Containerization (computing)
Cloud computing concept
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Through Cloud computing, Amazon (company) and Google
Usage
Each container is basically a fully functional and portable cloud or non-cloud computing environment surrounding the application and keeping it independent of other environments running in parallel. Individually, each container simulates a different software application and runs isolated processes by bundling related configuration files, libraries and dependencies. But, collectively, multiple containers share a common operating system kernel (OS).
In recent times, containerization technology has been widely adopted by cloud computing platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud. Containerization has also been pursued by the U.S. Department of Defense as a way of more rapidly developing and fielding software updates, with first application in its F-22 air superiority fighter.
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Types of containers
- OS containers
- Application containers
Security issues
- Because of the shared OS, security threats can affect the whole containerized system.
- In containerized environments, security scanners generally protect the OS, but not the application containers, which adds unwanted vulnerability.
Container standards
The Open Container Initiative (OCI) develops open standards for container image formats, container runtimes, and the distribution of container images. Its specifications are intended to allow container images and runtimes to be interoperable across different implementations and tools. The OCI currently maintains three main specifications: the Runtime Specification, Image Specification, and Distribution Specification.
The OCI Runtime Specification defines the configuration, execution environment, and lifecycle of a container, while the Image Specification defines the structure of container images, including manifests, filesystem layers, and configuration.
Container management, orchestration, clustering
Container orchestration or container management is mostly used in the context of application containers. Implementations providing such orchestration include Kubernetes and Docker swarm.
Container cluster management
Container clusters need to be managed. This includes functionality to create a cluster, to upgrade the software or repair it, balance the load between existing instances, scale by starting or stopping instances to adapt to the number of users, to log activities and monitor produced logs or the application itself by querying sensors. Open-source implementations of such software include OKD and Rancher. Quite a number of companies provide container cluster management as a managed service, like Alibaba, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.