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Container engine software is used by companies to run multiple application containers on the same operating system.
A container engine allows users to accept requests, pull images, and runs containers. The software can increase application performance, agility, and scalability.
Container engine software is becoming essential to all types of organizations. It is estimated that 90% of global organizations will be using containerization software by 2026, according to Gartner.
See below to learn all about container engine technologies and the top container engine solutions in the market:
Choosing the right container engine software
- Top container engine software
- Docker Engine
- Oracle Engine
- IBM WebSphere Hybrid Edition
- vSphere Integrated Containers Engine
- Google Kubernetes Engine
- Rancher Kubernetes Engine
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
- Podman
- AWS Fargate
- Container engine features and benefits
- Container engine use cases
- What to look for in container engine software
Top container engine software
Docker Engine
Docker is an open container platform to develop, ship, and run applications as well as manage infrastructure and applications.
Their Docker Engine can help a company ship, test, and deploy code that can decrease the delay between writing code and running code in production.
“Docker shows up and radically reduces the amount of work to package all your application, all its dependencies up into an immutable container, and ship it from dev to production,” saysScott Johnston, CEO of Docker, on the Kubernetes Podcast.
Docker took first place for “Most Loved” and second for “Most Wanted” in a survey by StackOverflow in 2021.
Differentiators
- Powered by Containerd
- Integrated Buildkit
- Docker command line interface (CLI)
Pricing
See Docker’s pricing page for details.
Oracle Engine
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Container Engine for Kubernetes is a service made to deploy containerized applications to the cloud. Oracle isOracle is is a leader in the database management systems and cloud computing sectors.
Oracle’s container software can also help build, deploy, and manage a company’s container infrastructure.
“Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Container Engine for Kubernetes can run on so many different platforms. There are so many different machines where Oracle Cloud Kubernetes are readily available for local Docker-based solutions, a hosted solution, turnkey cloud solution, and use of kubeadm to easily fetch the commands from various machines,” says a user of OCI Container Engine at G2.
Oracle was recognized as one of the “Top 50 Companies” byin by LinkedIn in 2021 and recognized on the “World’s Most Reputable Companies” list by the Reputation Institute in 2019.
Differentiators
- One-click cluster creation
- Support for GPU and arm-based instances
- No cluster management fee
Pricing
Visit Oracle’s cost estimator for information.
IBM WebSphere Hybrid Edition
IBM is a leader in cloud computing as well as software and consulting.
IBM WebSphere Hybrid Edition is a container engine that can support business microservices, migrate containers, leverage open-source, and deploy applications.
“As soon as we start delivering some first candidates of the applications to be modernized, they notice the advantage. They see faster deployment times, less impact. No long maintenance windows to deploy a new application,” says Kilian Niemegeerts, co-founder of FlowFactor, on IBM WebSphere Hybrid Edition.
IBM was recognized as one of the “World’s Most Admired Companies” by Fortune in 2020 and one of the “The World’s Most Valuable Brands” by Forbes in 2020.
Differentiators
- Hybrid, multicloud
- Microservices
- Infrastructure utilization
Pricing
See IBM’s cost estimator for information on pricing.
vSphere Integrated Containers Engine
VMware is a provider of multicloud services for apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control. 
vSphere Integrated Containers Engine can, for instance, support container packaging and run times for enterprises.
Among its many awards, VMware was named “HPE Global Technology Partner of the Year” in 2022.
Differentiators
- Container management portal
- Coexists with tradition and modern design
- Eliminates extensive approval proces
Pricing
vSphere Integrated Containers Engine is open-sourceis an open-source and free to use.
Google Kubernetes Engine
Google is a leader in the cloud computing and containerization sectors as well as the original developer of Kubernetes. 
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) offers both autopilot and standard modes, along with features such as pod and cluster auto-scaling and prebuilt Kubernetes applications and templates.
“In addition to standard Kubernetes features, GKE provides Google Cloud load balancer support for containers, a private container registry, a centralized logging solution with Google Cloud Logging, Identity and Access Management, and many other public cloud features. The user interface is very intuitive,” says a reviewer of GKE at G2.
Overall, users give GKE a rating of 4.6 out of 5 at Gartner Peer Insights.
Differentiators
- Two modes of operation, autopilot and standard
- Prebuilt Kubernetes applications and templates
- Streamline operations with release channels
Pricing
To see pricing, visit Google Cloud’s pricing calculator.
Rancher Kubernetes Engine
Rancher supports containerized workloads in on-premises, cloud, hybrid cloud, and edge deployments. 
Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE)is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)-certified platform that distributes and runs within Docker containers. Working on both bare-metal and virtualized servers, RKE solves problems by using automatedoperation, vendor independence, and atomic upgrades.
“We positioned ourselves as a container cloud platform product supplier for enterprise users. Our mission is to help companies quickly. The innovative technology of the container is reliably landed,” says Dr. Liang Sheng, CEO of Rancher.
Users give Rancher a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars at G2. Rancher also ranked third for the “ Customer Happiness Award” by NiceReply in 2020.
Differentiators
- CNCF certification
- 24/7 enterprise level support
- Vendor independence
Pricing
Request pricing information for RKE here.
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is a hybrid cloud foundation for building and scaling containerized applications. Red Hat provides enterprise open-source solutions, using Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. 
Between migrating existing workloads or building new experiences for customers, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform works to deliver a consistent Kubernetes platform.
“Now, with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, we’re more agile. We can think of an idea, try it, fail, learn, and make adjustments. Culturally, that’s a big change,” says Simon Cashmore, head of platform-as-a-service (PaaS) middleware engineering at Barclays, a user of OpenShift Container Platform.
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform received a CODiE award in the best PaaS category for three years.
Differentiators
- Robust ecosystem
- Edge architect support
- Sandbox containers
Pricing
Here are the listed prices for OpenShift, and here is how to reach out to sales.
Podman
A daemonless, open-source, Linux-native tool called Podman is a container engine designed to work with, run, build, and arrange applications using Open Containers Initiative (OCI) standards. 
Linux Corporation, creator of Podman, targets the enterprise server sector and is developing e-commerce software. Podman containers were developed to help increase production, distribution, discoverability, and usage of applications with dependencies and default configuration files.
“Podman containers continue to evolve and become ever more practical. For heavy workloads, native overlayf should provide a much better performance experience than with fuse-overlayfs,” says Red Hat in a post.
A class about Podman is available on Cloud Academy, where students give the course a 4.6 out of 5 rating.
Differentiators
- Rootless containers
- Multiple users run containers at the same time
- Code utilizes root privileges without root user of host system
Pricing
Podman is an open-source platform that is free.
AWS Fargate
AWS Fargate is container engine software that has the ability to run containers without managing servers and compute options. AWS offers a line of container products. 
The container engine software by AWS can build container images, define memory and compute resources, run and manage applications, and isolate by design. A company can pay for requested compute sources when used.
“There was still a lot of manual work required to create an execution environment for these containers. With Fargate support, this undifferentiated heavy lifting becomes Amazon’s responsibility, allowing you to focus on the business needs,” says Luc van Donkersgoed, head of AWS technology at SentiaCloud.
AWS Fargate receives a user rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars at G2.
Differentiators
- Monitor applications with built-in integrations
- Pay only for what is used
Pricing
See the pricing calculator for AWS Fargate.
Container Engine Features and Benefits
Management
- Simplified management gives IT and developers the ability to start, stop, and restart containers and release updates
Speed
- Container engines are efficient with deployment, patching, and sealing
- Increases development, testing, and production, with less use of IT employee’s time
Use cases
Mach
Mach is a virtual prepaid banking card application in Chile. Bci, Mach’s parent company, was seeing growth in Mach.
They decided to use AWS Fargate to help with security. Their goal was to have as much security as a regular bank. They also needed to take away the risk of any outages for their customers. While using AWS Fargate, Mach boomed as a company.
“We are using AWS Fargate to manage our containers. This allows us to delegate the scalability to the AWS platform. We’ve had some campaigns that have brought more than 100,000 users in two days, which means an increase of 50 times the traffic that our platform was receiving. The service was not affected thanks to these managed services,” says Eugenio Gajardo, CTO of Mach.
HCA Healthcare
HCA Healthcare aims to use tech and data to support modern health care.
HCA Healthcare wanted to find new solutions for health care challenges and needed more predictive data to help with sepsis detection. With the help of Red Hat technology, HCA Healthcare created the Sepsis Prediction and Optimization of Therapy (SPOT) platform to analyze and collect data and signals in real-time to initiate early treatment. Red Hat’s open-source software was used by HCA Healthcare to create a scalable, container-based PPasS foundation.
“The products we run affect people’s lives deeply, and we need partners who are there to work with us 24/7. Our relationship with Red Hat is critical to ensuring service quality in the clinical environment,” says Dr. Edmund Jackson, CDS, HCA Healthcare.
What to look for in container engine software
The container engine software market is growing, giving companies more options to pick exactly what solution they need. Gartner predicts that by 2023, over 70% of businesses worldwide will be using more than two containerized applications in production. IT and development teams should consider the number of containers, management, security, flexibility, compatibility, and scale throughout the decision-making process for a container engine solution.
