What are cloud con­tain­ers? Vir­tu­al­isa­tion in the cloud

Cloud con­tain­ers vir­tu­al­ise operating systems including all de­pend­en­cies and thus work isolated from other ap­plic­a­tions. Thanks to their flex­ib­il­ity and resource-saving design, they’re worth con­sid­er­ing for business use.

What is a cloud container?

Cloud computing has become in­creas­ingly important for companies. There are plenty of ad­vant­ages of working in a cloud, ranging from immense cost savings and greater flex­ib­il­ity to a broader selection of software, storage, and servers. In addition to tra­di­tion­al cloud solutions, major companies like Google and Microsoft are in­creas­ingly adopting cloud con­tain­ers. It is estimated that each of these companies employs several billion cloud con­tain­ers per week, high­light­ing the immense value and benefits of this tech­no­logy. Before delving deeper into these ad­vant­ages, let’s first address the question of what cloud con­tain­ers actually are.

Cloud con­tain­ers are self-contained and abstract software units that enable the vir­tu­al­isa­tion of a specific operating system. They en­cap­su­late the entire in­fra­struc­ture, including the CPU, working and file memory, libraries, and network con­nec­tions, among other com­pon­ents. These con­tain­ers operate in complete isolation from other ap­plic­a­tions or con­tain­ers, requiring only access to the kernel of the host system. Cloud con­tain­ers offer re­mark­able resource ef­fi­ciency and allow for cus­tom­isa­tion based on specific workloads without the need to modify the entire system. Similar to how a shipping container can be seam­lessly trans­ferred between ships, ap­plic­a­tions within a cloud container can be easily migrated to different en­vir­on­ments.

How do cloud con­tain­ers work?

Cloud con­tain­ers operate in a manner similar to con­ven­tion­al con­tain­ers that have long been employed in software de­vel­op­ment. Each cloud container vir­tu­al­ises its in­fra­struc­ture, relying on the un­der­ly­ing operating system. Within the cloud container, all necessary de­pend­en­cies, con­fig­ur­a­tions, and libraries are en­cap­su­lated alongside its virtual system. These elements col­lect­ively con­sti­tute a container image, which can be executed by the container engine. This also makes it easy to migrate to another en­vir­on­ment. Each cloud container is com­pletely isolated from other ap­plic­a­tions.

Within a cloud en­vir­on­ment, multiple cloud con­tain­ers can coexist, sharing a common operating system core. The in­di­vidu­al files thereby remain light­weight. The host system imposes lim­it­a­tions on the access of a single cloud container to physical resources, ensuring fair resource al­loc­a­tion and pre­vent­ing one container from mono­pol­ising system per­form­ance. In the event of errors, only the affected cloud container is impacted, while the sur­round­ing ap­plic­a­tions and the host system remain un­af­fected by such issues or in­ten­tion­al modi­fic­a­tions. Ad­di­tion­ally, when migrating cloud con­tain­ers, all de­pend­en­cies are carried along, elim­in­at­ing the need for extensive re­con­fig­ur­a­tion.

What are cloud con­tain­ers being used for?

Cloud con­tain­ers have a wide range of potential ap­plic­a­tions due to their design and char­ac­ter­ist­ics, making them an ideal solution for various workloads. Some of the most common use cases include:

• Cloud­nat­ive ap­plic­a­tions: Cloud­nat­ive ap­plic­a­tions benefit from cloud con­tain­ers primarily due to their minimal resource con­sump­tion. It is thus possible to host a large number of cloud con­tain­ers within a single virtual machine and place them in close proximity to the operating system.
• Hybrid Cloud and Multi Cloud: In a hybrid cloud, cloud con­tain­ers are used to run workloads across different en­vir­on­ments. It’s easy to switch from one cloud to another because the cloud container includes all the needed elements. At the same time, this way of working allows admins to retain a better overview of all de­ploy­ment locations. This is be­ne­fi­cial in a multi-cloud approach.
• Machine Learning: Because in­di­vidu­al al­gorithms can be run in different con­tain­ers without affecting each other, the technique is the perfect en­vir­on­ment for efficient machine learning.
• Mi­croservices: Mi­croservices are small, in­de­pend­ent functions that make up a larger ap­plic­a­tion. One of the key ob­ject­ives for mi­croservices is to execute quickly and consume minimal resources. Deploying mi­croservices through cloud con­tain­ers perfectly aligns with these re­quire­ments, as con­tain­ers are in­her­ently light­weight in nature.
• Migration: As mentioned earlier, cloud con­tain­ers are ideal for migration because all de­pend­en­cies and con­fig­ur­a­tions are included and decoupled from other ap­plic­a­tions. So if an ap­plic­a­tion needs to be moved, a cloud container is perfect for that.
• Mod­ern­isa­tion: Since cloud con­tain­ers are becoming in­creas­ingly important and are already being used in many companies, their im­ple­ment­a­tion is also suitable for mod­ern­ising your own system as well as workflow.
• Batch pro­cessing: Cloud con­tain­ers can also play an important role in the area of process auto­ma­tion. They are suitable for batch pro­cessing, which doesn’t require human in­ter­ven­tion, since their de­pend­en­cies as well as their en­vir­on­ment do not have to be redefined sep­ar­ately.

What ad­vant­ages do cloud con­tain­ers have?

Cloud con­tain­ers offer numerous ad­vant­ages for busi­nesses and are worth con­sid­er­ing. Among the most important arguments in their favour are:

• Flex­ib­il­ity: Cloud con­tain­ers are a flexible and efficient solution. By isolating them from other ap­plic­a­tions, container images can be in­di­vidu­ally con­figured and utilised. Migration between different en­vir­on­ments is straight­for­ward, enabling seamless work across various platforms.
• Low cost: The cost factor should be con­sidered in any case. They enable low expenses while allowing for the sim­ul­tan­eous de­ploy­ment of numerous con­tain­ers side by side.
• Space re­quire­ments: Cloud con­tain­ers are a par­tic­u­larly space-saving solution. Through the vir­tu­al­isa­tion of CPU, memory, and con­nec­tions, they occupy minimal space in the cloud. System resources are also utilised sparingly.
• Scalab­il­ity: Cloud con­tain­ers can scale ef­fort­lessly as workloads increase. This ensures users have the necessary resources available for all ap­plic­a­tions, promoting flex­ib­il­ity. Likewise, when demand decreases, resources are ef­fi­ciently managed without un­ne­ces­sary al­loc­a­tion.
• Isolation: The isolation of in­di­vidu­al cloud con­tain­ers has a positive effect because problems or errors within one container don’t have a negative impact on the sur­round­ing con­tain­ers, enabling safe ap­plic­a­tion testing and faster bug iden­ti­fic­a­tion.
• Security: Cloud con­tain­ers provide a high level of security. Isolation plays a role in this, as does the ability to define security per­mis­sions for each container in­di­vidu­ally. However, con­scien­tious man­age­ment is essential for secure handling of cloud con­tain­ers.
• Developer friend­li­ness: Cloud con­tain­ers are an optimal choice for de­velopers. De­vel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion can take place within the same en­vir­on­ment, fa­cil­it­at­ing seamless workflows. The ease of migration allows ap­plic­a­tions to be tested on different systems and optimised ac­cord­ingly.

What software is re­com­men­ded for cloud con­tain­ers?

Many providers offer Container as a Service (CaaS) options. These may be highly suitable depending on the intended use. The open-source container platform Docker is always suitable. Docker con­tain­ers are created virtually and contain all de­pend­en­cies and con­fig­ur­a­tions in their image. To use these cloud con­tain­ers, you’ll find a com­pre­hens­ive Docker tutorial in our Digital Guide.