Container Orchestration Tools and Resources
Revolutionize Application Delivery
Container technology has altered how programs get distributed in an IT environment.
Containers demonstrated/paved the way to a successful application delivery cycle by making applications scalable, portable, and distributed.
Containerized apps are self-contained programs that can be quickly launched and changed at any scale. They are self-contained, tiny, and simple to download and execute.
A container environment provides the scalability that a private/public cloud environment would require thousands of Virtual Machines (VM) to provide.
Because of these benefits, container services have become a hot topic in the IT industry as a powerful tool for frequent application releases and business continuity.
The container ecosystem includes a variety of tools depending on your requirements. Here is where the real challenges arise when choosing from the vast options offered by the container touring market.
1) Container Tools, Provided for Runtimes
Among the container runtime management tools in this area are:
| Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Docker | This tool was the first essential open-source container tool, and it rapidly became a standard. Docker is the world's enormous container content repository, with over 100,000 container images from major technology vendors, open-source projects, and associated communities. |
| Docker Enterprise | This tool is not just a Docker extension. It extends Docker's ability to guarantee commercial support. It is an end-to-end platform for building, sharing, and running containerized applications. |
| CRI-O | Container Runtime Interface (CRI), sometimes known as the lightweight runtime, is a lightweight runtime interface tailored for Kubernetes. Using this program, one may retrieve any image from any compliant registry and execute any OCI-compatible registry. |
| rkt | This tool is an application container engine for the latest cloud-native environments. The core execution unit of this tool is the pod, and the collection of applications that run in a shared context is the core execution unit of rkt. These pods have similarities to the Kubernetes orchestration system. |
| Containerd | An enterprise-level container runtime tool manages the container life cycle of a host system. Its services range from image transmission and storage management to low-level storage execution and monitoring, to network connectivity, and more. |
| Microsoft Containers | This tool is billed as an alternative to Linux and is compatible with Windows containers. Unlike Kubernetes, which works with cluster management, it runs on an actual VM. |
2) Container Tools, Provided for Cluster Management and Deployment
This category includes a wide range of container tools such as:
| Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Kubernetes | Google created the most popular open-source cluster management, which AWS, Google Cloud Engine (GCE), and Azure Container Service (ACS) can support. It is well-known for its portability and ability to avoid vendor lock-in situations. |
| Istio and Envoy | Open-source service mesh solutions that prioritize security and observability. Envoy was the initial Kubernetes service mesh, and Istio operates on top of it, allowing plugins, dashboards, and other extensions. These technologies are capable of encrypting traffic within a cluster. |
| Apache Mesos | This tool is known for its computing resource abstraction and can balance both Docker and RKT images within the same cluster. DC/OS, a Mesos-based platform, acts as the operating system for your data center. |
| Docker Swarm | This one is Docker's free cluster management tool, with features ranging from the command line to merging with Docker 1.12 and beyond. Swarm does not naturally enable autoscaling or load balancing, but third-party extensions can. |
| Docker Datacenter | This solution is more than just a commercial alternative to Kubernetes; it can containerize your whole data center. It supports Docker's available open-source solutions, Docker and Swarm, which are supported. It can be used with Docker Enterprise and provides load balancing that Swarm skips |
3) Container Tools, Provided for Orchestration
Some of the most popular Container Orchestration tools are:
| Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Amazon ECS |
Supports the Docker container tool that aids in programs execution on the controlled cluster of Amazon EC2 instances. |
| Azure Container Service (ACS) | This tool allows the creation of VM clusters that can act as container hosts with the master machines used to manage application containers.. |
| Cloud Foundry Diego | This container management system combines the functions of a scheduler, runner, and health manager. |
| CoreOs Fleet | This container management tool allows the deployment of Docker containers on hosts, in a cluster, and across its distribution services. |
| Docker Swarm | This tool makes native clustering capability for Docker containers possible. Hence, multiple Docker engines can combine into a single, virtual Docker Engine. |
| Google Container Engine (GCE) | This tool, built on Kubernetes, allows you to run Docker containers on the Google Cloud Platform. It not only schedules containers into the cluster but also manages them based on user-defined requirements. |
| Kubernetes | An orchestration tool for Docker Containers schedules and controls workloads based on user-defined criteria. |
| Mesosphere Marathon | A container orchestration tool for Apache Mesos allows the launch of applications with more extended timeframes. This program has essential functionality for executing applications in a clustered environment. |
4) Container Tools, Provided for Storage
The following are the most common Storage Container platforms:
| Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| BlockBridge |
An elastic storage platform that supports Kubernetes, OpenStack, and software-derived secure storage, and is renowned for storage container services utilizing Docker. |
| Libstorage | This tool provides a code library in exchange for free and open container storage. |
| Docker Plugins | Docker Inc. offers free downloads of storage plugins produced by various platforms such as EMC, NetApp, and others. |
5) Container Tools, Provided for Security
Some of the most common container security tools are:
| Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Twistlock |
Twistlock's vulnerability scanner uses an automated audit against a database of known threats to resolve concerns that might occur from obsolete or unpatched software.. |
| Aqua Security | Aqua Security creates, monitors, and enforces container regulations while supporting Continuous Integration (CI) also security checks on every build. |
| StackRox | Like Kubernetes cluster discovery service provider, this platform serves cluster surveys to ensure that running containers comply with your organization's security standards. These approaches are more documented and automatically evaluated in code. |
| Aporeto | A platform that encrypts workloads between containers to ensure authentication and authorization allows you programmatically define security standards. |
6) Container Resources, Operating System-Specific
This collection of OS-specific container-optimized builds includes:
| Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| AlpineLinux |
This tool occurs when a docker image gets generated with no OS provided. |
| RancherOS | This system image comprises only the Linux kernel and Docker; it does not include the system, and the service management systems get included in all the standard Linux versions. Instead, it launches Docker Daemon as the init, or bootstrap, system. |
| CoreOS Container Linux | This platform is designed to run Linux containers and includes automatic upgrades. In this case, the operating system updates itself without requiring any extra intervention. |
| Ubuntu Core | Ubuntu is the most widely used container operating system. Core, a lightweight and secure release targeted for IoT and containers included in the Ubuntu distribution. |
| Red Hat Atomic Host | Organizations using Red Hat Enterprise need this operating system resource, which enables you to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux's basic edition to run Linux containers. |
| Microsoft Nano Server | Designed to run standalone as a container, this small command-line OS provides native container functionality for Windows Server. |
| VMware Photon | Lightweight container OS intended for use with VMware's vSphere virtualization solutions |
Containerization tool: Market trends
According to the 2019 State of Cloud report, the demand for container technology is skyrocketing. Expanding usage of container services remains a top priority for many research companies.
- The Docker container reports that adoption has increased from 49% in 2018 to 57% in 2019.
- Kubernetes as a container orchestration tool that uses Docker also shows that adoption has increased from 27% to 48%.
- Docker conquers the adoption market for enterprise-level container tools, with 66% adopted, followed by 60% using Kubernetes.
- AWS Container Services (ECS / EKS) is second with 44% adoption, followed by Azure Containers (28%) and Google Container Engine (15%).
The list of container tools and resources has left you confused and worried. Don't be concerned!
Kindly contact us! We will determine the right way for you and accompany you through the process of effectively implementing container services.