IT containerization is changing application development

Numerous studies show a massive growth of the application container market in the coming years. This was worth $762 million in 2016 and is expected to reach a value close to $3 billion next year. What is IT containerization in concrete terms? How could containers revolutionize the way applications are designed? You will find this theme in our technological innovation file.

The principle of IT containerization

This is a type of virtualization used at the application level. The principle is based on the creation of several user spaces isolated from each other on a common core. The term “container” is then used to designate such an instance. This separation is based on a concept similar to that of partitioned application modules, communicating via web services and applications.

The containers, although independent, share a common kernel (thus one or more operating systems) and the same memory space. Moreover – another interesting advantage for all application developers – they host a standard and common universe containing the code, the execution environment, the parameterization, the network file systems and other libraries necessary for their proper functioning.

The essential orchestrators

The provisioning and management of these containers stored on public clouds is handled by a container orchestrator, also capable of performing load-balancing automatically. Among orchestrators, Kubernetes is unquestionably one of the most powerful orchestrators available today.

Developed from several open source projects, this solution is supported by a large and particularly active community that contributes to its constant improvement. It is this model that has, for example, solved the server failures that were a problem for less advanced technologies, such as virtual machines.

What are the benefits of IT containerization?

This concept facilitates and and accelerates the development application development. Thus, it is no longer necessary to take into account the dependencies of a program, thus simplifying its evolution and the management of its versions. Applications are also no longer directly impacted by changing environments. Maintenance operations will also benefit from containerization. Updates and patches will only have to be deployed once, as the operating system kernel is now common.

Containers are lightweight objects, allowing them to occupy less disk space and to start up instantly or almost instantly. Very elastic, they adapt according to the demand they receive. If it decreases, the container will free up resource that will be made available to other containers. This dynamic server management contributes strongly and effectively to improving the application performance of each container. A similar operation is impossible with traditional virtualization.

Scalability and scalability management is the main advantage of Kubernetes. To illustrate with an example: if you have a website based on an application server with a classic VM (virtual machine) architecture with a load balancer, to handle a peak of users, you need to add a new VM with this same application server installed. Now with Kubernetes, it can automatically add a new machine without worrying about the OS or software. This part is managed at the container level.

Also read in our "IT project governance" file:

• Lowcode platform: the future of application development?
• The use of UIPATH as an RPA solution
• Project comitology: the governance bodies of an IT project and their roles
• Steering and governance of a Finance IS project: which profiles should be involved?
• Steering and governance of an IT project: which profiles should be involved?
• Project governance: what role for the steering committee?
• The actors of a project team: organization, role and skills
• The IS manager at the heart of the development and evolution of systems
• HRIS Manager: what role in the evolution of HR Information Systems?
• IS project manager: what role and responsibility in an IS project?
• Functional consultant: a role close to the business processes
• Technical consultant: a profession at the heart of technological development
• Solution architect: a profession that manages development and deployment
• DevOps Consultant: role, missions and development skills
• Data Protection Officer (DPO): what roles and missions?
• CISO: a key job within the business for system security
• The service delivery manager at the heart of team management
• Scrum master, a key profession for Scrum project management
• Data scientist: a strategic profession at the service of management
• MOA / MOE: how are the roles divided on a project of implementation of an information system?