A special type of container image called a golden image creates a consistent, reliable baseline for system configuration. Linux container images provide portability and version control, helping ensure that what works on a developer’s laptop also works in production. Linux containers are another evolutionary leap in how we develop, deploy, and manage applications. Linux containers run natively on the operating system, sharing it across all of your containers, so your apps and services stay lightweight and run swiftly in parallel. When you have finite resources with finite capabilities, you need lightweight apps that can be densely deployed.

This isn’t as lightweight as using containers. What does this mean? For starters, virtualization uses a hypervisor to emulate hardware, which allows multiple operating systems to run side by side. OpenShift is available as a cloud service with major cloud providers, or you can manage OpenShift yourself for greater flexibility and customization. Red Hat® OpenShift® includes everything needed for hybrid cloud, enterprise container, and Kubernetes development and deployments. Of course, choosing the right container platform is just as important as the containers themselves. No matter the infrastructure-on-premise, in the cloud, or a hybrid of the two-containers meet the demand. In some cases, such as real-time data streaming with Apache Kafka, containers are essential because they're the only way to provide the scalability an application needs. The point of Linux containers is to develop faster and meet business needs as they arise.

That’s a common example, but Linux containers can be applied to many different problems where portability, configurability, and isolation is needed. But, container image distribution is a lot easier than installing new copies of operating systems. In fact, the contents of a container image-created using an open-source tool like Buildah-can be thought of as an installation of a Linux distribution because it comes complete with RPM packages, configuration files, etc.

The container that holds your application has the necessary libraries, dependencies, and files so you can move it through production without nasty side effects.

Linux virtualization