Container platforms have become the go-to solution for businesses that want to scale fast, and at reasonable cost. Their lightweight status and flexibility are the key features that enable container platforms to adapt to the components, nodes, and aspects of the organization’s IT structure. Their main attraction is allowing various applications within the IT system to operate independently, run at each own’s programmed speed, and tap separately into the company’s resources — while managed as a whole and supervised by the IT in one platform.

While the container platform market is apparently getting crowded, three major products have gotten consistently good reviews and are enjoying increased interest and engagement from the community of users and customers.

• Docker 1.12.  Customers, especially those who are new to container platforms, identify the solution with Docker, which is the reputed pioneer in the industry. Docker’s release of Docker 1.12 is said to raise the standard of usability to another level simply because it makes possible the deployment of complex multiple applications on multiple machines. Docker units perform independently as clusters, fulfilling certain tasks and processes, while anchored on one Docker host.

Docker’s own blog describes this breakthrough in one word: orchestration. While other products or brands deploy different platforms on one operating host, Docker 1.12 deploys multi-container apps on many machines. It makes container orchestration easier, faster, more resilient, and safer.

Docker 1.12 has also been built to be adaptable, quickly integrating into the IT system with no application downtime. Users can also apply backward compatibility, which means using only the features of Docker 1.12 they deem relevant to their structure and processes. Making these features optional also lifts the burden of cost and unneeded memory storage from the user.

• The BlueData EPIC 2.0, the latest software container product offered by BlueData, appeals to business organizations because its deployment strategy is flexible compared to most container platforms. IT managers and developers can install EPIC 2.0 on bare-metal boxes or virtual machine environments. It is also accessible and downloadable in one click at the Apple store.

EPIC 2.0 accelerates scaling and application development especially in processes involving Big Data. It can be run to make more simple and efficient the processing of Big Data clusters, making deployment of apps like Hadoop and Spark equally faster and more adept.

The BlueData site further mentions that organizations that use Spark can find plenty to work with in EPIC 2.0. Spark’s Apache Zeppelin, which is used to explore and visualize data, can easily be integrated with EPIC 2.0, and its functions and phases strongly supported. EPIC 2.0 has self-service clusters that can speed up Spark’s data analysis. These benefits will allow organizations that use Spark to make setting up EPIC 2.0 less complicated and user-friendly.

• Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform: Red Hat designed its OpenShift Container Platform to accommodate the market’s desire for two things as far as their use of platforms were concerned. The first was a holistic platform that will help them manage their apps from development to production. The second was to facilitate easy integration of the container platform into the organization’s respective cloud computing system.

Red Hat’s OpenShift Platform is a sweeping answer to that wish list and provides the users with added benefits. One of them is freeing the developers and other members of their team from the more time-consuming technical functions to allow them to focus on more creative tasks. No work or task is overlooked because the OpenShift platform gives visibility to the IT manager. This visibility lays bare the system to his monitoring, from app layer, OS, virtualization, to container layer.

Watch the video below to know what Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform can do for you.

Learning about these three products is a good way to start your business’ process into possibly integrating container platforms. Check how their specs fit into your systems, and scrutinize how their services help boost your agility. Select the best match and it should accelerate the development of your apps and your race into the digital business race.

REFERENCES:

BlueData Updates EPIC to Simplify BigData Deployments

Docker 1.12:  Now with Built-in Orchestration!

Introducing Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform