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Can Your Data Center Support Containers?
When most people think of containers, they think of large steel shipping crates. These crates all conform to standardized dimensions, so that no matter where they are in the world, they can be picked up by cranes and fit onto ships in a predictable way. If you had to devise unique shipping methods for each different type of product, international shipping would be chaotic and virtually impossible to sustain. Instead of having specialized ships and transport methods for different types of cargo, most things we ship in the world simply go into the same containers, which can fit on any cargo ship.
Software containers get their name from the shipping industry, and they work under the same principle. Have you ever had a program run perfectly on one machine, but then have problems when it is moved to another? This often happens when software is migrated from a developer’s machine to the test server, or from an on-premise server to the cloud. Differences between environments, such as the operating system (OS), secure sockets layer (SSL) libraries, or storage, security and network topologies can cause compatibility issues that result in performance problems.
Containers eliminate these issues by packaging and isolating applications so they can run independently of other processes. Software containers contain not only the software, but also any dependencies the software relies on, such as libraries, binaries and configuration files. Everything is migrated as a unit, thus avoiding any potential incompatibilities between the solution you want to run and the machine you run it on. It’s just like the crane on the loading dock transporting steel containers onto the ship. No matter what might be inside it, the crane can lift it and it will fit onto one cargo ship as well as another.
Benefits of containers
However, in order to leverage containers in your development processes, you have to be sure you can handle new demands that will be placed on your data center.
Not all data centers can handle containers
Containerized computing requires a lot of bandwidth and processing power, and often puts considerable strain on data centers and IT systems. The flexibility and scalability containers provide can be a double-edged sword, as they also lead to spikes in network, power, and cooling demands. Therefore, not all data centers are equipped to handle containers. In order to support highly agile container configurations, businesses need state-of-the-art facilities that guarantee the highest levels of bandwidth and the lowest latency possible.
