Cloud, Security & Operations
Containerization
Containerization packages applications and their dependencies into container images so they run identically across laptop, testing and production environments.
Capability overview
What containerization involves
Containers solve the problem of software that works on one machine but not another. An image holds the application, its runtime and libraries, so it behaves identically wherever it runs. That consistency is the first step towards automated deployment and orchestration.
Much of our work containerises existing applications written in Java, .NET, PHP, Python or Node.js. That involves externalising configuration, moving local file storage and sessions to shared services, and building small, secure images that are scanned for vulnerabilities before they reach a registry.
What is included
What containerisation involves
Application assessment
Each application checked for state held on local disk, hard-coded configuration and operating system dependencies that block containerisation.
Image engineering
Multi-stage Dockerfiles producing minimal images on distroless or slim base images, running as non-root users.
Registry and scanning
Private registries with image scanning by tools such as Trivy or Grype, and policies that stop critical vulnerabilities being deployed.
Runtime selection
Choice of where containers run, from Docker Compose on a single host to ECS, Azure Container Apps, Cloud Run or Kubernetes.
How we work
How we deliver containerization
Candidate selection
Applications ranked by containerisation effort and benefit, starting with stateless services.
Refactoring for containers
Configuration moved to environment variables, logs sent to standard output and state moved to databases or object storage.
Image build pipeline
Builds automated in CI with tagging, scanning and signing.
Parallel running
Containerised version run alongside the existing deployment and compared before switching traffic.
Developer workflow
Local development environments updated so developers use the same images day to day.
Related capabilities
Related capabilities in Cloud & DevOps
Kubernetes
Design, build and operation of production Kubernetes clusters on EKS, AKS, GKE or on premises, with the networking, security, autoscaling and GitOps practices needed to run them safely.
Site Reliability Engineering
Engineering practices that keep production systems reliable: service level objectives, error budgets, on-call and incident management, and automation that removes repetitive operational work.
Cloud Infrastructure Management
Day-to-day administration of your cloud accounts and resources: patching, access, backups, change control, rightsizing and tagging, handled under agreed service levels by a named team.
Cloud Monitoring
Observability for cloud applications and infrastructure: metrics, logs and traces collected with OpenTelemetry and native tools, dashboards that answer real questions and alerts that mean something.
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Questions & answers
Questions about Containerization
Cannot find what you need? Our team responds to technical and commercial questions within one business day.
Ask a questionMost server applications can, although some need changes first. Desktop software, applications tied to specific hardware or licences bound to machine identifiers can be difficult or unsuitable.
No. Many organisations run containers successfully on simpler managed services. Kubernetes becomes worthwhile when you operate many services and need its scheduling and extensibility.
They can be, with minimal images, regular rebuilds to pick up patches, non-root users and image scanning. An outdated image with unnecessary packages is a real risk, which is why the build pipeline enforces these checks.
A stateless web service can be containerised in a few days. Older monolithic applications with local state typically take two to four weeks including testing.
Next step
Discuss containerization with Acmez
Share what you need to change, build, integrate or support. We will map the practical next step.