Alex Polvi, CEO of CoreOS, Inc., a provider of open-source projects for Linux Containers, wants to clear up any confusion that still exists about containers.

Polvi sat down with Jeff Frick on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s production team, at OpenStack Silicon Valley 2015 to discuss why the momentum is only now shifting toward containers when they have been around for a long time.

The confusion about containers is causing hesitation in adoption, according to Polvi, who discredited two of the container myths: The first, legacy apps can’t run in containers, and the second, applications have to be stateless to run in containers. He explained why these assumptions are not true.

Perfect timing

When asked why the current shift to containers, Polvi responded, “Everyone is ready for it at this point … but the difference is people are ready to consume and compute in this way. So the market timing is right.”

He went on to explain that containers are not just a way of just packaging applications, but they provide a method of running infrastructure overall. This is where vendors are fighting for market space, and this is where the excitement lies.

New thinking: Applications trump servers

Businesses care about applications first. The server is really just a resource for the applications. In today’s environment, Polvi sees the focus being on how applications consume these resources instead of how the servers run applications.

Polvi covered topics like the problems with API portability and the interoperability benefits containers provide, again stating that the shift begins at the application level instead of the server level.

The short-term goal for CoreOS is to have companies running infrastructure in the container environment. According to Polvi, “The key to good security is to manage updates, make them automatic.” In his opinion, a bad update is just as helpful because it allows you work out the problems.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the OpenStack Silicon Valley 2015.

Photo by SiliconANGLE