Which term describes computing that isolates applications at the OS level, enabling portable and scalable deployment?

Which term describes computing that isolates applications at the OS level, enabling portable and scalable deployment?

• A. Virtualization
• B. Containerization
• C. Hypervisor-based virtualization
• D. Application virtualization

Answer: (B)

Containerization uses OS-level isolation to package an application with its dependencies into a self-contained unit that runs on the host OS kernel. This means multiple containers can share the same kernel while remaining isolated from each other, thanks to mechanisms like namespaces and resource controls. The app plus its dependencies are captured in a container image, so the same image runs consistently across development, testing, and production environments. Because containers are lightweight and start quickly, they support scalable deployment—you can run many containers simultaneously and manage them with orchestration tools to grow or shrink capacity as needed. This approach is distinct from full virtualization, which runs separate operating systems on virtual machines via a hypervisor and tends to carry heavier overhead. It also differs from application virtualization, which isolates at the application layer rather than providing OS-level isolation across environments.

Containerization uses OS-level isolation to package an application with its dependencies into a self-contained unit that runs on the host OS kernel. This means multiple containers can share the same kernel while remaining isolated from each other, thanks to mechanisms like namespaces and resource controls. The app plus its dependencies are captured in a container image, so the same image runs consistently across development, testing, and production environments. Because containers are lightweight and start quickly, they support scalable deployment—you can run many containers simultaneously and manage them with orchestration tools to grow or shrink capacity as needed.

This approach is distinct from full virtualization, which runs separate operating systems on virtual machines via a hypervisor and tends to carry heavier overhead. It also differs from application virtualization, which isolates at the application layer rather than providing OS-level isolation across environments.