Container Management – Top 7 Container Management Solutions

Container Management Software are product based solutions. They simplify the administration of large number of containers on IT infrastructure. Automate and create software, deploy it or use CMS for scaling containers.

Container Management Solutions are preferred as they provide operating system virtualization. Container approach eradicates the use of hypervisors; the virtual containers provide alternatives to hypervisor-based virtualization.

Containers enclose the applications and everything that is required to run them. They are isolated units on the operating systems consisting of the runtime environment. It offers application, its configuration files, libraries, and its dependencies everything to be in single location. Containers share the resources of a particular operating system.

Advantages of Container Management Solutions:

• Automating the rollouts and rollbacks
• Containers are the platform for cloud-native to applications
• Manage containers in production
• Monitor system health
• Scaling and flexibility of applications
• Management competence
• Ability to integrate containers with existing hardware and software
• Working across many different environments
• Easy to share containers
• Cluster managers provides load balancing
• Divide the applications into containers, container cluster or domains
• Downloads and runs instantly due to small size of container packages
• Ensures uptime during rollout
• Expansion of container technology offers choices to store old versions & deploy new images.
• Makes debugging easy
• Spontaneous testing speeds the operations
• Operating system shared by all containers are light weight compared to the traditional virtual machines
• Host more containers than VMs
• Improves both resource usage and operations of data centres
• Containers lets you obtain the copy of a system that you want to deploy
• Ideal for microservice application development
• Containers can be duplicated at high pace
• Platform specific security and governance

Limitations of Container Management Solutions:

• Investments and costs of containers can be on higher side
• Non –Interoperable Windows and Linux containers
• Not suitable to take work load for Monolithic applications
• Full utilization of containers requires expertise of software team
• Portability amid servers is challenged by dependencies on containers
• Containers hugely consume computing resources without recognizing due to duplication
• Finding good container developers is difficult
• Substandard container architectures can cost projects
• Huge numbers of containers are too complex for IT team to control
• Developers need to remain updated with skills due to continuous automation

Points to consider while selecting container management solutions:

• Reliability of container management solution
• Persistent storage management
• Application-centric container management eases deployment, monitoring, scaling, updating
• Basic container platform its orchestration capabilities and public cloud tools
• Easy integration of containers with the existing technologies
• Good Configuration and security container software
• Transition to Microservices should be smooth in order to save you from major release
• Free selection for deployment of application in data centre or public cloud
• Match the ability of current infrastructure, and application operators to manage container environments
• Manage complexities of resource abstraction and orchestration
• Upgrade of containerized applications without infrastructure imposed restrictions

Container Management Solutions

They consist of open source and commercial products.

Top 7 Container Management Solutions

1. AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS):

Amazon EC2 Container Service -ECS is a container management service that supports Docker containers and Fargate technology both. The highly scalable platform allows users to install and operate their own container orchestration software. It manages the cluster through virtual machines eliminating the need to install and manage separate container orchestration software. Easily manage and scale a cluster of VMs, or even schedule containers on virtual machines. Users can run applications on a managed cluster of Amazon EC2 instances.

It provides clear documentation, is more scalable & flexible. It is easy to configure and deploy. Scaling happens in just a few clicks, it saves time and cost of users. The type of machines they have suit requirements of various organizations. It also saves from the server downtime or concerns of project size to match the growth. Auto recovery of container, compatibility with windows containers, simplified development helps developers. The task definition, integrated elastic load balancing, and availability of containers are few great features of AWS.

Rebooting time is concern for small instances. Moving instances to other regions is difficult.

2. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS):

Azure Kubernetes Service -AKS offers reliable tool to use and orchestrate containers. It scales infrastructure and applications with dynamism.

The AKS provisions clusters using the Azure portal and Azure CLI. Its feature provides visibility over the health of container. Its main attraction is auto upgrades and curative nature. Azure automates and simplifies the processes to compliment container management.

It has ability to view all aspects of program thus is user friendly and up -to-date. Integration with Docker is appreciable. It is very satisfying experience for developers and the IT teams. Simple tools help to implement required business restrictions in the environment. Its innovative command line interface makes working easy.

After setup, you cannot change the node pool and its type; similar is the case with the VM and disk size before you create the cluster. Manual changes to the VM node can hamper the upgrading of systems. Response time in cloud application is somewhat slower. In case of smaller deployments, reusing the server for database and frontend equally is not possible. Too many animations on the portal make the web browser slothful.

3. Docker:

Docker is a leading container platform that made containers easier and safer to deploy. Containerization with docker saves energy of maintaining virtual machines. It allows deploying to the cloud easily and scaling up. This open source platform introduced the concept of containers and containerization. This technology is available for Windows and Linux both.

Standardized container system reduces complexity of operating system. Fast integration with deployable application and compilation makes it dependable. User can package applications and all its dependencies in a virtual container to run it on a Linux server.

Developers can easily run software inside dedicated container that is free of configuration. It is suitable for large microservice system deployment. In case of large microservices some additional orchestration solutions such as DC/OS or Docker Cloud is required.

Docker guarantees scalability, reliability, and secures runtime environment for daily workflows. Do not install a program to run them on Docker thus saves valuable space on computing cluster. Thousands of pre-burn images can run any software in no time. The big size Windows images compared to Linux limits its running on containers.

Tougher for those who do not have knowledge on how to use Linux bases environments. The documentation is easy to understand thus helps developers to learn faster. It has advance features, which simplify management.

Docker provides an uninterrupted end-to-end experience for development and scaling of distributed applications. It is the fastest way to use containers and kubernetes. This great deployment tool requires minimum setup and is a lightweight environment. It supports most of the popular operating systems. The compose feature of Docker considers a large number of containers and environments using a single configuration file.

4. Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE):

Google Kubernetes Engine provides advance level of flexibility to organizations using containers and microservices. It deploys, manages, and scales containerized applications, powered by Kubernetes. It is a production ready infrastructure useful in implementation of containerized applications. There remains no need to install, handle, and operate clusters.

The open-source container orchestration platform is a powerful tool to automate, deploy, and manage components. Kubernetes can run on a private cloud such as Microsoft’s Azure Container service, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud Engine. It incorporates numerous cloud platforms to works with various container tools like Docker.

Kubernetes is comparatively portable with the features such as inbuilt load balancing, easy to use web interface, auto-scaling, auto-upgrading, and docker image support. It updates production code seamlessly, and is a secure container management solution.

Effortless setup, easy configurations on Google cloud or on-premise and least time consuming deployment of clusters are of great advantage to users. Features such as identity access and container optimized operating systems are a great deal for developers.

Kubernetes API allows scheduling of pods, inside of which the containers reside.

Limitations that exist are difficulty in understanding of tool, difficulty in detecting errors, setting up cluster manually and deploying the automated fix.

5. Hyper-V Containers:

Hyper-V Containers are entirely isolated virtual machines. It includes independent copy of Windows kernel, which has memory assigned directly to them as basic requirement of strong isolation. It runs non-trusted and multi-tenant applications on the same host. It is lightweight configuration platform, an alternative to the traditional virtual machines. It makes nested virtualization easy to handle. Manage Hyper-V Containers with Docker or via new Windows PowerShell cmdlets.

Administer the containers using the Docker CLI -command-line interface. These commands are same as used to run Docker containers on Linux.

These Hyper-V Containers are interchangeable with Windows Server Containers for applications pushed or pulled from Docker. Use Microsoft Azure to build nested virtualization in Hyper-V. It supports running Hyper-V Containers on Virtual Machines. The isolation needed for the workload is available without being concerned about managing physical machines.

Hyper-V based on Windows forgives your client from learning Linux to use it. Server virtualization enables to run multiple servers on a computer resulting efficient use of resources.

Hyper-V can save finances in the long term on the maintenance costs and additional licenses. Microsoft provides better support for its server applications if run directly on Hyper-V than third-party virtualization platforms.

6. AppFormix:

AppFormix is for operations management and optimization on public, private and hybrid cloud. This product has lot of easy to use features. The software allows users to visualize and analyze the physical and virtual environments. It provides end-to-end visibility of your multicloud environment. Through this, the companies can avoid potential issues. It also simplifies operations to increase productivity.

Its ability to manage automated operations that brings visibility and its real time reporting helps the users. Its consistent running and optimal utilization attracts developers. AppFormix consists of network device that has tracking function. It provides real-time infrastructure performance and monitors data centre networking devices.

This smart-monitoring tool helps in identifying issues and automatically equips you for corrective actions. It brings in large integration possibilities with various cloud service providers. It tracks and analyzes programs operating on public clouds such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. It provides actionable insights from immediate actions.

This comprehensive container management system is easy to learn, install, and use. Containers and container cluster management have monitors helping to automate applications. AppFormix proffers REST APIs to configure and integrate with other systems.

7. Diamanti D10:

Diamanti D10 is bare-metal container platform. It offers a combined solution that hosts and runs containerized applications. Easy integration with Docker and Kubernetes enables easy migration of data and applications. Plug & play networking with existing VLAN and DNS infrastructure.

Deployment in minutes and testing is easy and administered process. Simple commands create clusters, networks and configure storage. The built-in templates empower to manage all tasks.

Developers can interact with the cluster; using CLI to create volumes and networks or add and delete nodes. Diamanti provides real-time service levels and enables high utilization of resources. It has compatibility with Docker and Kubernetes.

Continual storage on VM and connectivity between nodes brings high performance accompanied with low latency. Creating clusters, networks, and volumes is simpler with its storage capacity. Multiple pods can share same back-end drives. Role-based access control and Active Directory (AD) useful for authentication, helps managing containers. It provides simplicity, efficiency, and control to developers.

Selecting a container management solution is dependent on the needs of business enterprise. It should assist the teams performing to achieve for the organization. The Top 10 container management solutions can torchlight your search for perfect solution of container technology that bears workload.

Container Management Solutions establishes standardization, flexibility, velocity, and security to these applications. The capital investment, complexity of arranging containers and finding right development skills is challenging.

Most medium and small enterprises benefit from a stable, scalable container if the strategy and approach is right.

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