A container is a lightweight, standalone, and executable software package that includes everything needed to run a piece of software, including the code, runtime, system tools, libraries, and settings.
Containers are designed to be portable and consistent across various environments, from development to testing to production. They encapsulate an application and its dependencies, ensuring that the software will run the same regardless of where it is deployed. Containers use the host system’s operating system kernel but run in isolated user spaces, which makes them more efficient than traditional virtual machines.
Docker is a popular platform that provides tools to create, deploy, and manage containers. Kubernetes is a widely-used orchestration system for managing containerized applications at scale.