Debunking 7 Myths About Container Expertise

By now, nearly everybody who works in IT has heard about containers, the light-weight virtualization know-how that kinds one pillar of cloud-native computing.

But, until you have spent a very long time working with container know-how, it may be simple to make false assumptions about what they’ll do, and the way they’re just like or totally different from different kinds of know-how, reminiscent of digital machines.

Associated: Who’s Profitable within the Container Software program Market

To clear up the confusion, this is a have a look at seven frequent myths about software program containers, and why subscribing to those myths could result in poor decision-making when organising cloud-native environments.

Fantasy 1: Docker Invented Container Expertise

Docker, which turned an open supply platform in 2013, was the primary containerization framework to achieve widespread adoption.

Associated: 5 Finest Practices for Simplifying Kubernetes Administration

But it surely was hardly the primary container know-how. Quite the opposite, containers date again a long time. Docker was preceded by applied sciences like LXC (on which Docker was as soon as primarily based) and BSD “jails,” which additionally offered a method to run functions in quasi-isolated, software-defined environments.

So, Docker did not invent containers. It simply made them common, largely by creating tooling that made it simpler to work with containers.

Fantasy 2: Containers Are A lot Sooner Than VMs

Ask most individuals why they need to use containers, and the reply will possible be that containers are sooner than VMs as a result of they do not waste sources on hypervisor overhead and visitor working programs.

It is true that containers are extra environment friendly. Nonetheless, the distinction in efficiency between containers and VMs is smaller than you may assume. It is a mere 2%, on common, in keeping with VMware (though the small print differ broadly relying on which kinds of workloads you might be coping with).

So, if you happen to assume containers massively outperform VMs, assume once more.

Fantasy 3: Kubernetes Is an Different to Docker

Folks typically deal with Kubernetes and Docker as either-or propositions. They assume that both you utilize Docker otherwise you use Kubernetes.

In actuality, Docker and Kubernetes are various things. Kubernetes is an orchestration know-how, whereas Docker at its core is a method to run containers.

To be honest, evaluating Kubernetes to Docker can get complicated as a result of Docker additionally offers its personal orchestration tooling, known as Swarm. However that is just one a part of Docker (and it isn’t an important half). You need to use Docker to run containers on the identical time you utilize Kubernetes to orchestrate them.

Fantasy 4: Containers Are Just for Linux

Many of the improvement effort surrounding containers has centered on Linux. You additionally want Linux for sure kinds of container-related workloads; for instance, Kubernetes grasp nodes can run solely on Linux servers.

Nonetheless, containers also can run on Home windows. Certainly, you may even arrange a Kubernetes cluster that features each Linux and Home windows nodes on the identical time, permitting you to run Home windows and Linux apps side-by-side utilizing a central administration airplane.

Fantasy 5: Containers Run within the Cloud

To the extent that individuals confuse containers with being a cloud-only know-how, it is most likely resulting from the truth that the time period “cloud-native” (which is carefully related to containers) is complicated.

Cloud-native is typically interpreted to discuss with applied sciences that solely work within the cloud. However not all cloud-native environments are cloud-based. You possibly can deploy containers or Kubernetes on-premises, too. There’s nothing stopping you from utilizing containers if you happen to do not need to use the cloud.

Fantasy 6: Containers Are Onerous to Handle

Within the earlier days of container adoption, it was troublesome to deploy and monitor containers. Managing issues like persistent storage was additionally difficult.

At this time, nonetheless, that is not the case. The tooling surrounding containers has matured so much over the previous 4 or 5 years, and the boundaries to entry do not exist anymore.

So, whereas it was as soon as honest to say that working with containers was objectively more durable than working with VMs, that is simply not true as of 2022.

Fantasy 7: Everybody Understands Containers

The truth that container tooling has grown easier, nonetheless, does not imply that each engineer out there may be accustomed to containerized software program stacks or administration instruments — though it will possibly appear that manner, given how a lot consideration containers and Kubernetes obtain as of late.

Should you’re nonetheless wrapping your head round how containers really work, you are not alone. Container know-how is not new at this level, however not everybody has been knee-deep in Docker and Kubernetes for the previous decade. Certainly, there is a scarcity of abilities surrounding trendy, cloud-native environments.

Conclusion

To get probably the most from containers, keep away from misassumptions — just like the concepts that containers are a lot sooner than VMs, that they run solely on Linux, or that if you have not mastered the ins and outs of container know-how, you are an outlier.

Concerning the creator

Christopher Tozzi is a know-how analyst with material experience in cloud computing, utility improvement, open supply software program, virtualization, containers and extra. He additionally lectures at a significant college within the Albany, New York, space. His ebook, “For Enjoyable and Revenue: A Historical past of the Free and Open Supply Software program Revolution,” was revealed by MIT Press.