Containers - What issue do they solve?

So containers....they were thrust upon us as the latest solution to many things around about a year, year and a half ago, although they've actually been around in many forms for much longer than that.

I first saw a presentation given buy Microsoft about their containerised data centre at a DCD event in London. Very impressive and clearly (to me at least) a good solution to the problem Microsoft explained they were having.

The key to my answer was in that presentation I sat through. While there is much discussion around the energy efficiency of a containerised data centre vs a traditional one, how you might measure the PUE of your container/facility and compare things like energy efficiency (although that in itself is another story!) this is a red-herring!

The real 'benefit' or reason to use a container is the ability to deploy large chunks of IT capacity rather than having to unbox and install hundreds/thousands of devices then rack and stack them. Come refresh time the same issue arrises and can be resolved the same way. If you're building a Microsoft or Google sized services 'cloud' then how do you deal with the continual flow of IT devices into and out of your data centre? Containers are 'potentially' a great solution to the size of the minimum 'unit' you have to deal with.

To me, talking about containers as the solution to anything else, such as energy efficiency doesn't make sense. I can see only one other instance where a container might make sense and thats where you want temporary capacity or when you need to drop down a 'data centre in a box' for a period of time....then they are likely to be rather different containerised data centres for the latter requirement than those that Microsoft and others are using today.

The answer therefore to 'Should I be looking at containers' is to ask yourself if you have an IT capacity scale problem that means you'd benefit from being able to deploy 1000 servers at a time. If your issue is energy/cost efficiency then containers actually introduce a whole raft of other cost and accounting considerations I may get Liam to blog on one of these days!

Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doobybrain/320633476/