Cloud Docker Hosting with appfleet
The appfleet cloud platform allows you to easily deploy and host your docker containers in multiple regions globally. Host your containerized web applications on the edge without any limitations!
appfleet is an edge platform
We host your dynamic services globally closer to your users
Globally Load-Balanced
Host your service, site or application on multiple locations at the same time. Be closer to your users and improve your performance and uptime.
Any tech-stack
appfleet is a cloud-based container hosting platform that allows you to deploy your code in any language, framework or technology.
Serverless Containers
Run stateless and stateful containers on a fully managed globally distributed infrastructure. No servers or routing to manage.
What is Docker?
If you are a developer or work in the IT industry then it’s very highly likely that you must have heard about docker. Docker in simple words is a tool which makes it easier to create, run and deploy applications by using containers. A container is a logical packaging of a software which encapsulates all the code, binaries and dependencies required to run the software into a single unit.
Containers simplify software packaging - docker simplifies container management, and together they make your life better. Docker helps you build containers and run them in different environments. Before Docker, it was extremely challenging to package any application regardless of language/framework/dependencies so that it can run on any cloud/environment/OS. Containers and docker make this trivial and that’s the reason why developers all over the world love it.
There are a large number of options available for hosting docker containers online. Though you have multiple options to choose from, each has its own pros and cons. All major docker hosting options and be divided into 3 categories:
1. Self hosted / Self Managed: In this method you usually get a VPS or a VM from a cloud provider, install docker daemon on it and run your docker container there. You are entirely responsible for managing your docker daemon, monitoring and managing your server. Another option in this category is to deploy and run your own container orchestration framework like Kubernetes or DCOS.
Orchestration frameworks make it simple to run containers or a large pool of hardware but they are extremely painful to set up and manage.
2. Managed Container Orchestration Cluster: Many cloud providers give you an option to run a fully managed orchestration cluster like Kubernetes, DCOS, docker-swarm, etc. For example, Amazon provides EKS and Azure provides AKS.
Managed kubernetes is the most widely available option in this category and is supported by almost all major cloud providers. In this method you still rent the servers and pay for them but do not manage them. The upgrades and security patches are done by cloud providers.
This method is extremely powerful for single region deployments though not so much for multi-region. Also most of these orchestration frameworks are mammoth and involve a huge learning curve for your development and operations teams.
3.PaaS (Platform as a Service model): This is one of the most popular models right now. It involves a comparatively smaller learning curve. They usually abstract a lot of complication involved in running docker containers away from the user. Even though PaaS providers aim to make things simple - they tend to be extremely limited features as well.
Each PaaS provider promotes a specific use case and offers you tooling and services around it.
Heroku is one of the most popular service providers which follows this model but it’s very limited as well. For example it only allows you to run HTTP services, limits supported protocols and applications as well as many other limitations.
Pros and Cons of Docker hosting providers
Self hosted / Self managed
Pros:
- Full control over the infrastructure. The server running docker daemon is entirely managed by you and hence you can do a whole bunch of optimizations as you want.
- The underlying hardware can be cheaper than many cloud solutions
Cons:
- Full control is not necessarily always a good thing. With manual management there’s a scope of knowledge gap which can quickly make full control counterproductive.
- Users have to deploy/build their own monitoring stack to monitor their containers
- Scalability is a major problem. Users have to manually manage containers running on each server, there’s no support for native container orchestration and if users want it then they have to deploy things like kubernetes, dcos, docker-swarm, etc on a group of servers that they manage.
- In most cases it requires a dedicated operations team which can be very expensive for most users.
- Deploying and running orchestration frameworks is a very operations heavy thing to do and not possible for all teams.
Self hosted / Self managed solutions are only good if you have a very small user base and operate in a single region or have an existing system administration team that can manage and maintain the system for you. Also it’s a good fit if you need to run a relatively lower number of independent applications and do not have a dedicated team to look into your Infra.
Managed Container Orchestration Cluster
Pros:
- Cloud providers have made it extremely simple to run production ready orchestration frameworks like kubernetes. You get a functional cluster from your provider and that saves a lot of time.
- You do not need a dedicated team to set up and manage your cluster
Cons:
- Even though the managed option makes it extremely simple to get started these frameworks still involve a steep learning curve. It’s not simple to get your operations and development team onboard to frameworks like kubernetes. It has to be done slowly and in smaller iterations.
- Even after a lot of abstraction - there’s still a lot of things to be managed by the users. All the flexibility offered by these frameworks can quickly turn counterproductive if there’s not enough knowledge about it in your team.
- Most of these orchestration frameworks are tuned to run in containers in a single region/data-center.
Managed orchestration clusters are easy to set up but difficult to manage and learn. Most of these managed options are powerful for single region deployments only. They reduce load on the operations team and increase developer productivity but all of it comes at an additional expense of building framework expertise which takes time.
PaaS
Pros:
- Many service providers offer this model and hence consumers have a lot of options to choose from.
- Quick to onboard: Usually a lot of PaaS providers provide you with tools that make it simple for users to onboard their services.
- Fully managed: In the PaaS model consumers do not have to worry about managing VMs or any other infra.
- Low operational expense: Most of the PaaS providers provide you monitoring and logging solutions for free or at nominal cost. This prevents a lot of engineering effort required to build and manage these systems.
Cons:
- With so many options available it’s really difficult to find a good one which provides everything that you need.
- Most PaaS providers do not support running containers in multiple regions. That’s a huge limitation if you want to run containers for low latency use cases.
- PaaS providers tend to focus on a single use case and try to solve a very specific problem. For example, many major PaaS providers only let you run http services and nothing else.
- The tooling provided by most PaaS providers make you integrate very tightly with their offering and that makes it extremely difficult to move to other vendors if needed.
- Most of the time they are very limited in functionality and supported use-cases
- They can often be very expensive. Especially in cases of high-load and high bandwidth usage
Why appfleet is the best Docker hosting provider?
appfleet simplifies the process of running docker containers. It is built for running low latency applications on the edge - closer to your users. With appfleet you do not have to spend time building a team to manage a mammoth clustering framework or learning a whole new technology or digging through thousands of lines of documentation.
Just provide a docker image - choose regions - and you are done, no need to worry about orchestration, clustering, serverless frameworks or load balancing your traffic because appfleet does it all for you.
With a few clicks you have a highly available - globally distributed cluster of docker containers working for you.
appfleet is focused on making the life of users less painful - and hence it focuses on abstracting out all the complexities so that you can focus on what you are good at.
On top of all this, appfleet also offers some more features to give you a more control and offer a user friendly experience:
- Github Integration: Keep your code in a github repo and deploy changes as you push them. No need to build your own containers, appfleet will handle everything automatically.
- Global Redis cache: Every application has free access to a globally geo-distributed Redis database for data caching and state synchronization. A local low latency Redis cache is also available. Your containers can store data in it and query it with low latency.
- Managed HTTPS: appfleet can automatically install and maintain a LetsEncrypt TLS certificate for free for all web applications
- Console access: A developer friendly feature for those who want more control. Appfleet gives you direct control of your container by letting you connect to it directly using a web console. This feature can come in very handy for debugging.
- Logging: We store and process the output and logs of all deployed applications for easier debugging
- Monitoring: All of your instances are constantly monitored. You can get historic CPU, Ram and disk usage information. You do not need to set up a monitoring infrastructure to avail this feature - just a few clicks.
- File cache: All nodes come with a locally mounted caching filesystem that persists between deployments. This feature can come in handy if you want to store some files locally and have them available across deployments.
With all these features and a simple yet powerful UI, appfleet is one of the best options out there to host your docker containers. Try it now without any contracts and pay as you go pricing.
Host your Docker apps
and get a fully automated platform with multiple global POPs, high-availability and low latency
…and other features
appfleet doesn’t end with your product’s deployement
Custom health checks
Configure your own custom health checks per application and we will add them to our own internal checks that we continuously run to ensure your service is alive and well
All languages supported
Node.js, PHP, Golang, Java, Python, everything is supported, thanks to Docker containers. Don't let your technology of choice limit you.
Included HTTPS
For any web service we can automatically install and maintain a LetsEncrypt TLS certificate for free.
Better performance
By using multiple regions at the same time you can lower the latency and easily improve performance for your global audience
Public & private registries
Use any public or private container registry like Docker Cloud, Github Registries, Quay, Google Cloud and more
Console access
Assume direct control of your container by connecting directly to it by using our web console
File Cache
All nodes come with a locally mounted caching filesystem that persists between deployments for improved performance
Logging
We store and process the output and logs of all deployed applications for easier debugging.
Monitoring
All of your instances are constantly monitored. Get historic and real-time CPU, RAM and Disk usage.
