5 Best Practices When Implementing a Container Strategy
Software developers must be vigilant in regards to their use of hardware resources. Dedicated hardware is often expensive to buy, run, and maintain—and there’s only so much room in a data center for extra servers.
The ability to run multiple virtual machines on one piece of hardware makes virtualization a good option. Yet, each virtual machine must include its own guest OS and everything that entails. That eats up system resources. These days, using virtualization is like using stock music when you could be using a full orchestra. When it comes to scalability, consistency and efficiency, there is a better way: You should be considering implementing a container strategy.
What Is a Container?
Containers are similar to virtual machines. A container can be used to run anything from a small microservice or software process to a larger application. Containers include all necessary code, libraries, executables and configuration files. You can think of it like you would a physical container in logistics. Rather than manufactured goods, everything required to run an application is held within the container.
Containers differ from virtual machines because they don’t contain OS images. This means they consume far fewer resources. They free up CPU cores and memory for the single application that runs in the container.
Comparison of Docker Container and Virtual Machine Architecture
Why Implement a Container Strategy?
Developers can use containers to migrate existing applications into more contemporary environments. This is a similar benefit to that which OS visualization delivers but with the addition of a modular architecture. They also allow for refactoring—porting existing monolithic applications—which is a more intensive process. Also, containers allow for the development of container-native applications.
Containers give DevOps support for deployment and integration. This technology supports streamlined build, test and deployment from the same container images. It can support the easier deployment of repetitive background tasks. All this serves the ops team’s efforts to be more efficient and productive.
You’ll be able to take full advantage of this technology by developing and implementing a strategy. Adopting containers isn’t something that can happen overnight. Like anything worth doing, it requires thought and planning. Read on for the five best practices when implementing a container strategy.
5 Container Best Practices You Should Know
Understanding some of the best practices for working with containers will help you develop and implement the right strategy.
Foster a Culture of Learning to Encourage Adoption
Your development teams will need time to get familiar with containers. Help them along by explaining the benefits of this technology as it applies to them. You’ll want them to understand that containers allow for simplified migration to various operating systems. They’ll be able to reproduce more reliable build-time and runtime software environments.
Teams will need to know when containers are a good answer and when they are not. For example, they’re impractical for use with graphical applications because of their inherent complexity.
You will encourage adoption through quality training. Treat training as a personalized service that can be altered depending upon your team’s needs. This will mitigate risks that are apparent when adopting any new technology. You will require patience while developers get familiar with new workflows. In time, you and your dev team will see the benefits.
Establish a Process
A process for managing containerization is vital. Done correctly, it will yield big savings for your organization. It can reduce costs incurred from infrastructure, business license fees and redundant development processes.
When establishing a process, savings are put at risk if it isn’t aligned with developers in mind. Low adoption and resource mismanagement come from poor process planning. During the early stages of implementation, monitoring effects on workflows and productivity should be done. These observations will assist in establishing an appropriate process.
Fold continuous maintenance into your process. Doing so will alleviate increases in startup times and reductions in stability. It can be tempting to lean on the automatic updates offered by the underlying OS. This would serve only to undo many of the efficiencies that containers provide. Developers must regularly remove redundancies in their code and test.
Keep Security in Mind
As containers are such a new technology, they can present a security vulnerability. The nature of containers is such that they isolate resources. Lacking an understanding of container security leads some to consider them to be more secure than they actually are. In fact, in certain circumstances, that very isolation can be exploited as an entry point for cybercriminals.
Along with regular maintenance, security should be part of the container process. Regular scanning of images in a new environment leads to improved security. As part of deployment, existing security measures can be applied during the build process. Understanding how containers interact with their environment will allow developers to mitigate security risks.
Use an Orchestrator
An automated orchestrator will assist with container management. There are a few vendors that offer SaaS solutions; Kubernetes or Docker Hub are just two examples. They can be time-consuming to set up. Lean on SaaS customer support to help your IT team during implementation.
Orchestrators come into their own over time. This is especially apparent when working at scale. They make it easier to manage scaling a deployed application, the quality control process or internal builds. They allow for a fair amount of automation of many routine tasks.
You can also take advantage of a registry. By uploading container images to a central registry, you allow developers to download them when required. This is a great way to further improve efficiency and productivity.
Concentrate on Your Image Design Process
The image design process can be time-consuming. However, getting it right reduces problems with bugs and security down the line. When running an image from a container, there are several options such as temporary containers, mounting volumes and user accounts. The best image design processes will consider these options.
Image Design Best Practices
- Good base image selection
- Cache cleaning
- Container hierarchies
- Good layer management
- Dependency version management
Warning: Contains Potential
Developers will need to run applications at a continually increasing scale. Thus, anything that increases efficiency and reduces cost is welcome. Containers are a fantastic advancement that can help, but they are effective only when implemented in the right way. Follow these best practices and you will unlock the potential within.