Debunking 7 Myths About Container Technology
By now, almost anyone who performs in IT has heard about containers, the lightweight virtualization technological innovation that sorts a person pillar of cloud-native computing.
But, except you have expended a long time working with container technology, it can be effortless to make bogus assumptions about what they can do, and how they are related to or different from other kinds of engineering, such as virtual equipment.
To apparent up the confusion, here’s a appear at 7 widespread myths about software package containers, and why subscribing to these myths could lead to very poor decision-generating when location up cloud-native environments.
Myth 1: Docker Invented Container Technological innovation
Docker, which turned an open up source system in 2013, was the very first containerization framework to obtain common adoption.
But it was barely the very first container engineering. On the opposite, containers date back decades. Docker was preceded by systems like LXC (on which Docker was the moment dependent) and BSD “jails,” which also presented a way to operate programs in quasi-isolated, software program-defined environments.
So, Docker didn’t invent containers. It just built them popular, mainly by producing tooling that produced it easier to perform with containers.
Myth 2: Containers Are A lot More rapidly Than VMs
Inquire most people why they should really use containers, and the answer will probably be that containers are more quickly than VMs simply because they do not squander assets on hypervisor overhead and visitor operating methods.
It is genuine that containers are far more successful. Having said that, the difference in functionality in between containers and VMs is scaled-down than you could possibly think. It truly is a mere 2{f5ac61d6de3ce41dbc84aacfdb352f5c66627c6ee4a1c88b0642321258bd5462}, on ordinary, in accordance to VMware (though the particulars range extensively depending on which sorts of workloads you are working with).
So, if you assume containers massively outperform VMs, consider all over again.
Myth 3: Kubernetes Is an Substitute to Docker
Men and women often address Kubernetes and Docker as possibly-or propositions. They imagine that either you use Docker or you use Kubernetes.
In fact, Docker and Kubernetes are diverse issues. Kubernetes is an orchestration technology, whilst Docker at its core is a way to operate containers.
To be good, comparing Kubernetes to Docker can get puzzling because Docker also presents its have orchestration tooling, named Swarm. But which is only one aspect of Docker (and it really is not the most critical component). You can use Docker to run containers at the exact time you use Kubernetes to orchestrate them.
Myth 4: Containers Are Only for Linux
Most of the progress work bordering containers has targeted on Linux. You also have to have Linux for particular styles of container-similar workloads for illustration, Kubernetes learn nodes can operate only on Linux servers.
However, containers can also operate on Home windows. In fact, you can even established up a Kubernetes cluster that contains both Linux and Home windows nodes at the exact same time, letting you to run Home windows and Linux apps facet-by-aspect working with a central management aircraft.
Fantasy 5: Containers Run in the Cloud
To the extent that men and women confuse containers with currently being a cloud-only technologies, it truly is most likely owing to the truth that the term “cloud-indigenous” (which is intently linked with containers) is confusing.
Cloud-native is at times interpreted to refer to systems that only perform in the cloud. But not all cloud-indigenous environments are cloud-centered. You can deploy containers or Kubernetes on-premises, much too. You can find absolutely nothing halting you from employing containers if you do not want to use the cloud.
Fantasy 6: Containers Are Tough to Handle
In the before times of container adoption, it was difficult to deploy and keep track of containers. Running items like persistent storage was also tough.
These days, nonetheless, this is no extended the circumstance. The tooling encompassing containers has matured a ton over the earlier 4 or 5 many years, and the limitations to entry never exist anymore.
So, although it was when fair to say that performing with containers was objectively more difficult than functioning with VMs, that is just not correct as of 2022.
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Fantasy 7: Everybody Understands Containers
The point that container tooling has grown more simple, even so, won’t imply that just about every engineer out there is familiar with containerized software program stacks or administration tools — even though it can feel that way, provided how a lot interest containers and Kubernetes obtain these times.
If you’re nonetheless wrapping your head all around how containers truly perform, you might be not by yourself. Container technological innovation just isn’t new at this position, but not all people has been knee-deep in Docker and Kubernetes for the earlier 10 years. In fact, there is a lack of expertise surrounding modern-day, cloud-native environments.
Summary
To get the most from containers, stay clear of misassumptions — like the tips that containers are much a lot quicker than VMs, that they run only on Linux, or that if you haven’t mastered the ins and outs of container technologies, you might be an outlier.
About the creator
Christopher Tozzi is a technological know-how analyst with matter subject expertise in cloud computing, software growth, open up supply computer software, virtualization, containers and far more. He also lectures at a significant university in the Albany, New York, space. His e-book, “For Enjoyment and Profit: A History of the Absolutely free and Open up Resource Software package Revolution,” was released by MIT Press.