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Azure Containers Explained
Azure Containers Explained

Azure Containers Explained: Leverage Azure container technologies for effective application migration and deployment

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Profile Icon Wesley Haakman Profile Icon Richard Hooper
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Wesley Haakman Profile Icon Richard Hooper
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Paperback Mar 2023 278 pages 1st Edition
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Azure Containers Explained

Azure Containers – Pleased to Meet You

Whether you have been working with containers for years, are just getting started, or are just interested in what they have to offer in Azure, then this book is for you.

Microsoft Azure gives you a variety of options when it comes to using containers, each with its own traits, benefits, and challenges. When reading this chapter, you will get a refresher on containers and their benefits, what technologies are available to run them on Microsoft Azure, and finally, what use cases are the best fit for these different platforms. This chapter is a primer for the chapters to come and should provide you with enough background information to follow the in-depth discussion of these technologies later on.

In this chapter, we’re going to cover the following main topics:

  • Understanding containers and their benefits
  • Getting to know containers in the Azure landscape
  • Exploring technologies and use cases

Understanding containers and their benefits

Virtualization has been around for a long time, and we can go as far as to say that it is the duct tape that holds infrastructures together. Different platforms provided different features (think of VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM) but all had the same goal: hardware virtualization. We can now run multiple operating systems on a single piece of hardware, isolating them from each other and minimizing overhead. We got used to that. However, it did not answer all the questions or resolve the challenges we had. The world wanted to minimize overhead even more, add more flexibility, and have an answer to the comment, it worked on my machine!

Containers may have been around for much longer than traditional hardware virtualization in different forms, such as the Unix chroot system and FreeBSD Jails, but only became really popular in their current form with the introduction of Docker and the Open Container Initiative (OCI). The OCI was founded by Docker and other leaders in the container ecosystem in June 2015. It is an open source specification to ensure container images can work across multiple container runtimes.

Container technology these days is essentially what we would call operating system virtualization, where we package code, libraries, and the runtime into a container image and run it on top of an operating system, using a container engine such as Docker. To make a comparison with hardware virtualization, you can say that the container engine is the hypervisor for the containers. Of course, there is much more to it when you really get into the nitty and gritty of container technologies, but we don’t need that level of understanding when navigating through the Azure container landscape. Let’s see this in a visual representation.

Figure 1.1 – An overview of containers

Figure 1.1 – An overview of containers

In the preceding diagram, you can see we still have a server, but the capacity is distributed more efficiently. Where traditionally we would run one application per (virtualized) server, with container technology, we can now run multiple isolated containers on a single operating system and minimize overhead even more.

Important note

When we talk about running a container, we are actually running an instance that is based off a container image. The container image actually contains all the code, libraries, and runtime but is more often referred to as a docker container. Throughout this book, we will use the term container when referring to a container instance that is created from a container image.

Container characteristics

These containers have specific characteristics and can be used in multiple ways, each use case coming with its own set of benefits. Let’s take a look at these specific characteristics:

  • Containers are lightweight.
  • Containers are ephemeral.
  • Containers contain everything required from an application perspective and all the -specific binaries that come from the underlying node Operating System (OS).
  • Containers have strong default isolation.
  • Containers contain the same content wherever you run them (working on everyone’s computer).
  • Containers can run on Linux or Windows.

That’s a pretty interesting list, but those characteristics do come with some important side notes.

As containers are lightweight, they won’t take up too many resources, and you can run hundreds of them on a single system. Instead of running hundreds of virtual machines, you are now running just a couple with hundreds of containers. At some point, we need to look at efficiently managing those.

As containers are ephemeral, this has consequences for your solution. We’re talking stateless here. And, by default, containers have strong default isolation. This means, by default, two containers will not communicate with each other. That also has consequences for your solution and software architecture.

These consequences are not all that bad. In fact, if you play by the rules, you will end up with a more scalable, secure, and future-proof solution.

Container benefits

Maybe you could already tell from the previous paragraphs that there are definitely benefits to using container technologies:

  • Containers contain everything you need to run your software.
  • Containers are extremely scalable.
  • Containers don’t have much overhead.
  • Containers are portable.
  • Containers are faster than a traditional virtual machine.

That sounds very interesting (even for the financially minded people out there!). But what does it mean? Well, a container contains everything you need to run your software. Within your container image, you store the parts of the OS you need, the libraries you are using, and, of course, your code. That container image is stored in what we call a registry and can be used whenever you want to start your container. Whether that container is running in the cloud, on your local machine, or in your refrigerator (if it supports it), it will always have the same contents. It works on everyone’s machine.

Having such a small footprint means that containers can be started really quickly but can also be scaled just like that. As containers also have significantly less overhead as compared to traditional configurations, instead of having to deploy multiple virtual machines to host multiple instances of your software, you can now do that by just running a number of small containers on the same machine.

Important note

A container registry is a repository that contains container images that can be pulled by other services to start an instance of a container. Microsoft Azure offers a service called Azure Container Registry that can be integrated into other Azure services.

It is very likely that you are not looking to run all these containers on traditional on-premises hardware, but you want to leverage the global scalability, cost efficiency, redundancy, and security that public clouds such as Microsoft Azure have to offer. And we’re going to look into that right now!

Getting to know containers in the Azure landscape

You aren’t reading this book because you want to run containers on Amazon Web Service (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or on-premises. You’re reading this because you are interested in the container landscape on Microsoft Azure. Let’s take a look at that!

Microsoft Azure provides different technologies that support running container-based workloads. Each technology fits different use cases and has different behavior, and it’s important that you select the right technology for the task at hand. There is no right or wrong solution; some are fit to run on enterprise-grade technologies such as Azure Kubernetes Service and some will do just fine on Azure App Service for containers. However, if you are a software company, it is unlikely that your solution is going to remain the same over several years. Business goals change, software architectures change, and public clouds change. Knowing what your options are, when to migrate, or when to reconsider a specific technology are key to successfully running containers in Microsoft Azure.

In this book, we will discuss, explain, and show multiple Azure container technologies and elaborate on their use cases. Let’s briefly introduce these technologies:

  • Azure App Service for containers
  • Azure Functions for containers
  • Azure Container Instances
  • Azure Container Apps
  • Azure Kubernetes Service
  • Azure Container Registry

We will provide a brief overview of each technology in the next section and help you understand what they do and why.

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Key benefits

  • Understand the what, why, and how of different container technologies available on Microsoft Azure
  • Explore the practical implementation of various Azure container technologies with the help of use cases
  • Learn common business strategies for selecting the right Azure container technology at optimized cost

Description

Whether you’re working with a start-up or an enterprise, making decisions related to using different container technologies on Azure has a notable impact your app migration and modernization strategies. This is where companies face challenges, while choosing the right solutions and deciding when to move on to the next technology. Azure Containers Explained helps you make the right architectural choices for your solutions and get well-versed with the migration path to other platforms using practical examples. You’ll begin with a recap of containers as technology and where you can store them within Azure. Next, you’ll explore the different Microsoft Azure container technologies and understand how each platform, namely Azure Container Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Container Instances (ACI), Azure Functions, and Azure App Services, work – you’ll learn to implement them by grasping their respective characteristics and use cases. Finally, you’ll build upon your own container solution on Azure using best practices from real-world examples and successfully transform your business from a start-up to a full-fledged enterprise. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to effectively cater to your business and application needs by selecting and modernizing your apps using various Microsoft Azure container services.

Who is this book for?

This book is for cloud and DevOps architects, application developers, technical leaders, decision makers, and IT professionals working with Microsoft Azure and cloud native technologies, especially containers. Reasonable knowledge of containers and a solid understanding of Microsoft Azure will help you grasp the concepts in this book.

What you will learn

  • Make the best-suited architectural choices to meet your business and application needs
  • Understand the migration paths between different Azure Container services
  • Deploy containerized applications on Azure to multiple technologies
  • Know when to use Azure Container Apps versus Azure Kubernetes Service
  • Find out how to add features to an AKS cluster
  • Investigate the containers on Azure Web apps and Functions apps
  • Discover ways to improve your current architecture without starting again
  • Explore the financial implications of using Azure container services
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Table of Contents

21 Chapters
Part 1: Understanding Azure Container Technologies Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 1: Azure Containers – Pleased to Meet You Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 2: Azure App Service – Running a Container Was Never That Difficult Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 3: Deploying Containers to Azure Functions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 4: Azure Container Instances for Serverless Containers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 5: Azure Container Apps for Serverless Kubernetes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 6: Azure Kubernetes Service for Kubernetes in the Cloud Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Part 2: Choosing and Applying the Right Technology Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 7: The Single Container Use Case Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 8: Deciding the Best Fitting Azure Technologies for Multiple Containers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 9: Container Technologies for Startups Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 10: Container Technologies for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 11: Container Technologies for Enterprises Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Part 3: Migrating Between Technologies and Beyond Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 12: Migrating Between Container Technologies Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 13: Azure Container Instances – I Like the Scalability But I Need More Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 14: Beyond Azure Container Apps Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 15: Azure Kubernetes Service – The Next Steps Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 16: What’s Next – Diving into Future Trends and More Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Dwayne Natwick Mar 05, 2023
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Richard and Wesley have done an amazing job of simplifying the use cases for container services within Azure. Providing readers with not only the why you should use containers, or the "Pros", they have also outlined some of the use cases that containers may not be the best option, the "Cons". This is an extremely easy to understand explanation of some sometimes complex and confusing technologies within Azure. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is developing cloud native applications. Great job, Richard and Wesley!
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