Containerization (computing)

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In software engineering, containerization is operating system-level virtualization or application-level virtualization over multiple network resources so that software applications can run in isolated user spaces called containers in any cloud or non-cloud environment, regardless of type or vendor. [1]

Contents

Usage

The containers are 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. [2] Individually, each container simulates a different software application and runs isolated processes [3] by bundling related configuration files, libraries and dependencies. [4] But, collectively, multiple containers share a common operating system kernel (OS). [5]

In recent times, the containerization technology has been widely adopted by cloud computing platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud. [6] 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. [7]

Types of containers

Security issues

Container management, orchestration, clustering

Container orchestration or container management is mostly used in the context of application containers. [8] 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, Microsoft.

See also

Further reading

Journal articles
Books

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. Scheepers, Mathijs Jeroen (2014). "Virtualization and Containerization of Application Infrastructure: A Comparison" (PDF). Thijs Scheepers. S2CID   18129086.
  2. "What is containerization?". www.redhat.com. RedHat. Archived from the original on 2021-05-08. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  3. Hinck, Tim Maurer, Garrett; Hinck, Tim Maurer, Garrett. "Cloud Security: A Primer for Policymakers". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved 2021-07-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Rubens, Paul (2017-06-27). "What are containers and why do you need them?". CIO. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  5. "Containerization". www.ibm.com. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  6. December 2019, Jonas P. DeMuro 18 (18 December 2019). "What is container technology?". TechRadar India. Retrieved 2021-07-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. "Flight Test Clears F-22 Fleet To Accept Third-Party Software". Aviation Week. 30 August 2022.
  8. "What is Container Orchestration? Definition & Related FAQs". Avi Networks. Retrieved 2024-04-29.