The Tech Tale Of Development And Containers
Read this article to know how containerization with Docker containers has revolutionized the development industry. Know the advantages that this technology has brought along with why professionals are banking on this technology to achieve highly-scalable architectures.
The development process is no longer a stand-alone space. In order for companies to grow, stay competitive, and be as successful as possible, development and operations need to be synergized. This is the new DevOps and future of the modern software lifecycle.
This has led to a rise in containers. Docker containers specifically have become popular among developers and engineers. Simply due to the multiple benefits using containers serves up for DevOps. Let's take a closer look at containerized applications, how to use them for greater DevOps efficiency, and the building and deployment processes.
How Container Applications Work In DevOps
If a software application is going to utilize containers, a few important steps need to be followed during the development process to build and deploy those containers. Here is a common lifecycle for an application using containers:
You can see that every time a new version needs to be deployed, a new container image needs to be built and deployed as well. Then stored using a private docker registry. Knowing what is a private docker registry, as explained by jfrog.com, is important when examining the whole lifecycle of a containerized app.Deploying A Container Image For Efficient Software Development
Knowing the process of deploying a container image is also important for DevOps in the realm of containerized applications. First we need to look at container clusters and the software that supports them, called container orchestrator.
One of the biggest benefits of containerized apps is that they are lightweight. They don't have the clunky attributes the virtual machine alternative sadly provides. You want app deployment to be scalable and portable with a high access level.
The container orchestrator will handle deploying the images to their designated cluster. This means grabbing the needed container images from your private container registry for provision. This could be ten containers, or we could be talking about thousands for one cluster.
Why is this important? You will need to have a specific DevOps team in place for building container images, provision them, and managing the containers throughout the entire process. This could be why more than half of all businesses are looking at expanding their development teams.Importance Of Building, Publishing, And Deploying Container Images
Using containers can be very valuable to your development team. Containers can directly affect operations through more efficient processes. This makes your overall DevOps stronger, and more cost-effective.
Building containers is critical to development environments. For instance, if the blueprint changes, the rebuild of the container is a must. If it's not done, only code will be pushed into the development environment. This is a clear call to action for DevOps to utilize scripts and automation for container images when it comes to app deployment changes.
Deploying container images is another vital step. As we previously touched on above, deploying the containers to a cluster is important. Your container orchestrator will be responsible for this task. It's a bit complex since the orchestrator needs to serve up the requirements around defining rules like:
A qualified orchestrator can handle these complex needs, allowing other members of the DevOps team to work on other tasks, like deployment instructions. For example, utilizing Jenkins inside a Docker container could be very useful for multiple CI/CD environments for different software projects.
"The intention of DevOps is to create better-quality software more quickly and with more reliability, while inviting greater communication and collaboration between teams," Samarpit Tuli explained in a DZone article.Wrapping Up
There are definitely benefits for DevOps to use containerized applications. It helps developers and operations to synergize, continuing to increase efficiency in application architecture and the wider area of DevOps. The innovative technology and tools available to development teams will continue, and having the latest technology and tools can enhance the efficiency of software development.
Having your thumb on the pulse of DevOps tools in today's rapidly changing digital era can give the development team and company a competitive edge. From building containerized applications to deployment, using container images and private docker registry can be worthwhile. Do you have a unique story about development and containers? We want to hear from you.
