Understanding Linux containers

Linux containers are technologies that allow you to package and isolate applications with their entire runtime environment—all of the files necessary to run. This makes it easy to move the contained application between environments (dev, test, production, etc.) while retaining full functionality. Containers are also an important part of IT security. By building security into the container pipeline and defending your infrastructure, you can make sure your containers are reliable, scalable, and trusted.

Linux containers help reduce conflicts between your development and operations teams by separating areas of responsibility. Developers can focus on their apps and operations teams can focus on the infrastructure. And, because Linux containers are based on open source technology, you get the latest and greatest advancements as soon as they’re available. Container technologies—including Podman, Skopeo, Buildah, CRI-O, Kubernetes, and Docker—help your team simplify, speed up, and orchestrate application development and deployment.

Containers let development teams focus on their apps while operations teams focus on the infrastructure. Container orchestration is the way you manage these deployments across an enterprise.

Kubernetes is an open source platform that automates Linux container operations. It eliminates many of the manual processes involved in deploying and scaling containerized applications. Kubernetes gives you the platform to schedule and run containers on clusters of physical or virtual machines. Kubernetes architecture divides a cluster into components that work together to maintain the cluster's defined state.

Red Hat® OpenShift® 4 is an enterprise-ready Kubernetes platform. It gives developers self-service environments for building, and full-stack automated operations on any infrastructure.

You can deploy containers for a number of workloads and use cases–big to small. Containers give your team the underlying technology needed for a cloud-native development style, so you can get started with DevOps, CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous deployment), and even go serverless.

Container-based applications can work across highly-distributed cloud architectures. Application runtimes middleware provides tools to support a unified environment for development, delivery, integration, and automation.

You can also deploy integration technologies in containers, so you can easily scale how you connect apps and data, like real-time data streaming through Apache Kafka. If you're building a microservices architecture, containers are the ideal deployment unit for each microservice and the service mesh network that connects them.

When your business needs the ultimate portability across multiple environments, using containers might be the easiest decision ever.

Nothing is secure by default. Static security policies and checklists don’t scale for containers in the enterprise, so you need to know how to build better security into the container pipeline. Watch this webinar series to get expert perspectives on the need and value of security throughout the entire container application stack and lifecycle.

Red Hat does a lot of work on container technologies with the greater open source community. Our engineers help improve features, reliability, and security to make sure your containers perform and remain stable. Red Hat's also the second largest contributor to the Docker and Kubernetes codebases and works with the Open Container Initiative and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. As with all open source projects, Red Hat contributes code and improvements back to the upstream codebase—sharing advancements along the way.

Red Hat’s container-focused solutions and training offerings give you the infrastructure, platform, control, and knowledge to take advantage of everything containers have to offer.