In a rapidly changing business environment, cloud services support the development of efficient, scalable and high-performance applications with minimal investment. As more organizations adopt a poly-cloud or hybrid cloud strategy, the containerization model offering a full-service framework solution, popularly referred to as the Platform as a Service (PaaS) model, is gaining more traction than ever before.

Containerization is influencing the very nature of software development, application development and modernization. Containers and container platforms are simple, easily portable wrappers for software, related applications and all their dependencies. They essentially bring together everything required to support the proper working of applications. This includes the code, runtime, system tools, data libraries and more. A concept so simple, yet so revolutionary!

The case for containerization

Container adoption has been growing exponentially in the last few years. According to Gartner, 75% of all global organizations will be using container technology by 2022, as compared to less than 20 percent in 2017¹.

The case for container technology is obvious. The image format aids developers in building and distributing application code and related dependencies. IT operations can easily deploy the code consistently across environments and cloud instances. Businesses can focus on growth and expansion without technology concerns as containers support rapid and secure prototyping of solutions. Equally important, containerization reduces costs and risks in the long run as the number of operating system instances and hardware to maintain reduce with containerization. Also, application capabilities improve, aiding productivity and reducing time to profit for organizations.

The Docker advantage – Driving innovation across the enterprise

Docker leads the market with container solutions that enable enterprises to build, ship and run their applications in any environment, without technology or platform lock-in and supports them to deploy traditional and microservices architectures across cloud platforms.

Why should enterprises scale to Docker containers for cloud migration and application modernization? Docker is almost synonymous with container technology and delivers the fastest time to production for any application - legacy or cutting-edge tech. The Docker platform supports considerable reduction in the number of operating systems and  virtual machines (VMs) that applications run on. Docker states that its enterprise customers routinely experience significant OPEX and CAPEX savings. Let us understand how by looking deeper at some of the advantages that come with leveraging this solution.

1. Convenience of scale: Containerization enables enterprises to scale their applications as and when required, without any size and memory limitations. What is more, the containerization process with Docker starts with the applications that are already running in the enterprise. It helps create immediate impact by saving on recoding time, reducing costs and limiting risk of operations. Containerization helps scale easily from pilot stage to large-scale production.
2. Ease of application deployment: Developers need agile infrastructure to build, test and deploy applications fast and Docker containers enable this by carrying minimal runtime requirement of the application, thus decreasing their size and enabling instant deployment. Docker containers further support agility in application development by reducing dependencies on legacy software-management protocols and enhancing developer productivity. 
3. Modernization of legacy applications: With the end of life support for Window 2003 and 2008 versions, a significant number of Window applications are affected. Containerization enables enterprises to migrate and modernize existing tools and applications with ease by supporting rewriting of existing applications and making them agile and cloud-enabled. Docker supports containerization of older Java and .net applications without recoding, saving considerable time and effort. Furthermore, it also supports upgradation of Windows Server 2003/2008/2012 workloads to modern infrastructure on Windows Server 2016+ and manages them uniformly alongside Linux workloads.  
4. Enhanced efficiency of technology operations: Docker’s SaaS and PaaS models enable organizations to streamline and automate the management of disparate and diverse applications. The solution brings them together under a unified operating model, improving scale and efficiency of operations and supporting easy integration of existing tools with Docker Enterprise’s automated application delivery model. The technology helps increase the efficiency levels and productivity of existing DevOps teams with automation that can be easily mapped to the enterprise’s existing IT processes. This is made possible by bringing together disparate and siloed infrastructure under unified operations management, streamlined application management and secure and integrated policy management.
5. Choice of hybrid and multi-cloud: The extremely agile and infrastructure-agnostic container platform operates across cloud environments – public, private and hybrid, giving organizations the freedom to scale and integrate between environments according to their growing needs. What is more, the solution makes it easy to deploy, migrate and replicate applications across clouds, providing users with an integrated view of all their applications across different environments.
6. Faster time to market: With an economic and business environment that is constantly changing and evolving, technological upgradation needs to keep pace and pave the way for smoother workplace transitions. Organizations can triple their speed to market delivering new services with Docker containers.
7. Environment and vendor agnostic: Docker containers are vendor agnostic and portable in nature, giving the enterprise full flexibility and control in deployment. This makes it easy to run the application and transfer it to a new environment, at any point of time.
   
8. Increased security: Docker creates an automated and completely secure software supply chain that integrates all applications under a single governance model, ensuring compliance for even traditional applications. The container scans for vulnerabilities and requires authentication, establishing secure application zones for legacy applications in a multi-tenant environment. This enables large enterprises to run their applications securely almost anywhere – from hybrid cloud environments to the edge.
   

Optimizing on Docker

Containerization will power the future of technology, no doubt. However, organizations must study their business case in-depth and strategize to work around potential security and data management concerns even as they embark on their containerization strategy. Focus must not only be on monitoring the physical host containers but also on the applications loaded on these containers. Enterprises must also pay due attention to the management of the container lifecycle and orchestration of containers, which requires considerable container management capability and expertise. A continuous framework to maintain all aspects of the container ecosystem is pertinent.

References

1 - https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/6-best-practices-for-creating-a-container-platform-strategy/