Here are six factors to consider before your geo-diverse organization decides to incorporate containers to streamline software development

With multiple data sovereignty and compliance frameworks to juggle, geographically distributed businesses have been increasingly exploring the possibility of using containerization in their software development.

By encapsulating applications and their dependencies in isolated environments, businesses using containers can leverage code portability and consistency across various stages of development and deployment.

However, before diving into containerization, geo-distributed businesses need to consider several aspects essential for a smooth transition.

According to Kaspersky coding expert Anton Rusakov-Rudenko, Product Marketing Manager, Cloud & Network Security Product Line: “Shifting to containers streamlines development processes, and also paves the way for innovative, resilient, and scalable applications. However, this transition brings unique security challenges that require a proactive and comprehensive approach. By integrating advanced container security solutions, businesses can ensure their applications remain secure and compliant, enabling them to harness the full potential of containerization while safeguarding their digital assets.”

Kaspersky experts have listed out the following points for evaluation and planning before any commitment to adopting container technology:

  1. Security considerations

    For containerized environments security requires a multi-layered approach, particularly for geo-distributed businesses. Containers can introduce unique security challenges, such as vulnerabilities or misconfigurations in container images; outdated images with malware located in image registries; errors or unauthorized access to the orchestrator; runtime vulnerabilities; ability for containers to access the file system in the host OS, and many more. Implementing comprehensive security practices is essential, including regular scanning of container images for vulnerabilities, real-time monitoring and protection for running containers, and ensuring process isolation. Running containers with minimal privileges, implementing network segmentation, and using service meshes for secure communication between microservices are also critical. Additionally, compliance with local data laws and continuous auditing are necessary to address data sovereignty and cross-border data transfer regulations.

  2. Implementation into development pipelines

    Integrating containers into Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines can enhance development agility and reduce deployment times. Containers provide consistent environments, making them ideal for automated testing and deployment. For geo-distributed businesses, CI/CD pipelines must account for deployment across multiple regions, optimizing for latency and ensuring seamless integration. Automated testing, build, and deployment automation are key steps to implement CI/CD with containers.

  3. Resource management and monitoring

    Efficient resource management is critical, to avoid over- or under-provisioning, especially in a geo-distributed environment where resource demands can vary significantly across regions. Monitoring tools help track container performance and resource usage across different locations. Centralized logging solutions with data aggregation from multiple locations, and setting resource requests and limits in orchestration tools, will help ensure balanced resource utilization.

  4. Cost management

    Managing costs effectively is another crucial aspect for geo-distributed businesses. Additional costs related to data transfer, regional pricing differences, and multi-region deployments need to be managed vigilantly. Continuous assessment and adjustment of resource allocations based on usage patterns, implementing auto-scaling policies, and monitoring costs across different regions are essential strategies for cost management.

  5. Training and security culture shift

    Transitioning to container development is not just a technical shift but also a cultural one. Teams must be trained on new tools and practices, and a DevSecOps culture should be promoted to foster collaboration between development, security and operations across different regions. Conducting workshops and training sessions tailored to different regional teams; encouraging practices like “infrastructure as a code” or Shift-left approach, and creating cross-functional teams that include both developers, cybersecurity professionals and operations personnel from different regions — are vital steps to facilitate this shift.

  6. Choosing the right container orchestration tool

    Such a tool is critical in the management of the deployment, scaling, and operation of containerized applications. For geo-distributed business environments it is important to select a tool that supports multi-region deployments efficiently, ensuring minimal latency and seamless integration across different locations. Scalability, community support, and compatibility with existing systems are also key factors to consider.