Unleashing the Full Potential of Containerization for DevOps - Part 2
September 21, 2017

Ruslan Synytsky
Jelastic

There are many options when it comes to container orchestration platforms and services. Figuring out which one is best for a particular organization’s needs and applications can be a challenge. Which platform for containerization you choose can significantly influence your business success, so the selection process should be carefully considered.

Start with Unleashing the Full Potential of Containerization for DevOps - Part 1

Expertise

Successful adoption of containers is not a trivial task. Managing them requires a different process and knowledge base, compared with virtual machines. The difference is significant, and many tricks and best practices with VM lifecycle management cannot be applied to containers. Ops teams need to educate themselves on this to avoid costly missteps.

The traditional operations skill set is obsolete when it comes to efficient containerization in the cloud. Cloud providers now mainly deliver management of infrastructure hardware and networks, and Ops teams are requested to make software deployment automation by scripting and using container-oriented tools.

Systems integrators and consulting companies can provide their expertise and maximize the benefits of containers. But if you want an in-house team to manage the whole process, it's time to start building your own expertise –  hire experienced DevOps professionals, learn best practices, and create a new knowledge base.

Investing Time and Effort

Don't expect to get containerized structure instantly. Some up-front time must be invested, especially if your architecture needs to be restructured to run microservices. To migrate from VMs for example, monolith applications should be decomposed into small logical pieces distributed among a set of interconnected containers. This requires specific knowledge to accomplish successfully.

In addition, for large organizations, it can be vital to select a solution that handles heterogeneous types of workloads using VMs and containers within one platform, because enterprise-wide container adoption can be a gradual process.

Security Concerns

Containerized environments are extremely dynamic, with the ability to change much more quickly than environments in VMs. This agility is a huge container benefit, but it can also be a challenge to achieve the appropriate level of security, while simultaneously enabling the required quick and easy access for developers.

A set of security risks should be considered with containerization:

■ Basic container technology doesn't easily deal with interservice authentication, network configurations, partitions, and other concerns regarding network security when calling internal components inside a microservice application.

■ Using publicly available container templates packaged by untrusted or unknown third parties is risky. Vulnerabilities can be intentionally or unintentionally added to this type of container.

Traditional security approaches should be complemented with continuously enhancing strategies to keep pace with today's dynamic IT environment. A key point here is that a wide choice of tools and orchestration platforms continues to evolve. They offer certified, proven templates, help to secure containers and ease the configuration process.

The IT market now offers a wide choice of solutions for container orchestration, making adoption easier, but skilled hands are required so the benefits can be fully leveraged and unexpected consequences avoided.

Ruslan Synytsky is CEO and Co-Founder of Jelastic
Share this

Industry News

October 03, 2023

Parasoft announced new advancements in its Continuous Quality Platform for functional solutions, which include Parasoft Virtualize, SOAtest, CTP, and DTP.

The latest releases introduce capabilities including:

- GenAI integration for API testing

- Comprehensive microservices code coverage

- Web accessibility testing

- Powerful learning mode for creating and updating virtual assets

These innovations are set to transform the landscape of software testing for enterprise application development and test teams.

October 03, 2023

LinearB announced the release of free DORA Metrics dashboards.

October 03, 2023

PerfectScale, a provider of Kubernetes optimization, has successfully closed $7.1 million in seed funding.

October 02, 2023

Spectro Cloud announced Palette EdgeAI to simplify how organizations deploy and manage AI workloads at scale across simple to complex edge locations, such as retail, healthcare, industrial automation, oil and gas, automotive/connected cars, and more.

September 28, 2023

Kong announced Kong Konnect Dedicated Cloud Gateways, the simplest and most cost-effective way to run Kong Gateways in the cloud fully managed as a service and on enterprise dedicated infrastructure.

September 28, 2023

Sisense unveiled the public preview of Compose SDK for Fusion.

September 28, 2023

Cloudflare announced Hyperdrive to make every local database global. Now developers can easily build globally distributed applications on Cloudflare Workers, the serverless developer platform used by over one million developers, without being constrained by their existing infrastructure.

September 27, 2023

Kong announced full support for Kong Mesh in Konnect, making Kong Konnect an API lifecycle management platform with built-in support for Kong Gateway Enterprise, Kong Ingress Controller and Kong Mesh via a SaaS control plane.

September 27, 2023

Vultr announced the launch of the Vultr GPU Stack and Container Registry to enable global enterprises and digital startups alike to build, test and operationalize artificial intelligence (AI) models at scale — across any region on the globe. \

September 27, 2023

Salt Security expanded its partnership with CrowdStrike by integrating the Salt Security API Protection Platform with the CrowdStrike Falcon® Platform.

September 26, 2023

Progress announced a partnership with Software Improvement Group (SIG), an independent technology and advisory firm for software quality, security and improvement, to help ensure the long-term maintainability and modernization of business-critical applications built on the Progress® OpenEdge® platform.

September 26, 2023

Solace announced a new version of its Solace Event Portal solution that gives organizations with Apache Kafka deployments better visibility into, and control over, their Kafka event streams, brokers and associated assets.

September 26, 2023

Reply launched a proprietary framework for generative AI-based software development, KICODE Reply.

September 26, 2023

Harness announced the industry-wide Engineering Excellence Collective™, an engineering leadership community.

September 25, 2023

Harness announced four new product modules on the Harness platform.