Docker Alternatives

In this section we will the Docker alternatives that developers and system administrators can use for deploying their containerized applications.

Docker Alternatives

Docker Alternatives - Container Software to use other than Docker

In this section we are exploring the alternatives of Docker and list down top alternatives that you can use. Although Docker is very popular and most companies are using Docker for shipping their containerized applications. But still other container technologies is being used due to various reasons. Here are the top list of Docker alternatives.

Docker is so popular when it comes to container applications that 99 per cent of total containers were dependent on Docker in 2017. However it must be noted that back in 2018, the dependence on Docker was reduced to 83 per cent. Several other container environments like CoreOS rkt, Mesos, lxc etc have also emerged and are consistently developing as the market keeps on advancing and expanding.

Docker clearly gets a ton of consideration. Be that as it may, Docker isn't the main compartment choice out there.

Docker Alternatices

Some of the other popular container applications are:

Mesos Containerizer

In 2018, it was revealed that 4 per cent of the developers were dependent on Mesos for container software. Created by Apache, Mesos offers a sensational performance and at the same time, it supports Docker and appc type images format. It is also predicted that Mesos will follow the same path as Docker thus OCI support might be adopted by the company.

Talking about Mesos, Ricardo Aravena who is the infrastructure and DevOps consultant of the company stated that "The best use for Mesos is with Spark and Flink - frameworks for big data applications."

On the con side, one thing to be noted is that this software cannot function independently and Mesos operating system will be required to achieve targets with the software.

CoreOS rkt

12 percent of developers have been dependent on rkt containers. This container software is compatible with Docker and appc image types. The reason behind popularity of rkt is its compatible interaction with Kubernetes.

Some interesting rkt highlights incorporate Trusted Platform Modules (TPM). This feature was made for application containers with very little third party involvement. This gives rkt brilliant compatibility which further makes it perfect for open cloud versatility and fast sending.

The disadvantage of rkt is the absence of OCI dependency. Rkt is done creating apps and plans to grasp OCI. Likewise, Rklet (CRI) is as yet a work in progress. Red Hat as of late purchased CoreOS, the organization behind rkt.

LXC Linux Containers

Commomly referred as "chroot on steroids", one per cent of container application usage was contributed by LXC Linux. The principle parts of this software are lxc, lxd and lxfuse. LXC is known to provide several low level instruments while LXD broadens this concept by further offering new UI and CLI.

With LXC Linux, the problem which arises is that there is a shortage of Kubernetes compliance nor does this technology integrates OCI as of now. However, it is believed that lxcrun will help LXC Linux overcome such obstacles.

OpenVZ

Launched back in 2005 so as to extend Linux Kernel. Not only is OpenVZ a container based virtualization but is also an open source software that can run numerous virtual ecosystems and virtual servers on a solitary Linux framework. In comparison to other applications, OpenVZ offers a much less memory footprint.
The weakness of OpenVZ is that that it is not perfect for single applications. There is no CRI or Kubernetes reconciliation yet. It is also said that OpenVZ 7 which is the most recent variant isn't yet as steady as its antecedent, OpenVZ 6.

Containerd

Defined as "an industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness and portability," containerd is developed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. Containerd is accessible as a daemon for Linux or Windows.

This software supports OCI images and works in harmony with gRPC.

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