David Blesovsky, CEO at Cloudhelix shows how to build your applications as cloud-native, utilize containers from the outset, and gain competitive advantage. He also takes a look at the functionality that challenger banks offer in comparison to more traditional high-street banks as a great working example!
Interest in technology startups has grown exponentially: according to new research from DealroomOpens a new window , venture capital funding for British start-ups grew by 44% to a record $13.2 billion in 2019. For those of you who have that killer idea, getting things going in the right direction from the start will have a lot to do with the environment you start in.
You may well have heard of containerization – when it comes to architecting applications, it’s the talk of the tech industry. Previously seen as the method for enterprise-size businesses to haul their legacy applications into the bright light of the present, it’s a driving force for challenger start-ups too.
Firstly, what can containerization do for you?
Although it was developed for application management issues, the biggest benefit of containers is that it will allow for applications to run in any environment, not just the one it was built in. Unlike a virtual machine, it is not bound to the environment and therefore you won’t need an entire OS for each container. As Google sees it, “containers offer a logical packaging mechanism in which applications can be abstracted from the environment in which they actually run.â€
As a start-up, the benefits come in the form of clean and clear separation. Where legacy organizations would have IT/operations and developers, start-ups are more likely to be able to work with a more modern DevOps team. Building for containers and building for the public cloud is so much more developer-focused because the environment dependencies are less important. However, your developers will either need to be clued up on the public cloud or get a steer from a cloud provider. The benefit here is that your tech people, in-house or external, will spend less time thinking about infrastructure and more time committing code.
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“What is this Docker and Kubernetes that you speak of?†I hear you cry
Well quite simply, they’re the tools you’ll need to get to create a solid, modern application architecture. But they have different purposes, and it’s important to understand both and how they differ before you get started.
Docker is a popular, open-source container format that allows you to build and package containers. Dockerfiles are fed into the command line of your infrastructure (which could be anywhere, remember) and act as a snapshot of your application, which will run once you start them up.
Kubernetes works hand in hand with Docker, and other container formats, to deploy, scale and manage your containers. This is known as orchestration, and Kubernetes provides automated management of your machines and services: improving your reliability and reducing time and resources spent on rollouts, rollbacks, and all the stress in-between. Your containers will then work collectively: Kubernetes takes charge of starting up containers when they need starting, making sure your containers are all on speaking terms and having a chat with the ones that fail. This means you’ll only be running what you need when you need it, your set-up will be version controlled and can be easily replicated.
What’s the alternative?
Start-ups don’t aim to stay small forever. You bring your passion to the table, and you expect to scale up over time – sometimes quicker than expected. But often that means limited resources at the beginning. If you use a traditional client/server model and are hooked in by the attractive free tier options that are available with public cloud providers, you may get stuck beyond your first year. Although it is the way to start with a container-based environment to utilize ready-made tools, the more you use, the more you can become locked in. Avoiding this alternative is best – take a look at what our client dataJAR achieved without vendor lock-inOpens a new window .
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Let’s get basic – what are the bottom-line benefits?
- Resource-FULL
Containers are efficient and will grow with you. Because they don’t need their own OS, you can use containers to squeeze the most out of a particular host in the best way, making scale easier.
- No more tweaks
You will only build the application once: with containers, there’s no need to reconfigure it for multiple platforms or types of hardware. This means your developers spend more time building functionality than making your app work.
- You do your thing, I’ll do mine
Your teams focus on what they’re meant to be focused on. Infrastructure and applications remain clearly separated, meaning you have a more cohesive development function and your production lifecycle is sped up.
Where do you get started?
When looking for infrastructure resources for a tech startup, it’s difficult to find cloud providers who are willing to speak to you unless you’ve secured serious funding. It’s at these early stages, though, that the experience and insight of infrastructure experts can make a huge difference to businesses. This provides the perfect platform for scale and growth, and at Cloudhelix, we see that as an opportunity for us too: providing us with healthily growing clients creating innovative software that lives on our private cloud platform or is managed by our teams on the public cloud. To get started, look to a partner who will get to know you, what you want to achieve, and will become a partner to your new venture.
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