CaaS is essentially container-based virtualization technology in which container engines, container orchestration and underlying compute resources are delivered as a service from a cloud provider.
SUSE is positioning its CaaS platform as a new addition to its software-defined infrastructure portfolio. The use of application containers has grown fivefold over five years, according to Raj Meel, SUSE global product and solutions marketing manager, necessitating a mechanism for managing the rapid increase. “Containers are about speed for developers,” Meel said. “With containers and container management delivered as a service, you empower and better serve your developers.”
Containers are finally making the jump from small proof-of-concept projects into permanent production environments, said Jay Lyman, principal analyst at 451 Research for cloud management and containers. “The adoption of container technology is moving faster than we saw with other trends, including platform as a service and DevOps,” he said.
From the economic perspective that must pass muster with IT decision-makers, it appears that containers are a better option than hardware virtualization, according to Lyman. Among the primary drivers fueling container adoption in enterprise IT is their unique ability to reduce overhead and boost efficiency, he said.
With container technology speeding the development of applications, most companies simply lack the resources to set up and maintain their own secure container management infrastructure, Meel said. “They are busy focusing on building applications that add business value. That’s why the time is right for a container infrastructure solution to help deploy new cloud-native, container-based applications, but also progressively migrate traditional legacy apps.” The SUSE CaaS Platform, he said, lets IT operations and developers provision, manage and scale container-based applications and services to meet business goals faster.