3. Docker Delivers Innovation to Container Strategy

By Rod Knowles

So, what exactly is Docker? Docker is an engine that enables any application to be encapsulated as a lightweight, portable, self-contained entity or, as they’re more infamously known as, containers – an approach we discussed in the previous post. It also allows for the standardization of packaging applications and all of their dependencies for rapid development and deployment.

Employing Docker enables DevOps and IT organizations to provide continuous integration and deployment. This gives developers the power to not only build code but, to test their code in any environment type and as often as possible to catch bugs early in the development life cycle. With Docker, development teams can perform 13 times more software releases than what they now are achieving and cut the time needed to determine and resolve issues.

Earlier this year, I attended HPE’s Discover, an annual customer conference in Las Vegas, NV. Though most of my trip is eluding me at this time, I do remember two things: feeling like I was the star of a bad crossover movie between Groundhog Day and The Hangover and the announcement of the strategic alliance between HPE and Docker. 

Yes, it was like a marriage made in heaven, more memorable and electrifying than Cory and Topenga, Chandler and Monica, or Howard and Bernadette. I mean really, the number one leader in worldwide server shipments, HPE, teaming up with the leader in containerization, Docker. 

Through a joint worldwide enterprise agreement covering sales, engineering, go-to-market, support, services and knowledge sharing, HPE and Docker are collaborating to help customers transform and revolutionize their data centers to benefit from a more agile development environment. At the core is HPE’s Docker-ready server program, which ensures that HPE servers are bundled with Docker engine and support. This will enable customers to build distributed applications that are portable across any infrastructure. 

By combining the strength of the leading cloud infrastructure provider and the leader in containerization, HPE and Docker will deliver infrastructure solutions and an application portfolio, fully supported by HPE. By 2018, more than 50 percent of new workloads will be deployed into containers in at least one stage of the application life cycle. The joint HPE and Docker alliance will deliver unique and value-added solutions and services including but not limited to: Docker-ready HPE servers, Docker-ready Converged and Composable HPE systems, enterprise-grade consulting services and 24x7 Docker support. 

With up to 90 percent of IT budgets being consumed by app testing, configuration and distribution, businesses need a better way to support hundreds of daily builds using a continuous deployment/integrated DevOps model. The partnership between HPE and Docker provides just that.

I know by now, most of you must be wondering how do I get started with this container thingy so I can stay ahead of my competitors and bring ideas to fruition at the speed of light. The answer is ingenuous. Get in touch with an HPE Platinum Partner. 

Not just any partner, but one who values your business, employees, customers and your success just as much as you do. Convergent Technologies Group is one of a few exclusive HPE Platinum Partners that can help you and your IT organization transform to a hybrid infrastructure. 

Together with HPE, CTG has the resources and expertise to get you started today on changing the way you turn ideas into world-class applications and services for your customers. Whether you’re looking for an enterprise-class infrastructure, ready-to-run containerized applications or assistance in designing and implementing your DevOps strategy, we’re your one-stop call.

Rod Knowles is a solution architect with Convergent Technologies Group.

2. Ease Pressures on Your DevOps Environment

By Rod Knowles

DevOps is the transformational effort to create harmony and productivity between development and IT operations teams, a topic we started to explore in our last post. 

The adaption in creating DevOps does not come without its own challenges. The lack of agility/portability and a plethora of operational inefficiencies usually leads to oppressed productivity, a loss of the competitive edge and, more importantly, unhappy developers. Nobody – and I mean nobody – wants unhappy developers. (It’s almost as bad as taking away their beer and Xbox controller.)

Server virtualization is the ability to run multiple operating system images – at the same time, on the same hardware. Server virtualization utilizes a software layer called the hypervisor. It is this hypervisor that emulates the underlying hardware, which includes (but is not limited to) the CPU, memory, network and I/O. While the performance of this virtual operating system usually isn’t equal to the performance of running on true hardware (though I have seen some applications and systems perform better when virtualized), this does allow for greater flexibility, control and reduced operating costs. 

You’ll find two types of hypervisors in use today:

•  Type 1 hypervisors run on the host system hardware.They control the hardware resources and manage the guest operating system. Those include VMWare ESXi, Citrix XenServer and Micrsoft Hyper-V.
• Type 2 hypervisors run within a formal operating system, usually LINUX, Windows or MacOS. This type of hypervisor runs as a distinct second layer while the operating system runs as a third layer just above the hardware. Some of those VMWare Fusion, Virtual Box and Parallels.

Containerization is the ability to encapsulate an application in a container within its own operating system. Containers are more streamlined and lightweight than VMs so you may be able to run six to eight times as many containers as VMs on the exact same hardware – which can help you reduce capital and operational costs. 

Containers include the application and all its dependencies - but they share the OS kernel with other containers. They run as an isolated process in user space on the host operating system. Virtual machines include the application and all of its dependencies, as well as an entire guest operating system ­­­– which could be hundreds of GBs in size. 

You’ll find several distinct advantages to using both containers and/or virtual machines. Containers are maintained at the application level, use less storage, memory and compute, have a considerable faster boot time, run on any infrastructure (cloud, physical and virtual) and require fewer OS instances to maintain so you’ll find lower OPEX and CAPEX costs. Virtualization allows for a single physical server to run and behave like many virtual servers and encompasses everything that is on a physical machine, allowing it to be flexible. It’s mature and established, resulting in a vast knowledge base of use cases, solutions and support, can run a wider range of operating systems and results in lower infrastructure costs. 

Using containers comes with disadvantages as well. Container technologies are advancing extremely fast. At times, it’s hard to know which technology you should us and you might end up purchasing from a less-established vendor. In addition, there are some perceived security concerns with running applications in containers - specifically around kernel exploits, DoS attacks from other containers, container breakouts and poisoned images downloaded from the internet. Virtual machines are not free from having their own set of drawbacks as well. They are much slower to share, require more OS licenses to purchase, are hard at times to size appropriately and require more OS patching and time to maintain. 

Containerization is moving forward fast. More applications are becoming containerized, which creates thousands of container images to validate, scan for vulnerabilities and deploy.Orchestration mechanisms like Docker Swarm, which allows for a pool of Docker hosts to be turned into a virtual Docker host, are becoming more available as well. Cloud-native development platforms like Docker Datacenter and HPE Helion Cloud Native Application Platform are becoming increasingly popular. They allow for developers and IT operations to collaborate more efficiently bringing security, policy, and controls to the application life cycle without sacrificing agility or portability.

Next time, we'll dig a little deeper into one of the hottest container resources in the market today.

Rod Knowles is a solution architect with Convergent Technologies Group.

1. Look Around: The Idea Economy Is Here

By Rod Knowles

Several weeks ago, as I was engulfed in watching yet another exhausting and ludicrous presidential debate, I was wondering why I wasn’t watching re-runs of “Beverly Hills 90210.”

My kids, on the other hand, were clueless. They were involved in a lengthy, unfathomable and meaningless conversation. If you have kids, then you already know they weren’t actually talking to each other – they were communicating through their mobile devices. They successfully had a 90-minute conversation without any dialogue, whatsoever. The only people talking in the room were Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, which sounded to me more like Mrs. Donovan – Charlie Brown’s teacher.

It was then that it became apparent that my kids might never actually talk to each other, as long as brilliant minds continue creating mobile interaction applications. SnapChat, Twitter, TeleGram and Wickr are just a few that they use. My children relentlessly add and remove applications faster than anything I have ever witnessed. They also don’t seem to have any patience in dealing with applications that are slow, buggy and/or just don’t work. Whether it be their iPhones, tablets, laptops, whatever, it really doesn’t matter, they are consistently looking for the latest, cool app they can use and share with their circle of friends.

It’s here, the Idea Economy. 

Some experts would say that change is coming; I believe it’s already here. Businesses must evolve and adapt, or they will perish similar to 8-track tapes and the bubble gum that used to come in my Topps baseball card pack. 

Some businesses are already adapting. They have realized that its not enough to just take an idea and turn it into a product or service: They must be faster than their competition to be successful. 

Others still face development and IT operational challenges. The inability to develop, secure, deploy, monitor and maintain a quality application is becoming more difficult as consumers want things faster. Time is the biggest enemy companies face today. 

Moving faster and staying ahead of the competition necessitates several changes to traditional IT organizations:

• Instituting practices that emphasize collaboration and communication between developers and other IT professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes (DevOps).
•  Efficiently scaling and managing resources while ensuring industry-leading availability and redundancy through the use of server virtualization technology.
• Increasing the frequency of software releases through continuous integration and continuous deployment while reducing operational and capital expenditures by containerizing your applications.

Today, almost all businesses are software companies. Applications, including mobile, are becoming more critical for almost any business to succeed and stay ahead of its competitors. If your application fails, so does your business. 

But what does that mean in your day-to-day world? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog.

Rod Knowles is a solutions architect at Convergent Technologies Group.