{"id":14262,"date":"2015-07-05T04:51:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-05T04:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/software-container\/"},"modified":"2022-09-21T19:35:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T19:35:31","slug":"software-container","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers","title":{"rendered":"Software Container"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_software_container_mean\">What Does Software Container Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A container is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/7094\/executable-exe\">executable<\/a> software module that is bundled with all its dependencies. Containers are commonly used to provide system portability for IT services and distributed workloads in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/33511\/multi-cloud-strategy\">multi-cloud<\/a> environments.<\/p>\n<p>Containerization was initially developed as an cloud-friendly alternative to traditional hypervisor-based virtualization and virtual machines (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4805\/virtual-machine-vm\">VMs<\/a>). Containers are often referred to as being lightweight because they share the host&#39;s operating system <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3277\/kernel\">kernel<\/a> and unlike virtual machines, do not require a full operating system (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3277\/kernel\">OS<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Containers can exist separately and independently from an existing host infrastructure because they have everything needed to run an application &#8212; including code, runtimes, system tools, system libraries and configuration settings.<\/p>\n<p>The initial module, which includes the dependencies an application needs in order to run, is referred to as the container image. Images are read-only files that can be used (and re-used) as needed.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_software_container\">Techopedia Explains Software Container<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Containers function like isolated, secure building blocks that can be used (and re-used) in a modular fashion. Because container images hold everything needed for an application, developers do not need to make changes to code for new computing environments. The use of containers is rapidly growing, as are the number of tools available for container creation, execution and management.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"advantages_of_software_containers\">Advantages of Software Containers<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Containers allow programmers to develop and deploy applications quickly and use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/6580\/compute\">compute resources<\/a> efficiently.<\/li>\n<li>Containers are modular &#8212; they can be created once and used multiple times without additional attention.<\/li>\n<li>Each container runs as a secure, isolated process in user space.<\/li>\n<li>Containers run on a virtualized layer that can be executed from many different hardware resources without requiring significant modifications.<\/li>\n<li>Containers can be spun up almost instantly and take up less space than VMs.<\/li>\n<li>Multiple containers can run on the same machine and share the OS kernel with other containers.<\/li>\n<li>Containers free developers from having to manage multiple configuration environments, support libraries and configurations throughout the software development lifecycle.<\/li>\n<li>Containers can be integrated with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24562\/revision-control\">revision control<\/a> systems like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28960\/git\">Git<\/a> and container registries like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31115\/docker\">Docker<\/a> Hub. Once a developer has uploaded a container image to a registry, it can be imported from a number of different platforms.<\/li>\n<li>Containers support <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24368\/continuous-integration-ci\">continuous integration<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28958\/continuous-delivery-cd\">continuous delivery<\/a> (CI\/CD) workflows.<\/li>\n<li>Each container can be run as a single process <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32503\/microservices\">microservice<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span id=\"container_management\">Container Management<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Container management systems allow developers to group multiple containers together, schedule and automate deployments, and scale applications quickly to meet changing business needs and priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Popular container orchestration tools include:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.docker.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Docker<\/a> &#8211; an open platform for managing container lifecycles.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kubernetes.io\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kubernetes<\/a> (k8s) &#8211; an open-source container orchestration system. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32573\/kubernetes\">Kubernetes containers<\/a> that share storage and a local network are known as Pods.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/ecs\/\" target=\"_blank\">Elastic Container Service<\/a> (AWS ECS) &#8211; a proprietary, fully-managed container orchestration service from Amazon.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/learn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/azure\/aks\/intro-kubernetes\" target=\"_blank\">Azure Kubernetes Service<\/a> (AKS) &#8211; Microsoft&#39;s open-source, fully managed container orchestration service based on Kubernetes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Software Container Mean? A container is an executable software module that is bundled with all its dependencies. Containers are commonly used to provide system portability for IT services and distributed workloads in multi-cloud environments. Containerization was initially developed as an cloud-friendly alternative to traditional hypervisor-based virtualization and virtual machines (VMs). Containers are often [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[215,216],"class_list":["post-14262","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-cloud-computing","definitioncat-software-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Software Container? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition simply explains the meaning of Software Containers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Software Container\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition simply explains the meaning of Software Containers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-21T19:35:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Software Container\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-05T04:51:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-21T19:35:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers\"},\"wordCount\":473,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers\",\"name\":\"What is Software Container? - Definition from Techopedia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-05T04:51:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-21T19:35:31+00:00\",\"description\":\"This definition simply explains the meaning of Software Containers.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Software Development\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/topic\/2\/software-development\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Term\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Software Container\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/\",\"name\":\"Techopedia\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Techopedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/techopedia-light-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/techopedia-light-logo.svg\",\"caption\":\"Techopedia\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/techopedia\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/techopedia\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Techopedia\"],\"publishingPrinciples\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/about\/editorial-policy\",\"ownershipFundingInfo\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/about\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\",\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/margaret-rouse-headshot.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/margaret-rouse-headshot.jpeg\",\"caption\":\"Margaret Rouse\"},\"description\":\"Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other\u2019s highly specialized languages.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/margaretrouse\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/@techdefinitions\"],\"knowsAbout\":[\"Technology Expert\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/contributors\/margaret-rouse\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What is Software Container? - Definition from Techopedia","description":"This definition simply explains the meaning of Software Containers.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Software Container","og_description":"This definition simply explains the meaning of Software Containers.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers","og_site_name":"Techopedia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/","article_modified_time":"2022-09-21T19:35:31+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@techopedia","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers"},"author":{"name":"Margaret Rouse","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5"},"headline":"Software Container","datePublished":"2015-07-05T04:51:47+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-21T19:35:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers"},"wordCount":473,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers#respond"]}],"articleSection":""},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers","name":"What is Software Container? - Definition from Techopedia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-07-05T04:51:47+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-21T19:35:31+00:00","description":"This definition simply explains the meaning of Software Containers.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31234\/containerization-computers#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Software Development","item":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/topic\/2\/software-development"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Term","item":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Software Container"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/","name":"Techopedia","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization","name":"Techopedia","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/techopedia-light-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/techopedia-light-logo.svg","caption":"Techopedia"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/","https:\/\/x.com\/techopedia","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/techopedia\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Techopedia"],"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/about\/editorial-policy","ownershipFundingInfo":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/about"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5","name":"Margaret Rouse","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/margaret-rouse-headshot.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/margaret-rouse-headshot.jpeg","caption":"Margaret Rouse"},"description":"Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other\u2019s highly specialized languages.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/margaretrouse\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/@techdefinitions"],"knowsAbout":["Technology Expert"],"url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/contributors\/margaret-rouse"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/definition\/14262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/definition"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/definition"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/definition\/14262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"definitioncat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/definitioncat?post=14262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}