Containerisation and Microservices. Ways to build scalable enterprise solutions

What is containerisation, and why is it popular in the enterprise?

The concept of containerisation came from logistics where it has been commonly used for centuries to significantly speed up transportation, and save costs for intermediary operations. 

The same happens here, in tech: we have the deployment process of an application together with the special files and libraries to run it smoothly across any environment. Imagine developers building an application once and deploying it simultaneously on Linux, Windows, and other popular operating systems. So consistency and portability are key container benefits. Containers are extremely lightweight and efficient. 

Containers are reliable and secure: one compromised container does not affect others. 

It is very convenient to troubleshoot and update – no need to interfere with the operating system or hardware, so the software release cycle can be shortened.

Docker and alternatives

Docker is a container packaging technology that helps build, ship, and run containers. A particular Docker container allows developers to commit changes to the Docker images and the version to control them effectively.

There are top-10 Docker containers: Nginx, Alpine, BusyBox, Apache http, Memcached, MariaDB, RabbitMQ, Python, and Traefix.

A right Docker container has many advantages, and can significantly simplify the developer’s work. 

Some more notable container platforms: 

• containerd (by Docker, Inc.)
• Podman (by Red Hat)
• rkt (Rocket)
• CRI-O
• LXC (Linux Containers)
• OpenShift
• Garden.

Orchestration and monitoring tools

To harness the full potential of containerisation businesses do need container orchestration which refers to the automated coordination and management of multiple software containers that work together as part of an application or service. 

This process involves handling tasks such as deployment, scaling, load balancing, service discovery, health monitoring, and more, to ensure that containerised applications run efficiently and reliably in various environments.

Some of the most popular tools in the containerisation ecosystem are Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Kubernetes (often abbreviated as K8), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), Azure Container Apps, OpenShift Container Platform, Mirantis Kubernetes Engine (is based on Docker technology), Platform9, Portainer, Qovery and Rancher.

Kubernetes is the most commonly used container orchestrator to deploy, scale, and manage numerous microservices. 

Choice of the right container management tool depends on specific needs, such as the scale of deployment, the complexity of applications, and the needed level of control over the infrastructure. By understanding these tools’ features, you can make an informed decision that best aligns with your organisational goals and technical requirements. Those help developers and DevOps teams monitor the activity of containers, collect logs, and analyse data to provide observability and insight into container performance.

We should also remember that containers are short-lived resources that can be destroyed when the operation is complete or the application needs to scale down. Data logs must be permanently gathered and moved to a central location to prevent data loss. 

This is where monitoring solutions come into play so we can ensure visibility and real-time insight into these highly dynamic container environments.

Important names here are Lumigo, Prometheus, cAdvisor, Grafana, Elasticsearch & Kibana, Jaeger.  Such tools help effectively log, monitor, and trace containerised environments. Key differences between them are the level of effort required to set up, configure, and maintain the solution. Some of them luckily offer a free trial.

Would you like some help to set up an environment? Get in touch with us

Defining a microservice

Combining containerisation with microservices ensures a comprehensive approach to building scalable enterprise solutions.

A microservices’ architecture breaks down a large application into smaller, loosely connected, and independently deployable services. Each microservice focuses on a specific business functionality and communicates with others through APIs.

Services are typically arranged around business capabilities. Imagine a typical e-commerce platform. When using microservices, it can be divided into:

• user management service (registration, authentication, profile management),
• product catalogue service (product listings, categories, inventory),
• order management (order processing, order status management, payment handling),
• shipping logistics (tracking shipments, managing delivery statuses),
• customer support service.

Separate services can be developed on different tech stacks to meet sensitive business needs, which is quite beneficial.

Building a microservice involves several steps and considerations to ensure it aligns with the principles of microservice architecture, such as modularity, independence, and scalability. 

World giants on microservices

Handling large traffic, processing numerous transactions, dynamic pricing, providing individual recommendations, network management, compliance reporting, enhancing system safety, security, and scalability – this is merely a drop in the ocean of what can be implemented using microservices.

Those are widely used in retail, e-commerce, finance, healthcare, telecommunications, media and entertainment, logistics, and transportation. 

Organisations often detect huge improvements in system performance and significant reductions in operational costs by transferring to microservices.

Brands and their remarkable outcomes with microservices

• Netflix, a pioneer in microservices architecture, runs over 1,000 microservices to deliver its content to over 200 million subscribers.
• Walmart handled massive scale and peak loads, resulting in a 20-50% reduction in computing resources due to the transition to microservices.
• DHL uses microservices to manage its logistics operations, providing real-time tracking and improved customer service.
• Vodafone has leveraged microservices and containers to enhance the flexibility and scalability of its IoT services.
• Amazon, Walmart, Alibaba are handling large user traffic, managing product catalogues, transactions, pricing, and other important functionalities using microservices.
• Financial services such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Capital One have significantly benefited from real-time fraud detection.
• Healthcare brands such as Philips Healthcare, UnitedHealth Group use it for managing patient databases, appointment scheduling, medical imaging, and telemedicine.

Some technical facts

The concept of microservices had been floating around for quite some time, gaining popularity in the early 2000s. Since Sam Newman’s influential book “Building Microservices” was published in 2015, the landscape of microservices and containerisation has continued to evolve rapidly. 

Below, you can discover some best practices that have emerged:

• Decentralised data management: each microservice should manage its data independently to avoid tight coupling and promote autonomy.
• Design for failure: Implement resilience patterns such as retries, timeouts, and circuit breakers to handle failures gracefully.
• Keep your microservices small: tiny, focused microservices maintain simplicity, ease of understanding, and scalability. It is also called the single-responsibility principle.
• Automate: use automation for testing, deployment, and monitoring to ensure consistency and reliability across the microservices’ ecosystem.

Some popular tools around microservice development you can check to get a fuller picture are

• Spring Boot: a framework for building microservices in Java.
• Netflix OSS: A set of tools and libraries for developing microservices (e.g., Eureka, Hystrix).
• Istio: A service mesh to manage microservices.

To deliver robust and high-performing applications and microservices architectures, we prefer Java. It has never tricked in meeting and exceeding the expectations of enterprise-grade enterprises.

Imagine a German online life coaching platform, Homodea with over 60,000 members. A leading CRM platform, HubSpot, that provides software and support to help businesses grow better. Or an innovative platform like Otoqi that rapidly connects car owners with trusted freelance drivers if various car delivery services, where over 1k drivers were onboarded only in 2023 and with 100% growth with annual sales of > 10M€! 

These are the client success stories utilizing containeristion and microservices we in Digis are extremely proud of!

Microservices allow applications to be divided into smaller, manageable pieces. Containerisation ensures each piece runs reliably in any environment. Microservices can be developed and deployed independently. Containers enable these services to be packaged with all their dependencies, ensuring consistency across different environments.

A mix of containerisation and microservices provides a powerful foundation for building scalable, flexible, and resilient enterprise solutions, effectively addressing challenges in modern application development and deployment.

By adopting these architectural patterns, organisations can achieve greater agility, improved resource utilisation, and the ability to respond quickly to rapidly changing business requirements.