As enterprises continue to become interested in Docker; the types of features we have access to and the available third party integrations become more and more important. You may have previously seen this topic covered on 24×7 IT Connection by Melissa Palmer. In this post she explains what Docker is and why we care. More specifically she explains in this article what Docker is and why we should be interested. She states that “Docker is an OpenSource application environment. It uses a concept called containers, which can run on top of any operating system, any hypervisor, or any hardware.”
Just think about the possibilities with this type of technology! To me, I feel we are watching the evolution of containerization of data unfold. As new developments and features become available in the space we are starting to see the flexibility that organizations need being strongly considering moving into this space.
Strategic Thoughts
This evolution is coming from enhancements to the native product set, but also interest from 3rd parties that see the value and are taking containers to the next level. Released today, a company called StorageOS now has an offering that allows us as administrators to use any local storage or in the cloud (Azure, AWS, etc) to deliver your data to your users. When I think of this I image this has the potential to be great!
Benefits
Data Loss Prevention – Traditionally with DevOps when a container is rebooted your changes to the base configuration become lost. When leveraging StorageOS this is no longer an issue. In this case you will maintain a database that will keep the data that you were working on. This will allow you to continue where you left off even after a reboot.
Security – Organizational security requirements are always changing, and understanding a products options for security is very important. This product leverages SSL encryption for interface connectivity between Docker and your storage. Also including options to encrypt the storage which is a huge value add to any organization looking into this product. Especially relevant when we are storing data in the cloud where we have the option to have our data in a shared space with other organizations.
Lightweight and Simple – To get started this product leverages a plugin at the Docker cluster level on the UNIX flavor of your choice. The lightweight plugin can then be used to present the volumes to Docker.
Concluding Thoughts
This type of technology has the potential to help with security, and adds features to your storage configuration that otherwise wouldn’t be available to your Docker configuration. Allowing for the flexibility required for organizations moving their workloads into the containerization space.
As for StorageOS, it seems they are changing the possibilities within use of containers creating a product option that is more suitable for the enterprise.
Cheers!