Containerization Explained
Containerization has become the latest catchword in cloud computing. Many believe that containerization can help modernize legacy systems by creating new, scalable, cloud-native applications.
Why do we need containerization now?
Container technology is an efficient way to develop and deploy applications. Containerization is more efficient than virtualization and is a natural evolution of virtualization. Virtualization is important for distributing multiple operating systems (OS) on his single server, while containerization is more flexible and granular.
Containerization focuses on dividing the operating system into chunks that can be used more efficiently. Additionally, application containers provide a way to package applications into portable software-defined environments.
What is Containerization?
An application container is a fully packaged and portable computing environment. Just as a crane lifts an entire container and lowers it onto a ship or truck for further processing, container technology does the same. It has everything an app needs to run, including its binaries, libraries, dependencies and configuration files — all encapsulated and isolated in a container
Containerizing an application abstracts the container away from the host operating system, with limited access to underlying resources — similar to a lightweight virtual machine. You can run the containerized application on various types of infrastructures, such as on bare metal, in the cloud or within VMs, without refactoring it for each environment. With containerization, you have less overhead during startup, and you don’t need to set up separate guest operating systems for each app since they all share one OS kernel.
Combined with microservices and the cloud, it offers the advantages of monolithic applications and on-premises data centers. Containers were a core feature of Linux, but Docker came out and grabbed the attention
What does containerization do?
Containerization allowing supplication code to be bundled with its configuration files, dependencies, and libraries. This single software package (the container) is then abstracted from the host operating system, making it self-contained, portable, and easy to run on any platform or cloud.
Simply put, containerization allows developers to write applications once and run them anywhere. This level of portability is important in terms of development process and vendor compatibility. It also has other advantages. B. Fault isolation, security, and ease of administration.
Advantages and benefits of containerization
· Docker containers allow you to create master versions of your applications (images) and quickly deploy them on demand. Container environments offer great flexibility in creating multiple new containerized instances of your app as needed.
· In a container environment, new features, updates, and functionality can be added quickly without impacting the original application
· This container ecosystem is now moving to an engine managed by the Open Container Initiative (OCI). Therefore, developers can continue to use DevOps tools and processes for rapid app development and improvement.
· With minimal startup time, developers can run more containers with the same computing power as virtual machines. As a result, this increases server efficiency and reduces associated server and licensing costs.
· Containerizing an application isolates it and allows it to run independently of other applications. Therefore, failure of one container does not affect the behavior of other containers.
· Isolating applications as containers prevents malicious code from affecting other containerized applications and the host system. App isolation allows developers to share additional functionality without a risk factor.
· Different containers run independently, so the failure of one container does not affect the continuity of other containers.
· Containers are developer-friendly because you can use one environment for development and production. This is a common roadblock in web application development.
Disadvantages of containerization
.A single orchestrator can be used for virtual machines with virtualized solutions (such as VMware Orchestrator for VMware). However, with containers, you have to choose from different orchestration tools such as Kubernetes, Mesos, and Swarm.
.Data storage is simple for VMs, but complicated for containers. Data contained in a container can disappear forever when the container shuts down unless you save it somewhere else
.Containers pose potentially greater security risks than traditional VMs. Because there are multiple layers, multi-level security is required.
Conclusion
Containerization is one of the latest software development trends, and its adoption will grow significantly in both volume and velocity. Its proponents believe it allows developers to build and deploy software and applications faster and more securely than other traditional methods. Although expensive, industry insiders expect the costs associated with containerization to decline as the environment evolves and matures.
The use of application container technology is widespread in companies and industries. It is also set to accelerate rapidly in the years to come. Most organizations have already started cloud-native containerization of their applications or have already containerized their existing monoliths to take advantage of containerized architectures.
Author –Ragesh R
IT professional specialized in healthcare technologies with over two decades of experience. He also has a fondness for photography, traveling, designing, painting, and sharing knowledge.
