Containers improve portability, ensuring software runs reliably when it’s moved from one computing environment to another.
How and When to Ship With Containers
Containers improve portability, ensuring software runs reliably when it’s moved from one computing environment to another. They make it faster, easier and more cost-effective to move applications, just like shipping containers do with cargo. This can be useful in cloud adoption and migration scenarios, as well as in ongoing software deployment.
So, How do Containers Improve Portability?
A container holds the application, configuration and OS dependencies in one lightweight bundle. You can run more of them on the same computing platform, just like you can stack more units on a container ship. Resources are used efficiently, so you enjoy lower total cost of ownership.
What Are the Benefits?
There are three main benefits to containers. Consistency, velocity, and scalability. A container can be deployed consistently in any environment. If it works on the developer’s machine, it will work in production too.
When you containerise a legacy application, you can improve operability without a full rebuild. So, if you want to migrate fast but need more than a ‘lift and shift’, containers might be the answer.
Containers are faster to spin up than VMs. They’re smaller too. This is ideal when you need to scale-out quickly to handle spikes in demand. You can also run them in clusters for high availability and resilience.
Containerised Software Needs to be Properly Orchestrated
Just as the “chief mate” organises containers on a cargo vessel, the orchestrator ensures the right containers run on the right pods at the right time.
Orchestrators also help with functions like health, security and the overall running of the container platform. This enables you, the Captain, to focus on what’s important – your applications and the customers they serve.
Compatible With Major Cloud Providers
Major cloud providers have services that are compatible with popular container software such as Docker. These dovetail with specialist open-source container orchestration systems like Kubernetes.
But as with any technology, there’s a time and a place to use it. When you partner with Sourced Group for a Well-Architected Review, we’ll identify areas where containers could improve IT performance to help achieve business goals. It’s about choosing the best process for the job in hand.
