Technology is consistently changing, and businesses that fail to adapt risk being left behind. Some of the transformative shifts prior to now decade has been the rise of containerization, a technology that guarantees increased agility, scalability and efficiency.
But what exactly are containers, and the way has the technology been positioned to revolutionize the digital landscape?
Google’s Spencer Bischof and Gari Singh discuss GKE and modern containerization.
“Traditionally prior to now, we’d have things like large servers; then it matured, and we began virtualizing those machines because nobody has all of the space to have one single server,” said Spencer Bischof (pictured, left), product manager of GKE at Google LLC. “A pair of oldsters at Google, Red Hat and others said, ‘What happens if we made something smaller, compact and we could stuff 1000’s of those containers, mini servers right into a virtual environment?’ That’s what a container is.”
Bischof and Gari Singh (right), product manager of Google Cloud at Google, spoke with theCUBE’s Savannah Peterson for the “Google Cloud: Passport to Containers” interview series, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed GKE and the evolution of containers into crucial platforms for developing, deploying and managing applications in a seamless, secure and performant manner. (* Disclosure below.)
Today’s use cases for containers span app development and deployment
The evolution of containers has largely followed that of computing itself. Traditionally, applications were deployed on large, physical servers. Today, containers are lightweight, self-contained packages that include all the things an application must run, including code, runtime, system tools, system libraries and settings. Which means a containerized application can run consistently across different environments, from development to production, without the compatibility issues that always arise with traditional deployments.
“Should you start fascinated with source containers from that development perspective, you may package up your entire app and all its dependencies independent of the host operating system,” Singh said. “Containers have been around for a very long time, but Docker popularized them by making them loads easier to make use of. I feel it started off on the event side after which moved on to the deployment side.”
On the event side, containers simplify managing dependencies, ensuring that applications run consistently whatever the underlying infrastructure. For instance, developers can package their applications with specific versions of programming languages and libraries, eliminating conflicts and streamlining the event process.
Beyond development, containers excel at deploying stateless applications, similar to web servers and APIs. Their lightweight nature and scalability make them ideal for running multiple instances of an application, allowing businesses to simply handle fluctuating workloads. While initial adoption focused on these simpler cases, the technology has evolved to support complex workloads, including machine learning and stateful applications, Singh added.
“The best one is stateless applications,” he said. “You package up any web application, an online server, Nginx, a Go application … you simply wish to package it up; it’s lightweight, and you must run multiple of them that may scale up and down. I feel those are the simplest use cases to start out with. But, obviously, we have now all the things from running ML workloads today to stateful apps.”
Navigating the usually complex containerization journey
While the advantages of containerization are clear, the adoption journey will be complex. Google Kubernetes Engine simplifies the orchestration and management of containers. Google Cloud offers a comprehensive suite of tools, including Cloud Construct for constructing containers and Cloud Run for serverless deployments, to support businesses throughout their container journey.
“Should you just wish to start with Kubernetes, something that’s based on Kubernetes, go start there,” Bischof said. “Now, you’re not necessarily sure how you must spin up a GKE cluster — we have now complete walkthroughs and guides. Just follow one of the best practice inbuilt using something like Autopilot. You don’t have to worry about understanding how the networking works, due to complexity of the systems and the complexity of the storage.”
While there’s a learning curve, especially with Kubernetes, the goal is to simplify the method and break down the journey into manageable steps. By specializing in core principles and providing clear guidance, Google Cloud goals to demystify containerization and make it accessible to a wider audience. Sanity Inc., for instance, has leveraged GKE to streamline structured content delivery to the digital services and products that developers and content creators depend on.
“You’re orchestrating all of that, and we’re handling all that for you,” Singh said. “You wish three zones — here’s where your node pools are. Or you would have built all of it yourself. I feel in the event you start to elucidate to people these constructing block pieces of how what you’ll’ve traditionally done can map into this world, I feel there’d be a greater mutual understanding and other people is likely to be less scared and apprehensive.”
Hearken to Singh discuss the past, present and way forward for GKE.
Here’s the whole video interview, a part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of the “Google Cloud: Passport to Containers” interview series:
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “Google Cloud: Passport to Containers” series. Neither Google Cloud, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
Photo: SiliconANGLE
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