What is Container Management?

At Lyrid, we’re huge proponents of optimizing your experience with technology, whether it be via creating a stronger workflow for your applications, or finding the most cost-effective solutions, optimizing your tech is at the forefront of our efforts. That being said, one thing we’re excitedly optimistic about is containers, specifically containerization technology and the merits of container management.

According to Bloomberg, the application container market is growing rapidly, with container management in particular trending amongst the market’s 32.7% projected CAGR by 2030. Container technology shows no signs of slowing down at all, with only more and more companies taking up cloud-based applications, transitioning to microservice architectures, and learning to make their solutions more portable and flexible than ever before.

Containers are all the rage, and for good reason too. Each container wraps an app and all of their software dependencies into a single package, and unlike virtual machines, doesn’t require multiple operating systems to work efficiently. This shared operating system allows containers to load quickly and run in various cloud and physical environments and platforms, letting them be as portable as you need them to be. The tech community has specifically taken a liking to containers because of their lightweight shell, letting them move through environments quickly while only consuming the resources necessary to operate.

The benefits of containers and containerization are unparalleled, but the practice of getting started on a big scale can become difficult. Containers on a small scale can be managed easily by a team of trained professionals, but once the amount of containers ramps up, it’s not unusual for development teams to become overwhelmed by sheer numbers alone. That’s where container management comes in handy. 

Container management is a set of tools and processes that automate a majority of critical container tasks, such as creation, deployment, and scaling. Through the service offered by different container orchestration platforms and management tools like Kubernetes, Docker, and Red Hat, container management has quickly become the industry standard when it comes to operating within the container space.

The Benefits of Using a Container Manager

With the prospects of container technology only looking up, enthusiasm towards the platforms and tooling that manage these powerful pieces of technology has only been growing. Here are some of the benefits of container management: 

Process Automation

Most, if not all, container management platforms and systems offer a variety of different automations to supercharge your container experience. Ranging from the bare necessities of container operation like scaling and deployment, to more nuanced aspects of containers such as load balancing and 24/7 health checks, container managers ensure that your containers are running at their greatest potential. 

Keeping Isolation in Check

Containers themselves are isolated packages- container operations are not interconnected, failed containers are isolated and don’t affect the performance of other containers, and resource scaling and consumption is conducted at an individual level. With tons of containers, monitoring independent operations can become a harrowing experience; container managers tackle this problem headfirst. A competent management system is able to ensure that each container is cared for, whether they require a health check and version reverting, or need drastic resource scaling. 

Convenience

Out of the box, container management services and platforms come with all the necessary tools to tackle container operations. Storage, monitoring tooling, security systems, and typically a single pane of glass to view containers are included, with open source orchestration platforms like Kubernetes offering even further means of customization. 

The Disadvantages of Using Container Management Tools

While the benefits of container management certainly outweigh the cons, some of the disadvantages of the tools can’t be ignored. Here are some of the disadvantage of using container management tools: 

Integration 

Containers are at the forefront of new technology, we don’t blame anyone for wanting to try their hand using this new tech. That being said, integrating container technology into an infrastructure that uses legacy tech can be difficult, as certain older systems aren’t well equipped to handle containers. It’s up to the IT team to handle this embracing of the container ecosystem as efficiently and long-lasting as possible. 

Initial Learning Curves and Lifelong Complexity 

Containers themselves are complex; housing all the components an application needs to run within a small package can be hard to approach. Running the orchestration platform that can deploy and manage these packages becomes a challenge in itself, prompting the need for professional assistance. Solutions for this problem include educating your in-house IT teams, outsourcing or hiring, or working with container-as-a-service (CaaS) management services.

Potential Security Risks

One of the pros about container tech is that all of a company’s containers are run on the same operating system, allowing each container to be hyper flexible and move between environments seamlessly and quickly. However, this trait can also prove to be a container’s downfall. While operation isolation certainly helps, containers can become susceptible to hacking because of the single operating system aspect. In addition, the operating system is at risk, as containers themselves can be considered as critical vulnerabilities if leveraged. The job of the container management software, in this case, is to identify and isolate the corrupted container, while safeguarding the operations of other containers to ensure that systems are running smoothly. 

The Future of Container Management Systems

As enthusiasm in containers and containerization only grows, so does interest in finding the best container management platforms. These management services and platforms position themselves towards providing the best experience for containerized applications, letting the minds behind said applications develop and deploy packages with ease. One of the biggest of these container management tools is Kubernetes, giving user containers automated features such as load balancing and health checks, with other capabilities like service discovery and configuration management.

However, Kubernetes is also complex.

Supercharge your container management efforts with Lyrid’s Managed Kubernetes solutions! Lyrid Managed Kubernetes gives you all the best features of Kubernetes while providing all the benefits of a microservices architecture- one of the best results of taking up containerization. By working with our Managed Kubernetes service, you’ll be able to receive benefits like:

• Infrastructure automation and modernization, with Lyrid Kubernetes Platform
• Around-the-clock expert assistance, with 24/7 Dedicated Engineering Support
• Unstoppable availability worldwide, with the Lyrid Data Center Network

And much more!

Interested in learning more about Kubernetes and container management? Book a demo with us!