Some thoughts on Containers

Containers are all the rage – but we know that already! Given the recent buzz around containers, you aren’t alone if you are wondering, “Why now?” Everyone has their own drivers but one I hear often is “faster time to market”. As digital transformation starts to penetrate every industry known to mankind, the race is on once again. And just like every other race, it’s about having a good team, with the right tools at the right time and place. Containers and container orchestration are the essential tools in this race.

Recently, I read a Bain & Company^ research which surveyed a significant number of IT Leaders on the likelihood of container adoption in their path of digital transformation. Their findings reiterate what I am hearing from customers on a daily basis. 

Respondents are beginning to benefit from faster innovation as well as improved development and deployment cycles. For example, adopters frequently report 15% to 30% reductions in development time. Adopters also report initial cost savings of 5% to 15% due to greater hardware and process efficiencies. Containers’ greater portability also improves the flexibility and scalability of IT architectures, with some adopters mentioning containers as a step toward migration to more cloud-focused architectures.

Given these benefits, container adoption is expected to grow across all phases of an application life-cycle, especially in the production phase. This is the same trend we’ve been seeing internally at Red Hat as well.

Containers are Linux.

Once again, containers have brought the attention back to Linux! That’s because Containers are Linux. Of course, you'd expect a Red Hatter to say that, but the facts speak for themselves. Containers are a feature of Linux. Containers have been a part of the Linux operating system for more than a decade, and go back even further in UNIX. That’s why the majority of containers we see are in fact Linux containers.

In my discussions with customers in APAC, the question on their mind is what does it really take to build, secure, and populate a containerized infrastructure. They haved moved on from “what are containers, anyway?” to “let’s get it right.”

Security remains a primary concern. Since containers are Linux, your containers are only as secure as the Linux host they run on. The ability for multiple containers to run safely on a shared host is only as good as the kernel’s ability to provide multi-tenant isolation between containers and the underlying host operating system. Equally important is knowing what is inside a container. Most container scanners may be able to detect issues but cannot actually fix them. To address security issues early on, both developers and operations teams need not only the tools to scan containers for threats, but also a certified container registry and an enterprise-grade, supported platform. 

A related challenge to container adoption lies in the organisations themselves. Container use may start from individual developers or small teams, in order to respond to the demand for faster deployment. This “shadow IT” phenomena thus results in haphazard and inconsistent implementation of container technology. Don’t yield to doing it “sort-of right” as your customer will not accept that when his or her data is hacked. The right tools exist today so it shouldn’t reduce your ability to compete in any way!

Organisational solutions for organisational problems

In my personal opinion- for those looking to embark on the container journey- you can assume by now someone or some team has already started deploying containers in your organisation. As leaders, it’s very important to recognize this and embrace it. Bring these things together so you can work on defining the right standard for your company. Container implementation strategies need to be defined and managed on a company-wide level, in order to achieve consistency in both processes and results. With a more well-defined role of containers as an integral part of the enterprise practices and architectures, organisations can maximise its benefits in line with achieving business goals. But make sure that you constantly check if the thinking supports, not sacrifice, the autonomy of developers.

Organisations must also rethink their management approach. For instance, DevOps is more suitable for containerisation compared to other traditional approaches. It might not be necessary to overhaul all organisational procedures and policies as a blanket approach may not work for different teams with different priorities and functions. 

I think it’s a no brainer - container technology promises greater agility and efficiency when it comes to building/deploying applications—a critical ability in this age of zero tolerance. Last year, we at Red Hat celebrated 25 years of Linux. I am excited to find out what the next 25 years will bring.

Remember, Containers are Linux!

^Bain & Company, “For Traditional Enterprises, the Path to Digital and the Role of Containers”, 2 December 2016, http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/for-traditional-enterprises-path-to-digital-role-of-containers.aspx