Deploy and manage apps with more availability, scalability, agility, and security
Containers have become the gold standard for cloud-native application development and deployment. Even if you're not in the cloud or are pursuing a hybrid strategy, the benefits of containers are available to you. As your organization evolves your IT/Ops plans for the next few years, containerization of your B2B and related applications can be just what you need to ensure always-on operations, scale to avoid service disruptions, and improve your security posture.
Container technology is carving out an important space in business transformation.
How containers work
Containers are more lightweight and portable than virtual machines because they don't require their own OS and have a smaller resource footprint. This makes them an agile and efficient means of application deployment.
To get the most out of the technology, IT/Ops teams use Kubernetes-based tooling called container orchestration to automate and manage their container-based applications. Container orchestration ensures companies can recognize the benefits of its investments in containers and container-based architectures: high availability and reliability, security, scalability and business agility.
As modular microcosms of integration capabilities, containers hold everything an application needs to run, including the code, configuration files, system tools, libraries, and other dependencies. They ensure that applications run the same way regardless of where they are deployed, whether on-premises, in a private cloud, or on a public cloud platform.
Isolation. Just as physical shipping containers keep items separated and protected from the outside environment, containers isolate applications from each other and from the underlying infrastructure. This ensures that each application has its own space, preventing conflicts and enhancing security.
Standardization. Shipping containers have standard sizes and structures, so they can be used globally on any transport system. Similarly, containers are standardized units that can run on any platform supporting containerization, ensuring consistency and compatibility. Containerized applications are comprised of Docker images, which are immutable, and this helps keep them consistent.
Portability. You can move a shipping container from a ship to a truck to a train without unpacking it. In the same way, cloud containers enable applications to be used across different environments (hardware and operating systems) or between different cloud providers while maintaining their original purpose.
The value of containers for B2B integration
Container technology delivers several benefits that enable enterprises to optimize how they deploy and manage their B2Bi solutions.
High availability and reliability. Containers provide the means to achieve zero-downtime maintenance, enabling you to make software upgrades and install patches and fixes without disrupting critical business operations. This not only helps you meet SLAs, strengthening your relationships with customers and partners, but improves productivity and resource expenditures.
Also, with the consistency and inherent structure of containers, replication of a containerized application is simple. If one container or node fails, orchestration automatically spins up new container instances, ensuring service availability without manual intervention. Such self-healing capabilities are available via orchestration tools which can monitor container health and automatically restart or replace containers that fail.
Security. You can take advantage of how containers isolate applications and provide a reduced attack surface to mitigate potential security issues. With containers isolated from one another and the host operating system, there are fewer risks for unauthorized access. Containers also simplify mandatory security upgrades and patches, including fast “repaving” needed to quickly overcome vulnerabilities.
Scalability. Containerization supports fast and easy scalability to respond to changing business needs. You can program your solution to meet changing workloads and accommodate unexpected volumes in EDI and other B2Bi traffic. This not only helps ensure high availability during peak periods, but also saves on resources and costs in slower periods. With dynamic autoscaling, you can prevent bottlenecks impacting critical business operations and flows.
Business agility. With a container-based approach to B2Bi, you can fully automate the deployment process and use orchestration tooling to standardize your deployment, saving time and making every step repeatable and reliable. As a result, you can react faster to changing business requirements and continue to deliver the best service to your partners and customers. If changes or product updates are needed to embrace new functionality, automation makes it easy to implement those changes across various environments.
Containers also facilitate a DevOps culture by enabling continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices. Teams can collaborate more effectively, as containers allow developers to focus on code while operations teams manage deployment and scaling, all within an automated pipeline. This integration reduces time to market and helps your enterprise quickly implement new requirements or application changes.
Unlock container benefits today
Adopting containers comes with its own set of challenges, such as new skills and resources to support and manage them. As a pioneering leader in enterprise data integration for two decades, Axway knows a lot about helping you adapt to change. Let our B2B experts guide your business in making containerized B2Bi work for you.
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