Enterprise Container Management Best Practices: Case Studies and Lessons Learned

Containers are a powerful tool that empower enterprises’ cloud native modernization. Containerized workloads offer unprecedented agility and scalability, but running them on an enterprise scale introduces unique complexities.

Enterprise container management solutions lower the barriers to entry and allow more enterprises to innovate and modernize with container systems like Kubernetes. Tools like these allow companies to implement consistent security policies, maintain compliance and integrate with existing systems while empowering unprecedented agility and innovation.

Harness the power of containerized workloads sooner reducing complexity with enterprise container management increasing efficient application builds and deployments. Let’s dive into several enterprises’ real world lessons in container management and the best practices they learned.

Enterprise-level container management in action

Best practice: increase efficiency using cloud native tools and workflows on virtualized infrastructure

As enterprises continue adopting containerized workloads, efficient management of the underlying infrastructure becomes critical. One key best practice is utilizing a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platform to streamline the management of both virtual machines and Kubernetes clusters. This approach offers scalability and simplified operations from a single interface, allowing IT teams to seamlessly manage diverse workloads.

ECKD, a leading IT service provider for churches and charities in Germany, successfully applied this strategy by integrating SUSE’s HCI platform, Harvester, into its infrastructure.

With a quickly growing service portal, ECKD soon realized it required an orchestrated solution like Kubernetes to run its HR software as a containerized application.

Using Harvester’s native integration with Rancher Prime, ECKD consolidated its virtualization and container management processes, reducing manual effort and eliminating common sources of error. The seamless combination of HCI and Kubernetes enabled them to deliver new software functionalities faster and scale IT resources on demand, meeting the evolving needs of their customers.

By simplifying infrastructure management with virtualization, ECKD now has achieved the following: 

• Reduced deployment time by up to 95%.
• Simplified development and operation of modern containerized applications.
• Automated operational processes.

This demonstrates the value of incorporating virtualization as a best practice for enterprises looking to optimize their container management, especially in dynamic and resource-intensive environments.

Learn more about ECKD’s journey into enterprise container management. 

Best practice: implement zero trust security for containerized platforms

Security must be embedded at every layer of containerized environments. One of the most effective strategies to ensure security is adopting a zero trust model—where every interaction, whether internal or external, is verified and authenticated before granting access. Implementing a zero trust architecture for container security can help enterprises protect against both known and emerging threats, while maintaining regulatory compliance.

Oldenburgische Landesbank (OLB), Germany’s leading private and corporate bank, provides a perfect example of this in action. Prior to adopting SUSE’s enterprise container management, OLB found that most of its systems were not cloud-ready, and its prior vendor choice had repeated disruptions to workloads within clusters. To maintain its efficiency and stay ahead of the competitive market, OLB chose NeuVector Prime by SUSE to secure its cloud native infrastructure.

By using NeuVector Prime, OLB Bank gained real-time threat protection and continuous vulnerability scanning, ensuring their systems were constantly monitored for any anomalies. Additionally, the platform’s seamless integration with OLB Bank’s existing configuration management systems enabled centralized, role-based access control—an essential element in maintaining zero trust principles. With this strategy, OLB Bank could focus on driving innovation and reducing operational costs, all while ensuring their containerized applications met stringent compliance and security standards.

With NeuVector Prime, OLB Bank secured: 

• Access to SUSE’s enterprise-grade support for full security visibility and maintenance.
• An enhanced IT banking infrastructure to support more customers.
• Build-time protection for applicants within the build pipeline.
• Support from our customer success manager at any time. 

Learn more about the benefits OLB received from adopting NeuVector Prime. 

Integrating a robust zero trust security solution like NeuVector is a critical best practice for enterprises adopting containerized infrastructures. It ensures proactive defense against vulnerabilities and facilitates secure scalability, making it an essential component of a secure and compliant container management strategy.

Best practice: Simplify Kubernetes management with a container management platform

Managing containerized workloads at scale can be a complex task, particularly as businesses grow and demand for infrastructure increases. This is where a container management platform like SUSE Rancher Prime plays a critical role. It enables businesses to handle containerized applications with greater efficiency, ensuring scalability, reliability and ease of management.

For example, Interconnect, a cloud service provider in the Netherlands, helped an educational software provider overcome challenges with their Kubernetes environment. The company had recently acquired a new Kubernetes landscape built by one of its clients, which required Interconnect to grow and expand its infrastructure to be more robust and scalable. By migrating to Rancher Prime, Interconnect enabled the software provider to achieve a smoother, non-disruptive upgrade process, significantly reducing downtime.

Rancher Prime’s automation features, such as the cluster autoscaler, automatically adjust resources based on real-time demand, allowing the software provider to meet fluctuating workload requirements without manual intervention or costly over-provisioning. As a result, the company now benefits from a stable and scalable infrastructure, allowing it to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure maintenance.

By adopting Rancher Prime by SUSE, Interconnect now has the following:

• A truly open source solution backed by a vendor with a strong presence in Europe.
• A self-healing, auto-scaling platform with little downtime.
• A single point of contact for support and billing.
• Stability and automation tools to manage Kubernetes.

Learn more about Interconnect and its success with Rancher Prime.

For businesses looking to streamline the management of their containerized workloads, a platform like Rancher Prime offers the automation, scalability and reliability needed to grow efficiently while maintaining system stability.

Learn more about enterprise-level container management

By adopting best practices for enterprise container management, such as leveraging powerful container management solutions, businesses can simplify the complexity of Kubernetes environments while empowering more innovation.

SUSE is a leader in delivering innovation to the market fast by using the industry’s most innovative cloud native technologies. Businesses who adopt our container management products build and deliver services faster than their competitors without compromising security or reliability.

SUSE Enterprise Container Management suite includes:

1. Rancher Prime is a container management platform that delivers stress-free infrastructure to securely deploy, run and manage modern workloads anywhere.
2. Harvester delivers an open source, cloud native virtualization platform for a cloud native and hybrid cloud world.
3. Longhorn is an official CNCF project that delivers a powerful cloud native distributed storage platform for Kubernetes that can run anywhere.
4. NeuVector Prime is the only fully open source, zero trust container security platform.

With SUSE’s suite of enterprise container management solutions, businesses can future-proof their operations, reduce complexity, and position themselves to adapt to the evolving needs of their customers. With the right tools in place, managing containerized workloads becomes a strategic advantage that drives business success.

Learn more about container management best practices in our white paper: Optimizing Kubernetes for maximum performance, flexibility & security.