DevOps is the practice of integrating development and operations processes to allow the quick and continuous delivery of high-quality software. DevOps has been designed to enhance the process of software development and lifecycle management. Organisations can now launch new software features in weeks rather than months, at a fraction of the cost, and with higher customer satisfaction.

Containers are quickly becoming an essential component of many DevOps processes. They are lightweight, adaptable to various settings, and easy to move from one team to another. They contribute to the expansion of cross-organisational cooperation. Containerisation enables developers and security teams to resolve concerns earlier in the development process before they escalate to production-level difficulties.

While it’s not strictly necessary to employ containers to leverage DevOps, containerisation helps eliminate many of the associated challenges. Containers isolate software and enable independent functions across multiple operating systems, hardware, networks, storage, and security policies. They allow the container-based applications to move smoothly between development, testing, and production environments. Each container consumes little computational resources, making it light and easy to deploy.

Why organisations turn to containerisation

Containerisation enables engineers to develop and deploy applications rapidly. Traditionally, code is written in a specific computing environment, leading to faults and mistakes when moved to a new environment e.g. A developer moves code from a desktop computer to a virtual machine (VM) or from Linux to Windows OS. Containerisation solves this issue by isolating the application’s code and necessary configuration files, libraries, and dependencies. Because this single software package, or container, is separated from the host operating system, it becomes self-contained and portable, allowing it to execute seamlessly across any platform or cloud.

Containers in use

Containers are used to improve value chains across many industries, including manufacturing, automotive, retail and healthcare. Containerisation:

• Enables the gaming industry to design and scale new games.

• Is used in healthcare and life sciences to improve the patient experience by monitoring millions of patients and trials on cloud platforms and rapidly improving services in response to customer/patient feedback.

• Assists retailers in meeting the challenges of e-commerce through cloud-native systems that are trustworthy, fast, scalable, and efficient.

Container technology is gaining popularity due to faster time-to-market development cycles, lower capital expenditure requirements, IT resource reductions, and reduced unscheduled downtimes.  As more businesses become aware of the benefits of containerisation, the number of use cases will continue to grow.

Containerisation benefits

Containers simplify software development, testing, deployment, and redeployment across a broad range of environments, from on-premise data centres to cloud. Containers provide additional benefits, including:

• Decreased overheads – containers are lightweight and use fewer system resources than standard virtual machine environments.
• Portability – containers can be run on various operating systems and hardware platforms. Container deployment does not need changes to the application code or the build process.
• Consistency – containerised applications work the same regardless of where they are deployed.
• Efficiency – containers accelerate application deployment, updating, and scaling.
• Application – containers enable agility, and allow DevOps teams to reduce development, testing, and production cycles.

• Modularity – developers can split containers into smaller modules.

HPE Ezmeral – the industry’s first enterprise-grade container orchestration platform

HPE remains at the forefront of containerisation, developing many industry-first container technologies. HPE Ezmeral Container Platform combines technology advancements from HPE’s BlueData and MapR acquisitions, along with open-source Kubernetes orchestration. BlueData has a track record of success in containerising AI and analytics technologies. MapR contains an advanced file system and data fabric for persistent container storage.

Customers can extend the advantages of container agility and efficiency to other business apps using the HPE Ezmeral Container Platform, independent of where or how they are running (bare-metal, virtualised infrastructure, on-premise, multiple public clouds, or edge).

When constructing several on-premise or cloud-based Kubernetes clusters, the platform offers a secure multi-tenant control plane, essential for supporting traditional and cloud-native workloads. Both cloud-native microservices applications and traditional monolithic workloads, benefit from their ability to provide container speed and efficiency.

This open-source, Kubernetes-based solution offers standardised processes and services to both cloud-native and non-cloud native applications. Non-cloud native applications can benefit from the solution in terms of improved flexibility and productivity and a cloud-like experience. Ezmeral provides better compatibility for app developers dealing with monolithic, non-cloud-native applications. Machine learning, analytics, IoT/Edge, DevOps (CI/CD), and application modernisation are some of the most often encountered use cases in Ezmeral’s customer base.

Pathways to adopting Kubernetes

Kubernetes has emerged as an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerised applications. It is a required component of cloud-native apps and one of the most crucial components in adopting a cloud-first strategy by businesses.

Despite its great benefits, Kubernetes comes with some challenges. Setting up Kubernetes can be time consuming and complex. Achieving the correct infrastructure, network architecture, installation and setup of all Kubernetes components can be onerous. The platform’s production capabilities, user onboarding, and Kubernetes cluster administration should be enhanced beyond the initial setup and installation.

Using a turnkey solution like Ezmeral can help organisations leverage the full benefits of Kubernetes. Given the intricacy, not every company should build its platform first. Companies should first consider focusing on managing the cultural and organisational transformation before implementing new technology.

Businesses may consider starting small when using Kubernetes and gradually expand its application. Introducing new procedures and tools in small groups before rolling them out across the firm could be a preferred way to grasp Kubernetes and the operational integration required to deploy applications continuously.

Using default, pre-defined, or templated settings allows companies to capitalise on recognised patterns and best practices established by industry leaders. As companies gain knowledge and understanding of the technology, they may iteratively change, tweak, and reconfigure Kubernetes solutions to better meet their needs.

Conclusion

DevOps enables many businesses to adapt to evolving requirements. DevOps teams can engage more rapidly and build a culture of experimentation and openness due to traceability and repeatable organisational practices.

Containerised architectures and platforms are laying the basis for new approaches to information technology. Most industries have learned that running containers across on-premise and public clouds can reduce the complexity associated with portability and fragmented environments.

HPE Ezmeral is a managed containerisation solution based on Kubernetes that enables businesses to consolidate data and modernise applications. The Ezmeral solution enables enterprises to deliver a consistent experience across teams, while maximising their data’s value through analytics and data cloud services. This enables quick cloud modernisations without vendor lock-in. Ezmeral empowers businesses with open, cloud-native, and hybrid design elements.

We, as your IT partner, can help you with the acquisition and deployment of the best containerisation solutions to suit your business needs.