Word of the Day: Containers as a Service (CaaS)

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms |February 20, 2018

Containers as a Service (CaaS) Containers as a service (CaaS) is a cloud service that allows software developers to upload, organize, run, scale, manage and stop containers by using a provider's API calls or a web portal interface. As is the case with most cloud services, users pay only for the CaaS resources - such as compute instances, load balancing and scheduling capabilities -- that they use. Public cloud providers including Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), IBM, Rackspace and Joyent all have some type of CaaS offering. For example, AWS has its Amazon EC2 Container Service (ECS), a high-performance container management service for Docker containers on managed Amazon EC2 instances. Amazon ECS eliminates the need for users to have in-house container or cluster management resources. Google's Container Engine service offers similar cluster management and orchestration capabilities for Docker containers. The key difference between providers' CaaS offerings is typically the container orchestration platform, which handles key tasks, such as container deployment, cluster management, scaling, reporting and lifecycle management. CaaS providers can use a variety of orchestration platforms, including Google Kubernetes, Docker Machine, Docker Swarm, Apache Mesos, fleet from CoreOS, and nova-docker for OpenStack users. Within the spectrum of cloud computing services, CaaS falls somewhere between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). However, CaaS is most commonly positioned as a subset of IaaS. The basic resource for CaaS is a container, rather than a virtual machine (VM) or a bare metal hardware host system, which are traditionally used to support IaaS environments. Quote of the Day "Comparing virtualization to containers is a bit like comparing a tractor-trailer to a school bus. Both move things from place to place along a road, but each has specific uses through which it can drive the most value." - David Linthicum   Trending Terms containerization Infrastructure as a Service Platform as a Service Amazon EC2 Container Service Google Kubernetes Docker Swarm   Learning Center Container as a service providers compete with distinct strategies Container as a service providers vie for users with the promise of smooth deployment and integrated tools, and, for customers, there is not always much choice. Containerized applications and the portability dream Containerized applications can make portability a more realistic scenario. But that doesn't mean they are easy to deal with. Comparing containers and VMs for multi-tenant apps As people are getting enterprise-ready for Docker containers, it makes sense to compare the features of VMs versus containers for multi-tenant apps. Manage containers in cloud with these four quick tips Enterprises seek to solve their app portability issues with containers in cloud computing, but there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Words to go: Containers in cloud computing Containers in cloud computing have become a commonly used technology for most enterprises. Study these key terms to expand your container knowledge. Writing for Business In Kubernetes, a replication controller scales containers horizontally, ensuring there are more or ________ containers to meet the overall application's computing needs. a. less b. fewer Answer   Stay In Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com   Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed!   FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2018 TechTarget. All rights reserved.