Containers
Container Adoption Continues to Pick Up Speed
For solution providers, the rise of containers will affect everything from the number of servers firms need to the demand for tools to manage containers.
Container Technology
78% of respondents are using or planning to use Docker, 24% are opting for Linux containerization technology in the form of LXC and 16% said they are planning to use rkt as an alternative to Docker containers.
Containers Usage
86% are using containers for development and 64% for testing. Surprisingly, 40% report they are using containers in production environments.
Docker Deployment
The scope of container usage spans from one to 10 hosts (27%), to 11 to 50 hosts (29%), to more than 250 hosts (21%).
Where Containers Run
Nearly half (46%) said they plan to run containers on EC2 Amazon Linux, while 45% use or plan to use Ubuntu/Debian. Roughly a quarter selected CentOS and RedHat Enterprise Linux.
Container Adoption Rates
Among respondents who are not already using containers, more than 80% intend to adopt containers; 11% plan to adopt containers within the next three months and 35% plan to adopt them within the next six months.
Shifting to Docker in Production Environments
More than half (53%) said they intend to adopt containers in production within the next six to 12 months.
Need for Deployment Speed
85% said the main driver for moving to a containerized infrastructure is that containers make it faster and easier to deploy applications. More than six in 10 (62%) cited flexibility in deployment.
A Desire for Isolation
54% cited better isolation as another reason for choosing containers. Containers are designed to isolate processes by encapsulating dependencies. Each container runs on a shared host OS but is isolated from the OS and any other containers running on the same host OS.
Moving Toward Microservices
48% of the respondents indicated that a desire to move to a microservices architecture was a motivating factor in their decision to adopt containers.
The Cost Factor
30% said cost was a motivating factor in adopting containers. Containers help drive significant gains in IT infrastructure utilization.
Barriers to Adoption
56% said the biggest barrier to moving to a containerized infrastructure is the technology’s maturity; 50% indicated that orchestration is a challenge when adopting containers, while 46% said monitoring and 40% said automation posed additional barriers to adoption.