No software exists in isolation. Applications require not only computers to run but also quite a few other things; at the very least, they can be summarized in two words: dependencies and configuration.

Deploying an application in production, then, requires not only installing its source code, but also making sure that a myriad of components, libraries, frameworks, language runtimes, configuration files, and many other components are properly installed, and configured, and ready to use. This complexity varies from programming language to programming language, but even the smallest application can fail if its needs are not properly met.

The complexity of setting up the proper environments for software to run, coupled with the increased rhythms of deployment in our modern business world, has prompted the industry to come up with innovative solutions in the past 20 years. From Java Archives to configuration management systems like Puppet or Ansible, to Virtual Machines, engineers have been trying to solve this problem over and over again.

The latest, and probably the most ground-breaking of these innovations is, precisely, Container Technology.