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Containerization is one of the biggest trends in cloud computing today. In 2019, nearly 40 percent of cloud users expressed their interest in “expanding the use of containers” at their organizations. These app environments allow their users to host various apps and other services separate from other environments.

As organizations’ IT systems grow, containerization provides them with the tools needed to incorporate new features and expand their functionalities. Many users employ containers in tandem with virtualization to address their most pressing challenges with cloud-based app management in the cloud.

There are so many reasons to consider deploying containers at your own organization. From security to flexibility, here are some of the biggest benefits of containerization:

1. They are highly scalable.

Once you deploy containers, you aren’t limited to the tools that you’ve already deployed. With containerization, you always have the option of scaling your services horizontally.

You can incorporate containers that are identical to the ones already in use, thereby scaling out your clusters. This gives you the ability to build upon the capabilities of existing applications without compromising their underlying infrastructure. For instance, you can scale containers in specific app components, so you won’t have to make any changes to their front-end servers.

Moreover, you aren’t required to use the containers you deploy 24/7. Smart scaling gives you the freedom to use only the containers you need at any given time.

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2. They can be isolated from one another.

Containers may operate within the same server, but they are designed not to interact. As such, apps will behave independently if they operate within different containers. Should an app go offline, the containers that the app uses won’t have any issues of their own.

Herein lies an additional benefit of containerization: increased app security. Even if hackers gain access to one container, they still won’t have access to any of your other containers. Internally, you can provide your team with access to some containers and not others. This prevents any of your information from becoming compromised.

You can also use containerization to virtualize resources such as memory and CPU. As such, your development team will be able to isolate and view your organization’s operating system separately from the other applications you use.

3. They are consistent.

Since containers are isolated from one another, you can ensure consistency across your entire computing environment. For instance, your development team can use containerization to incorporate software dependencies within each application. These requirements will stay with your apps throughout the development process.

When your developers ultimately deploy these apps, their dependencies will remain the same regardless of location. This level of consistency expedites the development process by eliminating the need to address issues in various deployment environments. More importantly, it ensures that your apps will run consistently no matter where they are located.

4. They do not consume many resources.

With containerization, you can easily scale your resources without needing to invest in additional on-site servers. This not only cuts down on physical resources, but also allows your organization to save money. Containers are also capable of operating within your existing OS. That means you won’t need to build and deploy another system to host them. 

In terms of computing resources, containers consume no more than a few hundred megabytes, whereas traditional virtual machines need many gigabytes to run. As such, you can save on server space by operating your containers within the same server.

5. They can be provisioned in an instant.

Unlike other resources, containers don’t need to boot via your operating system. As such, you don’t need to waste time waiting to spin up instances as you do with virtual machines. You can easily create new containers or replicate existing ones within a few seconds.

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You are even capable of destroying containers in an instant, so you don’t need to maintain ones you no longer need. Altogether, this allows your organization to respond much more quickly to spikes in traffic and scale back your containers once demand wanes.

6. You can run them anywhere.

Containers create a neat package that holds your applications and all they need to operate. This makes them platform-agnostic, which allows you to run your apps within any OS and on any device.

As such, your team can develop apps on their desktops and then easily migrate them to the cloud for testing. With such a high level of portability, containers never run into problems with platform integration and other computing issues that would otherwise disrupt their activity.

7. They expedite DevOps.

Utilizing containers helps expedite the app development process. With fewer inconsistences in the app environment, your DevOps team will have far fewer bugs and other complications to rectify. This also allows them to test apps in a myriad of environments without needing to worry about unforeseen variables affecting their functionality.

In addition, containers allow developers to borrow existing code from apps and use it during the development of new platforms. When they are updating apps, they can make basic changes to configuration files and launch new containers as needed. On the whole, containers enable your development team to do more with your apps in far less time.