySQL

What are some alternatives to Docker, GraalVM?

HHVM (HipHop Virtual Machine)

HHVM uses a just-in-time (JIT) compilation approach to achieve superior performance while maintaining the flexibility that PHP developers are accustomed to. To date, HHVM (and its predecessor HPHPc before it) has realized over a 9x increase in web request throughput and over a 5x reduction in memory consumption for Facebook compared with the PHP 5.2 engine + APC.

LXD

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

Laravel Homestead

Laravel Homestead is an official, pre-packaged Vagrant "box" that provides you a wonderful development environment without requiring you to install PHP, HHVM, a web server, and any other server software on your local machine. Homestead runs on any Windows, Mac, or Linux system, and includes the Nginx web server, PHP 5.6, MySQL, Postgres, Redis, Memcached, and all of the other goodies you need to develop amazing Laravel applications.

LXC

LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.

rkt

Rocket is a cli for running App Containers. The goal of rocket is to be composable, secure, and fast.

Azure Virtual Machines

You can create Linux and Windows virtual machines. It gives you the flexibility of virtualization for a wide range of computing solutions—development and testing, running applications, and extending your datacenter. It’s the freedom of open-source software configured the way you need it.

Vagrant Cloud

Vagrant Cloud pairs with Vagrant to enable access, insight and collaboration across teams, as well as to bring exposure to community contributions and development environments.

Hosting Provider THE.Hosting

⚡️ THE.Hosting is the best hosting provider. ❇️ Ultra-fast server response time. Web hosting! ✅ Low cost VPS and dedicated servers. ☝ Tariffs on the website. ✅ support@THE.Hosting

Studio 3T

It's the only MongoDB tool that provides three ways to explore data alongside powerful features like query autocompletion, polyglot code generation, a stage-by-stage aggregation query builder, import and export, SQL query support and more.

OpenVZ

Virtuozzo leverages OpenVZ as its core of a virtualization solution offered by Virtuozzo company. Virtuozzo is optimized for hosters and offers hypervisor (VMs in addition to containers), distributed cloud storage, dedicated support, management tools, and easy installation.

Related Comparisons

Docker vs GraalVM: What are the differences?

Introduction

Containerization Technology: Docker is primarily a containerization platform that allows you to package applications and all their dependencies into standardized units called containers. These containers can be easily deployed and run on any machine that has Docker installed. On the other hand, GraalVM is a high-performance runtime that provides support for multiple languages and allows you to compile applications into native executables or standalone binaries.
Isolation Level: Docker provides a higher level of isolation by encapsulating an application and its dependencies in a container. This ensures that the application runs consistently across different environments. In contrast, GraalVM uses ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation to produce native executables that have very low overhead and are highly optimized, but they do not provide the same level of isolation as Docker containers.
Compatibility: Docker containers are platform-agnostic and can run on any operating system or cloud platform that supports Docker. This makes it easy to deploy applications across different environments without worrying about compatibility issues. On the other hand, GraalVM supports multiple languages and can be used to compile applications for different platforms, but it may require additional configuration and adjustments to optimize performance on specific platforms.
Resource Utilization: Docker containers are lightweight and share the host machine's operating system kernel, which results in better resource utilization and scalability. Additionally, Docker provides built-in tools for managing and monitoring containers, making it easier to manage resources efficiently. In contrast, GraalVM's native executables eliminate the need for an additional runtime, resulting in reduced resource usage and faster startup times for applications.
Development Workflow: Docker simplifies the development workflow by providing a consistent environment for developers to build, test, and deploy applications. With Docker, developers can easily package their applications along with all the required dependencies into containers, ensuring consistent behavior across different development environments. GraalVM, on the other hand, offers the advantage of AOT compilation, which enables developers to create native executables that can be easily distributed and run without requiring the GraalVM runtime.
Supported Languages: Docker is language-agnostic and supports running applications written in any programming language, as long as the language runtime is available within the container. In contrast, GraalVM provides support for multiple programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and R. GraalVM's polyglot capabilities allow developers to mix and match languages within the same application and leverage the high-performance optimizations provided by GraalVM.

Docker vs GraalVM

Overview

Docker vs GraalVM: What are the differences?