Docker container management for your products
Using Docker containers is a true revolution in software development. Containerization puts the app and all the runtime needed to run it in a lightweight code package, container. This container is composed from an image stored in a Registry, and it runs exactly the same anywhere where Docker is installed, from a developer’s IDE all the way up to a production environment.
The idea of Docker containers might seem simple, but utilizing them to their full potential requires an in-depth understanding of the principles behind Docker Registry, Terraform and Kubernetes clusters, the processes of composing and deleting the images, etc. This expertise is impossible to obtain theoretically, and the businesses that embark on this journey without due preparations never succeed with their Docker implementation projects.
There are lots of guidelines and knowledgebase articles on Kubernetes, Terraform and Docker. Even reading through all these mounds of information would require exorbitant amounts of time, not to mention building a cohesive view in your head. In addition, Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services operate containers quite differently. Add the limitations of legacy tools and platforms — and you will understand why Docker container management can become quite a challenge if your team lacks the appropriate expertise.
This is the reason why Managed Services Providers like IT Svit always have lots of projects, as we help startups utilize their cloud infrastructures and workflows to the fullest extent.
Benefits of using Docker containers
Software delivery continuity and increased system security, top-notch operational resilience, monitoring transparency, smart alerting — these are just some of the numerous benefits of using Docker containers. Each and every one of them is essential for ensuring stable system performance at scale.
- Software delivery continuity. All Docker containers composed of the same Docker image are identical. This ensures that the code runs exactly the same in IDE, local, testing, staging and production environments. Different people can compose these containers on different machines and receive full replicas of the code.
This results in software delivery continuity, as developers and QA engineers can work with exactly the same code even if they work in geographically distributed teams, as the parameters of every environment are the same everywhere due to containers. This removes the curse of software development, the “works on my machine” subterfuge that haunted the IT industry for so long.
- Operational resilience. Docker containers are 300% more cost-efficient in terms of computing resources consumption, according to Puppet and Docker research. Due to the fact that separation of the environments happens by containers and not by virtual machines, you don’t have to waste resources running these VM’s What is even more important, if a cluster of virtual machines fail, it takes them quite a significant time to reboot their OS’s — while Kubernetes cluster reboots the same amount of containers in mere seconds and can handle hundreds and thousands of containers easily.
- Toughened system security. When working with VMs, certain scripts or viruses can affect the whole machine, server and even crash the cluster. This is not the case with Docker containers, as each of them is a separate unit, so even cashing one leaves the hackers with nothing — it can be shut down and rebooted easily, not to mention Docker and Kubernetes security layers that are added atop the cloud security features.
- Transparent monitoring. Kubernetes was intended to work in tandem with Docker and provides all the APIs and endpoints to enable in-depth monitoring of your containerized apps using open-source and platform-specific tools like Google StackDriver, Amazon CloudWatch, ELK stack, Prometheus & Grafana, etc. Most importantly, working with containers you can scale up and down in seconds to cater to the workload peaks, instead of dealing with aftermaths of major system failures.
In order to use these Docker container benefits to the fullest extent, you need to have expertise in enabling these features and managing Docker in production. IT Svit has a huge Docker management experience due to 5+ years of providing managed DevOps services. We are glad to lend this expertise to your business, so let us know if you need help!
