What is container orchestration?
Container orchestration is the automated management, deployment, scaling, and operation of containerized applications across your cloud environments. It significantly enhances software development teams’ agility and enables efficient software deployment and operation at an unprecedented scale.
While containers offer advantages like portability and isolation, managing them individually at scale can become challenging for these reasons:
Manually deploying, scaling, and maintaining numerous containers across different environments is time-consuming and introduces errors.
Scaling containerized applications manually proves challenging, especially during peak loads or sudden demand changes.
Efficiently allocating resources (like CPU or memory) to individual containers and ensuring optimal utilization becomes complex with multiple containers.
Troubleshooting and debugging issues across containers manually creates tedious, inefficient processes.
Maintaining consistency in configurations and deployments across multiple containers becomes difficult, increasing error and inconsistency risks.
Container orchestration addresses these challenges by automating and streamlining container deployment and management. It also provides a distributed yet scalable solution to coordinate containerized workloads efficiently. This way, software developers and their DevOps counterparts can have a faster, more agile approach to automating their work.
Container Security Buyer’s Guide
In this guide, we’ll talk about what’s driving the adoption of cloud-native application development, why it can increase risk, and why container security is needed to close the security gaps it can introduce.
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How container orchestration works
First, developers use declarative programming via a configuration file to specify the desired outcome (like what containers to run and how they should connect) rather than outlining every step. The file contains details like container image locations, networking, security measures, and resource requirements. This config file serves as a blueprint for the orchestration tool (like Kubernetes, Docker, or Swarm), which automates steps to achieve the desired state.
When introducing a new container, these tools automatically schedule containers and identify the most suitable host based on predefined constraints from the configuration file, including CPU, memory, proximity, or container/host metadata.
For instance, a host with a dedicated graphics card (per its metadata) might run a container that requires a GPU, while a host that’s close to a specific database might run a container that requires access to that database for faster communication.
Once containers run, an orchestration tool can follow the template you define in the config file to:
Manage their lifecycle (provisioning, deployment, scaling, load balancing, and resource allocation)
Handle situations like resource shortages by moving containers to alternative hosts
Monitor application performance and health to ensure optimal functionality
Facilitate service discovery so containers can easily find each other
The benefits of container orchestration
Orchestration plays a pivotal role in harnessing containers’ full potential and significantly enhancing containerized apps’ efficiency and reliability. In cloud environments, container orchestration has become more critical since it enables organizations to leverage cloud flexibility and scalability by managing containers across distributed infrastructures.
Below are a few benefits of container orchestration:
Agility and versatility
Container orchestration allows for faster, more repeatable app development. It also adapts to diverse requirements, which allows it to support continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, data processing applications, and cloud-native app development.
Container orchestration platforms work with on-premises servers; public, private, and hybrid clouds; and multi-cloud environments.
Scalability
Organizations can scale container deployments effortlessly based on evolving workload demands with container orchestration. A managed offering additionally allows you to scale underlying cloud infrastructure as necessary.
Lower costs
Containers reduce infrastructure overhead compared to virtual machines but still require adequate underlying resources for optimal performance.
Greater security
A container orchestration platform can boost your environment’s security by managing security policies and reducing human error, which can lead to vulnerabilities. Containers also isolate application processes within each container to minimize potential attacks. However, misconfigurations in orchestration platforms can also introduce vulnerabilities.
High availability
Container orchestration ensures sustained uptime and availability by automatically detecting and addressing infrastructure failures. If a container fails, the container orchestration solution will automatically restart or replace failing containers.
Configuration management: Setting yourself up for container orchestration success
As you implement container orchestration, it’s critical to consider and plan for a few key processes. Below are ways you can improve your container orchestration:
Improving complexity management
While container orchestration may naturally introduce complexity, it doesn’t have to feel out of control. You can manage complexity using these best practices:
Leverage IaC tools like Ansible for defining and managing your cloud environments. To do this, use Ansible playbooks to define and manage Kubernetes clusters across multiple cloud providers.
Continuously audit and monitor your refactor configurations to spot problems before they become more significant issues and prioritize top issues for remediation. To accomplish this, you can institute consistent automated configuration audits using tools like Kube-bench for Kubernetes environments.
Restructure configurations into smaller containers so your team can more easily maintain them. Docker Compose and Helm charts, for instance, allow you to modularize deployments to improve their manageability and scalability.
Adopt automation tools to quickly find issues and standardize configs throughout your cloud infrastructure. For example, implementing CI/CD integrations that automatically trigger security scans allows your team to spot issues before deployment.
Strengthening security and network configuration
When you improve your security and network configuration, you lower risks within the containerized cloud. Below are ways you can get started:
Emphasize and require the principle of least privilege (PoLP). To do this, you can use identity and access management (IAM) policies and role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce PoLP. Just be sure to review and update them often.
Scan container images consistently for vulnerabilities. Try implementing automated image scanning in CI/CD pipelines using tools like Trivy or Clair and implement policies that block deployments containing images with critical vulnerabilities.
Implement network policies to minimize nonessential communication. For example, you can define Kubernetes NetworkPolicies to restrict pod-to-pod traffic and only allow required ingress and egress.
Adopt secrets management solutions for critical data. You can automatically integrate HashiCorp Vault with Kubernetes using the Vault Injector to inject secrets into pods at runtime, for instance.
Use TLS to protect service-to-service comms. One way to do this is enabling mutual TLS to encrypt traffic and authenticate connections throughout your services.
Scaling resource allocation
To facilitate more resources, you’ll need a scalability plan and infrastructure to make it possible without overburdening your environment and team. Best practices include the following:
Establish automation-based scaling policies for memory usage, CPU, and key metrics within your infrastructure. You can configure autoscaling with your cloud provider or use a Kubernetes cluster with thresholds and Prometheus metrics.
Use node affinity and anti-affinity parameters for pod placements. By using these parameters, you can ensure high availability and fault tolerance when you distribute pods across zones or isolated workloads that have conflicting dependencies.
Leverage horizontal pod autoscaling with Kubernetes to efficiently adjust workloads. For example, you can create custom metrics adapters to scale based on application-specific metrics, such as message queue length for a messaging system.
Create resource limits to minimize overuse. To do this, define requests and limits in Kubernetes pod specs to distribute resources correctly.
Top container orchestration platforms’ features and use cases
Container orchestration platforms automate container management. Whether self-built or managed, they can integrate with open-source technologies like Prometheus for logging, monitoring, and analytics.
Below are some key platforms, along with their features and architectures:
1. Kubernetes
Developers widely prefer Kubernetes for building and deploying containerized apps and services. The open-source platform offers rich features and a large community, which makes it ideal for complex deployments. However, while Kubernetes sets the industry standard, deploying, managing, and securing it can challenge users.
Features:
Extensive container capabilities: Simplify development and deployment using logical units called pods.
Support for microservices-based applications and mechanisms: Leverage service discovery and communication so microservices can interact seamlessly.
Highly declarative approach: Use features like automated load balancing to define what the app should look like while Kubernetes handles all underlying tasks.
Resource allocation: Manage containers based on their needs with this efficient, intelligent approach.
Automatic detection: Find and fix unhealthy containers with automatic self-healing.
Start with managed Kubernetes services like GKE or EKS for easier setup, then gradually take on more control as your team’s expertise grows.
2. Docker Swarm
Docker Swarm, the native orchestration platform for Docker containers, offers a simpler setup and use than Kubernetes. This makes it ideal for beginners or smaller deployments. However, Swarm provides fewer features than Kubernetes.
Features:
Seamless Docker integration: Naturally scale containerized apps within the Docker ecosystem.
Automatic containerized app scaling: Optimize resource usage and eliminate potential bottlenecks for improved performance based on workload demands.
Built-in networking capabilities: Simplify container communication within a swarm and streamline container communication management.
Traffic distribution: Ensure that apps can efficiently handle increased workloads across multiple container instances for improved performance and scalability.
Overlay networking: Create a virtual container network across different hosts to simplify network configuration.
This platform is ideal for smaller teams or projects where simplicity is more important than advanced features.
3. Amazon EKS
AWS offers Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), which integrates seamlessly with the AWS ecosystem. With it, developers get all the benefits of Kubernetes without the complex underlying infrastructure. Existing AWS users find EKS particularly advantageous.
Features:
Seamless integration with Amazon services: Connect easily with Elastic Container Registry, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), and IAM for streamlined networking and authentication.
Simplified cluster creation: Automate Kubernetes control plane provisioning so users can focus on building and managing their applications.
Autoscaling capabilities: Scale containerized apps automatically based on real-time demand.
Automated cluster health management: Restart failed containers automatically to ensure continuous uptime.
Serverless deployments with AWS Fargate: Eliminate EC2 instance management by running containers in a serverless environment.
Pair EKS with AWS IAM roles for service accounts to securely fine-tune access controls per pod.
4. AKS
Microsoft Azure offers Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), a managed Kubernetes service that’s similar to EKS. It provides a similar user experience to Azure Cloud Services for those who are already using Azure’s environment.
Features:
Automatic health management: Restart containers automatically to maintain continuous uptime.
Built-in container security: Use RBAC and secure image storage with Azure Container Registry to protect your workloads.
Automated deployments: Integrate with Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions to streamline app delivery.
Autoscaling policies: Scale applications up or down easily based on workload demand.
GPU-enabled nodes: Support apps that require high computational power, such as for machine learning or scientific computing.
Use Azure Policy to enforce guardrails for cluster AKS configurations.
5. GKE
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) works within the Google Cloud infrastructure to simplify containerized apps with Kubernetes. You can operate your workloads and scale with this automated service.
Features:
Integration with Google Cloud services: Leverage tools like Cloud Build to enhance your CI/CD pipelines and streamline your DevOps workflow.
Automated cluster management: Provision, update, scale, and apply security patches to maintain a secure, efficient environment.
Security features: Protect your cloud infrastructure with node upgrades, RBAC, network policies, and vulnerability scanning.
Strong networking features: Use VPC-native clusters to boost performance, scalability, and overall security.
Use Autopilot mode for managed GKE clusters with pay-per-pod billing and simplified operations.
6. Apache Mesos
Apache Mesos is open source, which makes it a great option for flexibility. This cluster manager offers resource isolation and sharing throughout apps and frameworks.
Features:
Scalability for thousands of nodes: Create scalable, distributed systems that can grow with your infrastructure needs.
Replication for fault tolerance: Ensure system reliability with replicated masters and agents using ZooKeeper.
Built-in workload support: Run both containerized and traditional applications across a wide range of use cases.
GPU resources: Improve performance for specialized workloads like machine learning and scientific computing.
Pair Mesos with Marathon or Chronos for additional orchestration and job scheduling capabilities.
Top capabilities you need in a container orchestration tool
As you look for the right container orchestration platforms, it’s important to evaluate your existing infrastructure and then find the essential features you need for a healthy, safe cloud security environment.
You should consider the following platform types and must-haves in your search:
Two platform options
Self-built: Individuals build these platforms from scratch or via open-source platforms like Kubernetes. While this approach offers more customization and flexibility, users must manage and maintain the platform themselves.
Managed: Providers handle installation and operations for these platforms. As a result, users can focus solely on running containerized applications. However, these solutions are more limited than self-built options.
Key features
Robust scheduling mechanisms: Efficient scheduling ensures optimal resource utilization and workload distribution.
Automated scaling: The platform should respond dynamically based on real-time demands.
Comprehensive networking solutions: These ensure seamless communication and connectivity between containers.
Built-in security features: The platform you choose should integrate security measures to enhance application and data security.
Safeguard your container environment with Wiz
Container orchestration platforms tackle large-scale containerized app complexities efficiently and provide effective container management options. Their user-friendly automation will also likely improve with the growing demand for scalable AI apps.
But to improve container orchestration—along with your overall cloud security—you’ll need a unified, cloud native solution. A cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP), for example, provides enhanced, holistic security throughout your multi-cloud infrastructure.
Wiz is a CNAPP that safeguards your container environment from build to runtime. Its unified approach simplifies security so you can run faster application builds that remain protected throughout their lifecycle.
Ready to learn more? Check out Wiz’s free Advanced Container Security Best Practices Cheat Sheet to find out how you can improve your container orchestration today.
