Containers, or containers, have been rising rapidly in recent years as a way for businesses developing complex digital products to bring agility and modernization to their development processes. Gartner predicts that businesses using container technology will reach 75% by the end of 2022. Although different solutions are emerging in such a fast-growing industry, Docker and Kubernetes are becoming the industry standard. As Google’s first cloud solution partner in Turkey, Global IT, we focus on the differences of Docker and Kubernetes in this article.
As we live in an era where digitalization is essential for every industry and company, the ways in which digital solutions are developed to give businesses a competitive advantage are also changing. Because the transactions carried out on the internet are becoming increasingly complex, applications are improving the user experience with new and surprising features every day.
From an e-commerce site to a financial services app, from a streaming platform like Netflix to a media outlet offering exclusive content through a subscription model, workloads running on developed web applications and mobile are getting heavier. In contrast, users always expect more from digital solutions – which makes seamless, fast and innovative development a necessity. This demand and need lies behind the fact that container technology has become the most preferred DevOps approach in recent years.
As Global IT, Google’s first cloud solution partner in Turkey, in this article, we will focus on the differences between Docker and Kubernetes solutions, which have become an industry standard in today’s application development processes. We will try to give answers to questions such as whether the two solutions can be used interchangeably, whether one can do what the other cannot. But first, let’s share some data that shows the growth of the industry and the speed of adoption of these technologies. Then let’s present a small dictionary of short definitions that will make it easier to comprehend what is described in this article.
Container management statistics 2022
Research and consulting firm Gartner predicts strong revenue growth through 2024 for its global container management software and services. It estimates that container solutions, which are expected to increase their market value from $465.8 million in 2020 to $944 million by 2024, will be used in the development processes of more than 75% of global organizations by 2022.
According to US-based market research firm IDC, more than 500 million new apps are expected to be created by 2023, equivalent to the number of apps created in the last 40 years. Stating that these developed applications will be at the center of every company’s value proposition in digital, the company expects a compound annual growth of 62% between 2019 and 2023 in container cloud servers.
According to Gartner, by 2023, 70% of enterprise companies will use at least two container-based applications.
Glossary of container technology
Today, many development teams are taking agile approaches, which leads to the need for rapid software deployment. Shortening the time between the transition of a product or feature from idea to implementation is at the core of competitive advantage in digital. As such, solutions for container technology that enable this are increasing. Before moving on to the comparison of Kubernetes and Docker, the two most frequently used solutions in this field, let’s try to open the subject a little more with short definitions.
• What is a container? Containers, the details of which we have summarized in our article, are software packages that contain all the necessary elements to work in any environment. Every action users take on the internet turns into a result by working on containers, which are small and easily developable software packages.
Containers give developer teams the ability to break down their extensive workloads and application architectures into disparate building blocks. In this way, single point of failure | SPoF) and cumbersome software development processes.
• What is container uptime? A container runtime, also known as a container engine, is a software component that can run containers on an operating system. Containers need container runtimes to work.
• What is Kubernetes? Kubernetes is a portable, extensible, open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services. Kubernetes, as a solution designed for container management, is being used by a rapidly growing ecosystem.
• What is Docker? Docker is an open platform for developing, deploying, and running applications. Docker is used to decouple applications from infrastructures to enable rapid deployment of software. It is a solution that provides the ability to package and run an application in containers in an isolated environment.
Once we know the quick facts we’ll need and the data on the size of the industry, we can move on to the main differences and similarities between Docker and Kubernetes.
What are the differences between Docker and Kubernetes?
The main difference between Docker and Kubernetes is that Docker helps you build and run containers, while Kubernetes is designed to manage those containers.
• Docker and Kubernetes are not competitors, they are two complementary technologies.
• Docker provides a set of tools to create and share containers, running containers on both small and large scale.
• Kubernetes is a tool that manages container-based applications running on a server cluster.
• You can use Docker without Kubernetes and Kubernetes without Docker.
To understand the key differences between the two applications, see “What to do with Docker and Kubernetes?” Let’s try to answer the question.
What can be done with Docker and Kubernetes?
You can create container images, also called Docker images. You can deploy your container-based applications. You can run the containers you create through Docker Engine. You can deploy third-party container-based applications, such as databases or web applications. You can share containers with your colleagues.
You can connect different containers to a microservices architecture and connect your applications. With Docker Hub, you can share your containers on the internet. You can update and upgrade applications by stopping existing containers or launching new ones with updated posts. You can run multi-container applications with Docker Compose. You can measure metrics such as the memory and CPU usage of your applications.
Docker Kubernetes
Although what we have described so far shows that Docker does not offer container management, it can also be done with Docker Swarm mode. As can be understood, while Kubernetes is a single solution, Docker stands out as a family of solutions that incorporate different functions. If the differences are still not clear, let’s summarize them in the following format:
• Docker offers a set of tools for creating and running containers on your laptop or a group of servers.
• Docker Swarm is Docker’s tool for managing containers on a server cluster.
• Kubernetes is a tool for deploying and managing containers on servers or in the cloud.
Docker and Kubernetes: Which one should I learn first?
If you plan to work with Kubernetes, we can say that you should get used to using Docker first. Using Docker gives you the basics of how to create a container image and operate containers. In other words, before you can manage containers, you need to learn how they are created, in which case Docker is the first tool you turn to.
Once you’re familiar with Docker terminology and usage, you’ll be able to more easily connect the innovations you’ll encounter on the Kubernetes side. You can run your container clusters created with Docker on your own computer, or you can run, manage, and orchestrate them on different servers via Kubernetes or Docker Swarm.
Discover the benefits of container technology with global IT
Global IT, Google’s first cloud solution partner in Turkey, makes the entire solution portfolio offered by Google in the Cloud accessible. This allows any business developing digital applications to take advantage of the benefits of container technology, which has become the industry standard. Global IT, which makes application development processes agile, scalable and fast for businesses and delivers Google solutions that run entirely in the cloud, is positioned as a Google Cloud Partner that has completed more than 3,300 successful projects for 15 years with services such as e-commerce modernization, infrastructure modernization, disaster recovery, data cloud solutions, artificial intelligence, application modernization.
Customers, including Turkey’s most important brands such as Modanisa, Hepsiburada, Scorp, Kütahya Porcelain, Vivense, AloTech, N11, rely on Global IT’s experience in application development and cloud technologies. Global IT, which supports the transition to Google Cloud Platform, which accelerates the digital transformation of businesses, on the basis of infrastructure and applications, also takes part in management processes.
If you’d like to discover what we can do for your business regarding Google Cloud technologies and digital transformation, contact us via the form below to discuss your needs.
