While Docker containers are still relatively rare as far as actual production deployments go, security will be a major challenge for IT operations teams in the coming years.

A number of Docker security concerns have already been raised, but data analytics firm New Relic Inc. is hopeful it has the tools to address them. The company has just announced it’s providing support for Docker containers with its flagship Software Analytics Platform, a software-as-a-service tool thats used to monitor application performance and detect unwanted threats.

In addition, New Relic says it’s building a service map application that will be able to better identify data center resources and streamline its alert system to compensate for IT staff fatigue.

As if that wasn’t enough, the company also said it’s joined the Cloud Foundry Foundation, an organization that oversees the development of open source Platform-as-a-Service environments.

Patrick Lightbody, vice president of product management for New Relic, told Information Week the company has updated its agent software in a way that integrates its Software Analytics Platform with container management layer of a Docker container.

“A Docker container looks like just another host and operating system inside an IT environment,” Lightbody said. “We’re taking what is an opaque environment and making it transparent.”

According to Lightbody, while container sprawl hasn’t really become an issue yet, it almost certainly will do as the technology gains in popularity. He noted that a physical server capable of supporting between 10 and 25 virtual machines could theoretically run hundreds of Docker containers. And it becomes even more challenging, because Docker containers can run directly on physical servers, VMs, or in the cloud.

Container technology is driving the emergence of micro-services in numerous enterprises. The technology allows for a more granular approach to delivering application services, and it’s being embraced by developers across the board. Containers give devs a much faster way to provision IT infrastructure resources, and as they gain in popularity, IT operations teams face a challenge to ensure they remain isolated and secure when running in production environments.

To help them, Lightbody says New Relic is building a service map application that will function as an extension of its application performance management service. The app should help IT operations teams to track services running not only on virtual and physical machines running in and out of the cloud, but also those inside Docker containers that can be spun up pretty much anywhere.

Lightbody says that most IT operations teams are unprepared to manage Docker containers in a production environment, but warns it’s only a matter of time before the technology appears everywhere.

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