The development of applications and software has many processes involved. For companies like yours to stay relevant, competitive, and scale, development needs to be streamlined. This is why DevOps is so important in today’s fast-paced digital business environment.
When it comes to developing a stronger DevOps strategy within the space of application development, utilizing container images is a must. For instance, Docker and container registry from JFrog have gained popularity among developers and engineers. This is mainly due to the variety of container image application development benefits.
Need to learn more about container images and how they simplify application development for your company? Or how to use container images for maximum efficiency within your development environment? The following may prove useful.
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How Do Container Images Work With App Development Exactly?
Container images used for application development can help developers achieve a number of benefits, such as portability, security, automation, and more. But in order for container image app development to be successful, developers need to follow a few guidelines.
For example, a DevOps team needs to ensure a new container is created, code is tweaked for the application, codebase requirements are met, and the container image is stored in a container registry.
When new versions of an image are deployed, new container images need to be created and deployed too. And stored in a private registry to ensure all benefits are leveraged for the application development project.
This has created a shift from continuous integration (CI) to continuous delivery (CD). “It is not just about doing CI now, it is about CD (continuous delivery); organizations are investing their time and effort into understanding more about automating their complete software development process,” according to a DZone article.
Automation, testing, microservice architecture, and more are part of the new DevOps, especially in the space of application deployment. Container images play a role in this, making it critical for companies and development professionals to understand.
Container Images Become Primary Focus For DevOps Teams
Utilizing container images can make development and deployment easier for DevOps teams. This is because container images impact operations since efficiency is achieved on multiple levels. And the cost-effectiveness of utilizing containers is hard to ignore for companies.
Container builds are a must-know process to get the most efficiency out of the processes. For example, blueprint changes make it necessary to build a container over again. When done correctly, code and other key components of the app will be pushed properly to the development environment. Making deployment easier too.
This makes leveraging the benefits of scripts and automation when it comes to container images absolutely important. DevOps teams need to be on top of this. Deployment is an important step, sometimes more important than development.
When deploying a container image, the container cluster the images are deployed to must be defined. This is where the previously mentioned container orchestrator comes in handy. This can be a complex process, with the following rules important to consider:
- Container instances
- Volume of the containers
- The resource management in place
- The Lifecycle of cluster nodes
- Compatibility with other containers
If you have an expert container orchestrator on your DevOps team that knows how to handle the complexities of deployment, processes will go a lot faster. In fact, many experts will ensure processes that can be automated when it comes to application deployment, will be automated. This ensures effective and efficient deployment of software.
Having a team of professional DevOps can also help identify tasks and deployment instructions that help processes run smoothly. For instance, Jenkins within Docker container images could be more effective when working within CI/CD environments across multiple software projects.
“A team structure that facilitates collaboration and visibility between the Dev and Ops teams, as well as tools that automate processes, are the hallmarks of an ideal DevOps lifecycle,” said Chrissie Buchanan of GitLab. “Keep in mind that good DevOps doesn’t mean that everybody does everybody’s job.”
Wrapping Up Application Development Via Container Images
The benefits of utilizing container images for application development are pretty clear to DevOps teams. Synergizing DevOps is important, and the team you have in place can enhance the use of containers on multiple levels.
Innovation and the tools available to professionals is where scalability lives. Having the right team with access to the right tools can make a big impact on your competitive edge and overall success. Regardless of the industry your in. Are you utilizing containers in your development and deployment environment?