Container is a standard unit of software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another. They're like apartments in the big city of the cloud - they keep your stuff isolated so the sketchy app next door can't cause trouble, but without the outrageous broker fees.

How to use it in a sentence

• I told the new dev on our team to just containerize their app and be done with it - I don't have time to help them untangle that dependency mess when I'm already knee-deep in Kubernetes yaml files.

• After the latest security breach, the CTO decreed that all new microservices must be deployed in containers - great, guess I'll spend my weekend reading Docker tutorials instead of binge-watching Silicon Valley again.

If you actually want to learn more...

• Martin Fowler dives into the challenges of compliance in a DevOps culture, including using compliant container images as building blocks, in his article Compliance in a DevOps Culture.

• The Micro Frontends article explores how independently built JavaScript bundles in containers can lead to duplication of dependencies, but may still improve performance through effective code splitting.

• While not specifically about containers, this collection of articles on object collaboration design covers related concepts like dependency injection, refactoring large classes, and Domain-Driven Design aggregates - useful principles to consider when architecting containerized applications.

Note: the Developer Dictionary is in Beta. Please direct feedback to skye@statsig.com.