CompTIA A+ Core 1 (220-1201)Virtualization and Cloud ComputingHard
A company is planning to deploy a new application that will process sensitive customer data. They need to ensure that the application's environment is completely isolated from other applications running on the same physical server, including its operating system, libraries, and network configuration. Which virtualization technology provides the most complete isolation for each application instance, essentially acting like a separate physical machine?
- AType 2 Hypervisor
- BServerless Functions
- CVirtual Machines (VMs)
- DContainers
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Virtual Machines (VMs)
Virtual machines (VMs) provide the highest level of isolation because each VM runs its own full operating system, kernel, and allocated hardware resources, completely isolated from other VMs on the same host and from the host OS. This effectively simulates a separate physical machine for each application instance.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. A Type 2 hypervisor runs on top of a host OS, and while it creates VMs, the VMs themselves are the isolation mechanism, not the hypervisor type itself.
- B. Serverless functions are short-lived, event-driven code snippets and do not provide a persistent, fully isolated application environment like a VM.
- D. Containers provide OS-level isolation but share the host kernel, offering less isolation than VMs.
VM Isolation
The degree to which a virtual machine is separated from other virtual machines and the host system, preventing interference or unauthorized access.
- VMs provide full OS and kernel isolation.
- Each VM has its own virtual hardware resources.
- Highest level of isolation among common virtualization technologies.
Memory trick: VMs are houses, Containers are apartments, Serverless are shared offices.