Containers and Why They Matter
- 1. CONTAINERS AND WHY THEY MATTER How, and Why, Did Containers Come About ray_lukas@Verizon.ne t
- 2. THE STORY Avoiding Disaster in a Quickly Changing, and Unpredictable Environment is Never Easy When I was young, I enrolled in was a drivers ed class. One of the key points was to look past the front bumper as you drive. Apparently, this was not obvious to many new student drivers. Just because something is important, does not always mean it is obvious. There are good reasons for looking past the front bumper as you drive. Basically, we need to pay attention to, be aware of, and understand events around us, especially in the world of engineering, where change is both rapid and constant. In both driving a car, and in engineering, looking 6 inches ahead is not a good idea. Situational awareness grows in importance as the speed of change increases. And the rate of innovation and change will never be this slow as it is now. Perspective and understanding are important, if you want to avoid disaster in an ever changing, and often unpredictable environment. This is why understanding, and having a perspective, on where base infrastructure is heading and why containers exist is important. We need to look ahead, have situational awareness, and respond to emerging issues because reactions alone, will lead to disaster.
- 3. Why do Containers Exist A Lot Went Into Their Creation, But WHY? Why Containers Exist and The Trend of Virtualization • Before and After Virtual Machines • Before Containers Existed • Application to OS Instances • Containers and Virtual Machines Combined Can the Magic of the Modern Cloud be Ours? If you want to understand the solution It helps to understand the problem The Next Few Slides
- 4. (1) Before Virtual Machines (VM) the OS was bound to a specific hardware platform. App 1 -> OS X -> Server 1 hardware type App 2 -> OS Y -> Server 2 hardware type App 3 -> OS Z -> Server 3 hardware type Before and After Virtual Machines Running the OS on Any Hardware is a Huge Step Forwa This is the general idea for the most part. Specialized hardware may not be virtualized (2) After VMs, any OS can run on any Platform. Therefor I could standardize my enterprise on one hardware platform which would remove a layer of vendor lock-in and complexity (support contracts, etc.).
- 5. While we are no longer bound to the hardware that an application can run on, our applications are still bound to the operating system, and sometimes the version of the OS. Somehow this does not feel like a much of a simplification, let alone a win. If only we could break the binding between applications and their respective operating systems. But it wait, it gets even worse in real life…… Before Containers Existed My Application is Still Bound to the OS
- 6. The larger burden is not solved by virtualizing the hardware. OS binding causes more pain than hardware binding. Purchased apps, and in- house apps, generally need to be deployed across multiple instances which generally causes a real mess Breaking this lockup will yield huge benefits. If only the apps didn’t care about the OS that they ran on, but how? A Simple Scenario, Oh My, What a Mess Application to OS Instances
- 7. Containers virtualize the Operating System. Combining Container Technology and Virtual Machines allows applications to be openly built, deployed, and managed anywhere in our enterprise. Now if I could just find a way to automagically manage this infrastructure.. But Wait, There Is … Built and Deployed Anywhere Containers and Virtual Machines Combined
- 8. Google has one of the largest worldwide distributed networks in the world and is one of the largest computer manufactures on the planet. How did they do it? Containers can be Orchestrated through KubernetesAutomation and Agility Kubernetes, a technology invented by, and open sourced by, Google will allow Aetna to establish a distributed, fault tolerant, and elastic infrastructure.
- 9. REVIEW Containers and their Orchestration through Kubernetes simples our infrastructure • Hardware since containers can run on Virtual Machines and Bare Metal • Software build and deployment since we are no longer bound to a particular OS • Management of our infrastructure through automation with Kubernetes 5 Minute Time for a Random Thought Intermission - Chat on the Previous Topics Up Next The Way of Containerization McLean: Inventor of the Shipping Containers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcom_McLean
- 10. RedHat OpenShiftPlatform Goals Simplification of infrastructure and deployment of services Establishing a Fault Tolerance Distributed Enterprise through automation and agility PolyGlot: Addresses the need to support multiple technology factions (Java, .Net, and IIB)
- 11. The Flow of the Containerization ProcessThe Way of Containerization This is the overall flow of a well thought out containerization methodology, which I have developed. My advice would be to establish an Advisory Board to facilitate and amend this process as needed.
- 12. The Flow of Containerization and the Process TemplatesThe Way of Containerization These are the Template which I have developed to help companies Containerize new and existing services. This is a different, and new, paradigm. Simply pointing a your existing services into the container mechanisms will not work. A different way of thinking is required. These templates provide such an environment.
- 13. What is the Flow that Happens When We Create a ContainerDEV-SEC-OPS PIPE PROCESS FLOW Much of our existing tools are still in place. Containers are built on Base Images (Base Image 1 in this example) which are provided by outside vendors (RedHat, IBM, or Docker). Jenkins, for Java, is the driving force. IIB has its own building services, and soon Aetna will be able to containerize Microsoft based services. The Docker File holds settings that describe how we wish to build our Container.
- 14. DEV-SEC-OPS PIPE PROCESS FLOW In containers your company should maintain a registry of Base Images as well as Docker images which have been built. In addition a local Vault should be maintained which will hold secrets (keys, etc.) used to access secure information (databases, services, etc.) The preferred mechanism is to have one container deployable across all instances (Dev, QA, Staging, and Prod) which accesses the Vault at runtime, as opposed to embedding these resources into multiple images, one for each instance. What is the Flow that Happens When We Create a Container
- 15. The Flow of the Process and Advisory Board The Advisory Board This is the overall flow of my containerization methodology I can help you establish an Advisory Board to facilitate, and amend your containerization process as needed. The Advisory Board should be your go to Resource for Containers and Microservice Efforts.
- 16. Core Benefits Revie wContainers are the next logical path in the virtualization trend Just as Virtual Machines decoupled the Operating System from the hardware, container technology decouples applications from the Operating System Using these technologies reduces complexity and allows for fully automated build, and deployment applications and services into an elastic fault tolerant distributed enterprise I am presenting and developed a process for containerizing new and existing applications for a successful outcome My preferred and selected vendor is, RedHat’s OpenShift, and established an Advisors Board which will maintain the container processes and help in the containerization efforts This is not simply a Nice to Have, Cool technology just as Virtual Machines where not a fade years ago. This will become the standard for all solutions. These are the core foundations used to build elastic fault tolerant distributed enterprises Reduced Cost of Infrastructure Continuous Integration and Deployment Improved Security Immutable Infrastructure