Insoftware engineering,containerization isoperating-system-level virtualization orapplication-level virtualization over multiple resources so that software applications can run in isolated user spaces calledcontainers in anycloud or non-cloud environment, regardless of type or vendor.[1] The term "container" has different meanings in different contexts, and it is important to ensure that the intended definition aligns with the audience's understanding.[2][3]
Eachcontainer is basically a fully functional and portable cloud or non-cloud computing environment surrounding the application and keeping it independent of other environments running in parallel.[4] Individually, each container simulates a different software application and runs isolated processes[5] by bundling related configuration files, libraries and dependencies.[6] But, collectively, multiple containers share a commonoperating system kernel (OS).[7]
In recent times, containerization technology has been widely adopted by cloud computing platforms likeAmazon Web Services,Microsoft Azure,Google Cloud Platform, andIBM Cloud.[8] Containerization has also been pursued by the U.S. Department of Defense as a way of more rapidly developing and fielding software updates, with first application in itsF-22 air superiority fighter.[9]
Containerorchestration or container management is mostly used in the context of application containers.[10] Implementations providing such orchestration includeKubernetes andDocker swarm.
Container clusters need to be managed. This includes functionality to create a cluster, to upgrade the software or repair it, balance the load between existing instances, scale by starting or stopping instances to adapt to the number of users, to log activities and monitor produced logs or the application itself by querying sensors. Open-source implementations of such software includeOKD and Rancher. Quite a number of companies provide container cluster management as a managed service, likeAlibaba,Amazon,Google, andMicrosoft.
Bentaleb, Ouafa; Belloum, Adam S. Z.; Sebaa, Abderrazak; El-Maouhab, Aouaouche (8 June 2021). "Containerization technologies: taxonomies, applications and challenges".The Journal of Supercomputing.78:1144–1181.doi:10.1007/s11227-021-03914-1.S2CID236220833.
Zhang, Xiao; Tang, Yu; Li, Hao; Liu, Shaotao; Lin, Di (2021). "Containerization Design for Autonomous and Controllable Cloud Distributed System".Communications, Signal Processing, and Systems. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering. Vol. 654. pp. 30–38.doi:10.1007/978-981-15-8411-4_4.ISBN978-981-15-8410-7.S2CID236762442.
Odun-Ayo, Isaac; Geteloma, Victor; Eweoya, Ibukun; Ahuja, Ravin (2019). "Virtualization, Containerization, Composition, and Orchestration of Cloud Computing Services".Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 11622. pp. 403–417.doi:10.1007/978-3-030-24305-0_30.ISBN978-3-030-24304-3.S2CID195769647.
Gabriel N. Schenker, Hideto Saito, Hui-Chuan Chloe Lee, Ke-Jou Carol Hsu, (2019)Getting Started with Containerization: Reduce the operational burden on your system by automating and managing your containers,Packt Publishing,ISBN978-1-83864-903-6
^Hinck, Tim Maurer, Garrett; Hinck, Tim Maurer, Garrett."Cloud Security: A Primer for Policymakers".Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved2021-07-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^December 2019, Jonas P. DeMuro 18 (18 December 2019)."What is container technology?".TechRadar India. Retrieved2021-07-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
