Virtual Containers: Asset Management Best Practices and Licensing Considerations
Virtual Containers: Asset Management Best Practices and Licensing Considerations Virtual containers have seen tremendous adoption and growth within all industries. However, in terms of IT asset management, cont- ainers are not being managed and are an unknown area of risk for many of our clients. Because it is a newer technology, there is very little information about managing containers and how to address the emerging SAM & ITAM challenges they bring. Due to this lack of public information, Anglepoint has published this whitepaper on navigating the world of containers, with an empha- sis on asset management and licensing. We will cover everything from the history of containers, to what containers are, the benefits of containers, asset management best practices, and some publisher-specific licensing considerations. A BRIEF HISTORY OF VIRTUAL CONTAINERS The first proper containers came from the Linux world as LXC (LinuX Containers) in 2008. However, it wasn’t until 2013 that containers entered the IT public consciousness, when Docker came onto the scene with Enterprise usage in mind. Even then, though, it was more of an enthusiast’s technology. In 2015, Google released and open sourced Kubernetes which manages and ‘orchestrates’ containers. However, it wasn’t until 2017 that Docker and Kubernetes had matured enough to be considered for production use within corporate environments. 2017 also saw VMware, Microsoft, and Amazon beginning to support and offer solutions for Kubernetes and Docker on their top-tier cloud infrastructure. WHAT IS A CONTAINER? Often, people conflate the term ‘container’ with multiple technologies that make up the container ecosystem. Let’s look at what a modern container is at the most fundamental level.
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