Containers are standard units of software that package up code and all dependencies to run quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another. Along with using containers comes container management, which uses tools that automate the creation, deployment, destruction, and scaling of application or system containers.

In 2015 Google created Kubernetes, a platform based on internal data center management software called Borg. Kubernetes helps automate the process of running. Scheduling, scaling, and managing a group of Linux containers. Over the last few years, Kubernetes has rapidly attracted industry adoption, and as of today, it is the de facto container management technology.

Why Use Container Management

The main benefit of container management is simplified management for container host clusters. Containers are easily started, stopped, restarted, and release updates and checking health status can easily be done by IT admins and developers. container management includes orchestration and schedulers, security tools, storage, and virtual network management systems and monitoring. Container management ecosystems automate orchestration, log management, monitoring, networking, load balancing, testing, and secret management, along with other processes. Having a system to manage large containerized environments that are too vast for a human operator is more ideal.

Challenges of Container Management

The biggest drawback of container management is the complexity, particularly when it is related to open-source container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes and Apache Mesos. Installing and setting up container orchestration tools can be arduous and error-prone. In order to install and set up a container management solution, you must possess the proper skills and training for it, as you must understand the relationships between clusters of host servers and how the container network corresponds to applications and dependencies.