Benefits of Containerization Technology

Application containerization has made building, testing and deploying security software much faster and easier. The containerization concept is relatively straightforward — create a secure, self-contained development environment where technicians can independently create and run code and resources without affecting anything else in the IT ecosystem.

Application containerization technology is cloud native, allowing developers to rapidly spin up new containers and virtual machines without using up computing capacity elsewhere. We find containerization incredibly useful when developing industry-leading security solutions, letting us stay ahead of the curve for deploying agile, robust, resilient and up-to-the-minute identity, security and access software.

The Benefits of Containerization Technology

• Creating independent environments allows for all the resources and frameworks that an application needs, without being influenced by external factors
• Optimizing for limited, self-contained tasks that run quickly and safely enables streamlined, modular builds that integrate easily with a customer’s existing systems
• Empowering agile development as development teams quickly creates MVPs and iterations on products without going through a cumbersome administration and resource management process
• Allowing for effective computing resource management makes it fast and easy to spin up and tear down containers as needed
• Driving a continuous delivery approach of design-build-test-deploy that can be easily managed by DevOps teams builds agile development best practices into every aspect of the software
• Ensuring compatibility across multiple operating systems makes the software OS-agnostic, so it works across demanding use cases and unique configurations
• Enabling testing of multiple variations in multiple ways simultaneously shortens the testing cycle and allows for rapid updates and responses to zero-day and other vulnerabilities
• Increasing security eliminates risk to the outside environment and other parts of the IT ecosystem and reduces any potential impact on end users and other systems

How Application Container Technology Supports Customers

Of course, it’s not just strong internal development that matters, but what that development means for customers who rely on best-in-class security systems. We believe that embracing containerization drives several key customer benefits:

• Rapid deployment
• Reduced stack complexity
• Simpler and more efficient updates with minimal downtime
• Dynamic scalability
• Better overall resiliency

Rapid Development Means Faster Software Updates in Response to Vulnerabilities
Zero-day vulnerabilities and other novel attack vectors keep security teams awake at night. Containerized development means we can learn about vulnerabilities and start working on them almost immediately. Rapid testing lets us quickly deploy new versions of our software to maximize client protection in an ever-changing environment.

On-Premise Servers Can Also Benefit From Cloud Services 
The fact that HID develops in contained environments allows for the same software we build for the HID authentication cloud service to be adopted by our customers and deployed on-premise, in their own data centers, or managed themselves in a cloud infrastructure as a service environment.

Cloud-Based Containerization Means Easy Scalability and Flexibility as Security Needs Change
Native cloud containers, and the applications built there, can be scaled up as security needs grow. You can introduce more robust security in stages, beginning with small, self-contained implementations, then adding on more services as needed.

Containerization Means It’s Easy to Adapt Software Based on User Feedback
Continual improvement is a natural part of agile development, and part of refining our software is client feedback. Containers let us make and test client-suggested changes to see how they improve the final product.

At HID Global, agile development and containerization helps us keep up to date with expanding client needs and keeping their systems strong, secure, and safe.

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Caleb Wattles is a Senior Product Manager within the Identity and Access Management Solutions business area at HID Global. He has 20 years of experience in IT Security with over 10 years in product management. Caleb is passionate about solving customer problems, in particular those revolving around how to deliver better security, while delivering an even better user experience. Prior to HID, Caleb was with ActivIDentity, a company that was acquired by HID Global in 2010.