Top 10 CaaS Providers

A report of MarketsandMarkets anticipates that the market size of Container as a Service would cross 4,080.4 Million USD by 2022. This size was only 789.1 Million USD in 2016. These statistics definitely present the quick growth of the CaaS cloud computing model.

However, if you are thinking of using any CaaS platform but confused among different vendors, then you must read this article. We are going to discuss one of the best CaaS providers with their advantages in this guide.

What is CaaS — Container as a Service

CaaS is a cloud computing form that permits developers to administer, upload, scale, end, start and supervise applications, containers and clusters. This cloud service uses web portal interfaces, APIs or container-based visualizations to conduct these activities. Moreover, application with CaaS is typically deployed through cloud or on-premises data centres.

CaaS platforms are usually used for microservices and to develop cloud-native applications. If we talk about the top vendors, then IBM Kubernetes, AWS Container and Google Container Engine are renowned CaaS suppliers.

Advantages of Container as a Service

Here are the advantages of using Container as a Service:

Cost-Efficient

As compared to virtual machines (VMs), containers utilize fewer resources. Therefore, developers can operate numerous containers on a single server without using a particular OS. Moreover, users also need less hardware to conduct operations with CaaS, which also makes it cost-efficient.

Secure

With CaaS, containers are built separately. So, if a single container’s security is jeopardised, it doesn’t affect the safety of other containers. In addition, it permits you to quickly launch various security updates as well.

Scalable & Portable

Scalability is one of the most exciting features of using the CaaS platform. CaaS offers horizontal scaling, due to which it is easy to build duplicate containers anytime. This effortless scaling also overcomes the costs because you only build identical containers when they are needed.

With CaaS, applications are built in a container, that’s why they are highly portable. This portability feature enables developers to run and launch the app in distinct cloud environments. Besides, it is effortless to switch CaaS providers for SMEs and large enterprises because of its portability.

Fast Development

With a smooth user interface, it is also seamless to begin and close a container. Such properties of CaaS improves the development speed as well.

Top 10 CaaS Providers

Here are the best CaaS services.

1. AWS Container Service

Amazon ECS is considered one of the most reliable and secure Container services launched in 2015. It is an entirely administered container service that is suitable for mission-critical and sensitive data apps.

Core Features

Serverless Option — ECS uses AWS Fargate to provide serverless compute for the containers. Therefore, the users do not need to handle the tasks related to the server or infrastructure by using this serverless option.

Reliable with 77 Availability Zones — AWS container service is highly reliable because of 77 availability zones in 24 different regions.

Batch Processing — For better performance, you can run parallel batch workloads. AWS Batch helps you run a number of batch computing activities for better performance.

2. Google Container Engine

Google Cloud Engine is considered one of the best options to deploy and execute your applications when it comes to the best CaaS suppliers. It allows you to easily run and scale your applications using this Container as a Service solution reliably from a single computing environment.

Core Features

Autopilot mode — Let Google manage all the tasks related to the server and underlying infrastructure. You do not need to worry about infrastructure-related tasks. Instead, you can focus on coding while Google will maximize operational efficiency and performance.

Automatic Scaling — Google Container engine scales automatically based on CPU utilization or customer metrics. It continuously analyzes the CPU & memory usage and adjusts them in response to maintain better performance.

Built-in Dashboard — Google Container Engine provides a dashboard to view, manage and delete resources in the clusters.

3. IBM Kubernetes Service

IBM Kubernetes Service is another one of the best Container as a Service platforms where you can deploy and manage your application on distributed clusters. You can scale your application easily and effectively using this brilliant CaaS provider.

Core Features

Logging & Monitoring — IBM Kubernetes Service provides the service of logging and monitoring to keep track of the performance of clusters and containers.

Self-healing Containers — Using this CaaS platform, you can configure a customer Kubernetes cluster that scales automatically. It also recovers automatically as per defined policies.

Secure clusters — The clusters provided by this CaaS platform are secure because of isolated compute resources.

4. Oracle Container Service

Oracle Container Service is one of the best Container as a Service providers where you can get fully managed containers with brilliant features. You can build, deploy and manage your applications on containers in distributed clusters using Oracle Container Service easily and effectively.

Core Features

Automate Kubernetes Operations — Web-based REST API and CLI can be used to automate Kubernetes operations, including Kubernetes cluster creation, scaling and operations.

Automatic Upgrades — Oracle Container Service let you upgrade container clusters with no downtime. You can keep container clusters with the latest version of Kubernetes.

Cluster Management Tools — You can use any third-party cluster management tools or use the Oracle partners’ services to manage the clusters.

5. Azure Container Service

Microsoft provides one of the top Container as a Service solutions with the name of Azure Container Service. You can deploy and execute your application easily and quickly with fully managed containers, including brilliant features to scale and manage your apps.

Core Features

Automated Rollouts & Rollbacks — By using Azure Container Service, you can use automated rollouts to deploy changes in your application. In addition, you can also roll back changes in case of any accidental commit in an application.

Easier Cluster Upgrades — Upgradation of container clusters is very important for better performance. However, you can easily upgrade container clusters with the latest version of Kubernetes in Azure Container Service.

6. DigitalOcean Kubernetes Service

DigitalOcean is always amongst the top in terms of cloud computing services providers. It is also among the top-ranked Container as a Service providers, and its pricing starts from $10/month. Moreover, you can use managed Kubernetes of Digital Ocean for your small businesses.

Core Features

Resource Efficiency — DigitalOcean Kubernetes Service provides the resource efficiency to manage the resources according to the need of the application. It is beneficial to optimize the performance of the application time-to-time.

High Availability — Kubernetes on DigitalOcean Kubernetes Service checks the health of your application thoroughly. However, it detects and replaces instances that are not responsive.

Portability — Users can run their application anywhere Kubernetes is supported and deployed on DigitalOcean Kubernetes.

7. Linode Kubernetes Service

Linode provides the Container as a Service solution to deploy Kubernetes clusters. This CaaS provider is straightforward and fast to deploy, manage and scale applications efficiently.

Core Features

Easy Deploy & Manage — Linode Kubernetes Service lets you configure and manage your clusters in very easy and few steps. You do not need to handle complex functionalities.

Load Balancing — Linode NodeBalancers help you to route traffic from the internet to your clusters’ distributed workloads. It helps you to optimize the performance by managing the traffic.

8. Alibaba Container Service for Kubernetes

Alibaba Container Service is ranked amongst the top Container as a Service suppliers because of its wide range of features. You can deploy and manage your application in container clusters easily and effectively by handling the infrastructure.

Core Features

Alibaba Cloud Accounts — Alibaba Container service supports permission management within an enterprise. It means that you can assign tasks and allot permissions to different users according to their role in the team.

Networking — Alibaba Container Service allows communication between different containers even when they are on different hosts. It can enhance the performance of the application effectively.

9. Rancher

Rancher is a new compute service compared to others but a very reliable Container as a Service provider launched in 2014. It is a complete stack for the teams adopting the containers to manage and scale their applications. Furthermore, It helps in managing the operational and security challenges as well.

Core Features

Version Management — You can manage all versions of the applications using rollouts and rollbacks easily and quickly.

User access & Security — Rancher never compromises the security of the customers. You can also grant access to the user according to his role, so he cannot perform the task which is not assigned.

10. Docker Enterprise

Docker Enterprise is a complete package to manage your applications and scale them. This is another one of the best options as a CaaS provider. You can build and manage the entire application effectively.

Core Features

View Container Clusters — Using Docker Enterprise, you can view all the container clusters in a single view. It shows that the interface of Docker Enterprise is very interactive and reliable.

Monitoring & Scanning — Docker Enterprise provides the service of continuously monitoring the vulnerabilities. It also does security scanning thoroughly for protection purposes.

Conclusion

In short, the use of CaaS is enhancing gradually among developers and businesses because of its exciting features. Surely, this article tried its best to share one of the top CaaS providers with readers. Withal, it is also recommended to pick a Container as a Service platform that suits your project the most.

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