Cloud computing has disrupted the traditional IT and virtualization market. And containers are doing the very same thing to cloud computing. And yet, cloud computing frameworks are not being supplanted — cloud service providers are instead choosing to adopt and adapt container technology together with SD-WAN to meet their changing needs.
Cloud Revolution, Interrupted
Software-defined wide area network (or SD-WAN) technology is fueling the new cloud revolution, offering flexible solutions that make cloud access simple and painless. Because SD-WAN matches the flexibility of the cloud, it facilitates the development and deployment of regional, national and even international networks to connect users to cloud services.
But bringing cloud-native tech to SD-WAN isn’t just about using SD-WAN to connect multiple clouds. Deploying a solution based on container technology and SD-WAN can deliver a networking solution that:
- Scales easily
- Lowers processing overhead
- Reduces deployment complexity
- Facilitates multiple containers and functions on the same Edge devices
Container Technology: Efficiency > Overhead
“By 2023, more than 70% of global organizations will be running more than two containerized applications in production, up from less than 20% in 2019.”
— Gartner’s ”3 Critical Mistakes That I&O Leaders Must Avoid With Containers”
The primary reason containers are seeing such a significant increase in popularity is a common understanding that they outperform hypervisor technologies, which rely on emulating virtual hardware — a strategy that increases system requirements. Contain technology, by comparison, is minimal and efficient.
Compared with virtual machines, container technologies:
- Have lower processing overhead
- Don’t require guest operating systems needed for virtualization
- Need little or no modification to run a containerized workload across multiple operating systems
It’s not challenging to see why cloud-based infrastructure — originally based on virtual machines — now demonstrates the virtues of container technology. Running containers can increase the utilization efficiency of servers across entire organizations. All major cloud service providers have at least one container orchestration option in their infrastructure — whether it be a Kubernetes-based deployment, a serverless solution or some other proprietary framework.
Services at the Network Edge
Application and service consumption is moving ever outward from data centers, closer to consumers located at or near the network edge. Experts predict the Edge computing market will grow from $2.8 billion last year to $9 billion by 2024.
Because of this, customer premises equipment with smaller technology stacks and limited onboard resources are increasing their reliance on container technologies, which offer greater efficiency and let organizations layer security services — sourced from vendors of their choosing — at the network edge.
Combining Container Technology and SD-WAN
Turnium has combined container technology and SD-WAN in one of the first commercially available fully containerized SD-WAN offerings. The combination gives organizations the ability to leverage this architecture to deploy containerized, non-monolithic security services on their CPE, delivering a SASE solution to their own teams as well as their customers. The ability for organizations to select their own security vendor facilitates continued relationships with trusted partners and eliminates vendor lock-in.
Regardless of how we look at things, container technology and SD-WAN offer a more efficient, easier way to deploy and manage organizational networks. Turnium is leading the SD-WAN market toward this improved architecture. They’re well-positioned to work with security vendors to deliver a complete SASE solution that will meet any organization’s evolving networking and security needs.
If you’d like to learn more about how combining container technology and SD-WAN could benefit your company, the experts at Turnium are here to help. Schedule a demo or contact us directly for more information.