Managing Virtual Containers

Four ways the container ecosystem will evolve in 2018

The container market constantly evolves, as new technologies and uses emerge. See what the new year will bring with these four container predictions around IoT, Windows and more. Continue Reading

PKS complements VMware's cloud-native application portfolio

Pivotal Container Service takes a DevOps-oriented approach to containers and improves VMware's cloud-native application strategy by adding Kubernetes support to vSphere. Continue Reading

Container OS options abound: Make the right selection

There is an assortment of OSes that support containerized applications, so go into the decision with a set of wants, needs and must-avoids. Continue Reading

Persistent data storage in containerized environments

The most significant challenge to the rise of containerized applications is quickly and easily providing enterprise-class persistent storage for containers. Continue Reading

Know how container host machine resources get used?

What's a container's resource limit? How do they scale? What OS does a host machine need? Answer 10 questions to prove your container deployment knowledge. Continue Reading

Docker-supported OS list expands with Enterprise Edition update

Docker Enterprise Edition fired back at Kubernetes with new support for mixed clusters and applications, as well as advanced security features that target large enterprises. Continue Reading

The art of managing IT risk is never quite mastered

Risks abound, and no amount of preparation or caution will eliminate them entirely from our lives. This is as true now as it was in the past, and it likely will remain true in the future.

While technology enables us all to work more effectively and productively, the necessity of managing IT risk remains. Risk follows wherever we go -- from the data center to the cloud, from virtualized workloads to containers. Smart IT organizations are continuously assessing threats and then devising ways to minimize them. That's the goal, at least.

This issue of Modern Infrastructure examines some of the current approaches to managing IT risk, from maintaining security to handling costs.

In our cover story, TechTarget's Beth Pariseau writes about the particular challenges of container security. IT shops have been reluctant to put containers in production in large part because of the uncertainty about how secure they might be. Updates from Docker and more disciplined app development practices are making containers less risky, Pariseau writes. And there's reason to think that containers could be even more secure than VMs.

Getting comfortable with containers is a process not unlike how technology professionals learned how to safely use cloud services. It takes some time and effort, but managing IT risk can bring exciting and powerful new tools safely into the fold.

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Securing containers keeps IT jumping through hoops

Container isolation doesn't cut it in production. Instead, beef up security from the infrastructure to the application code, and be prepared to use some new tools to do it. Continue Reading

When to use Docker alternatives rkt and LXD

Docker can't meet the needs of every IT scenario. LXD and CoreOS rkt are additional container formats to try out when Docker doesn't make sense. Continue Reading

Note these ops issues before you deploy with Docker containers

Docker regularly updates its containerization offering, but it's not click-to-deploy ready for production. Ops professionals should acknowledge these points before deploying Docker containers. Continue Reading

DevOps lab: Build Vagrant VMs to learn immutable infrastructure

This article is part of a series to help IT ops professionals learn DevOps by building a home lab. In this first step, a cluster of Vagrant VMs represents immutable infrastructure. Continue Reading

Learn DevOps techniques and tools in this home lab setup

This DevOps lab uses Linux VMs and Docker containers to teach administrators the basics of immutable infrastructure, configuration automation and other modern IT concepts. Continue Reading

LinuxKit, Moby push developers toward collaborative systems

Docker offers two new projects: a toolkit for building secure, lean and portable Linux subsystems and a way for developers to collaborate on interchangeable components. Continue Reading

How well do you know Docker components and services?

With Docker containers moving into more enterprise IT shops, it's imperative to grasp how the technology works. Test your knowledge of Docker components and services with this quiz. Continue Reading

Shipyard floats a Docker GUI for easier container management

Deploying new Docker images is the easy part; managing and reporting on those instances is tricky. IT teams can use the Shipyard GUI to stop, start, orchestrate and manage Docker. Continue Reading

Set up Docker container networking for real production workloads

A technology as old as data centers -- networking -- threatens to derail the next new thing. Smart networking choices make Docker container deployments functional and organized. Continue Reading

The future of containerization goes more abstract

Containers have benefits over VMs in the data center, but the future of containerization is broader than that. Continue Reading

Secure Docker on Linux or Windows platforms

With Docker appearing in businesses of all shapes and sizes, security is a concern for many IT admins. Here's how to secure Docker on the container or the host machine. Continue Reading

The real future of IT infrastructure lies in abstraction

Future IT infrastructure will be so abstracted from the applications using it that, while always a misnomer, serverless computing will be a reality. Continue Reading

Modern open source systems management

The open source sector abounds with configuration management, monitoring and analytics, CI/CD tools and more to arm IT teams against failure in complex apps and infrastructure. Continue Reading

DevOps automation boosts Rosetta Stone's app delivery

The language learning company uses multiple tools to make its DevOps environment run smoothly, but Docker has been the key to streamlining application releases. Continue Reading

Container orchestration for a new breed of IT

PaaS offerings such as Heroku, RedHat OpenShift and Cloud Foundry have always used containers under the covers, but as containers move toward production use outside of PaaS in the cloud, they're being deployed in clusters of server infrastructure that are orchestrated to automate the deployment of containers. So is container orchestration right for IT? Well, that depends.

Beth Pariseau's feature this month, 'A New Day for PaaS' analyzes the way IT views PaaS, and how it's evolving. On the other hand, IT pros must dish out reality every once in a while to the business side, and often 'live on the edge' according to Alan Earls. But life on the edge can be dangerous, and it isn't just a figurative turn of phrase anymore, it's a physical location.

Both these stories, and much more, including columns from Bob Plankers and Mike Matchett, and what enterprise IT is thinking about VMware in the May issue of Modern Infrastructure.

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