The red-hot application container market will soon be where the money is, if the latest forecast from 451 Research Inc. holds true.

The research firm has just published a report titled “Market Monitor Cloud-Enabling Technologies – Application Containers,” saying it expects the market will be worth more than $2.1 billion by the end of next year.

Not only that, the container market will continue to grow at a rapid pace over the next four years, topping $4.3 billion in revenue by 2022. That represents a compound annual growth rate of 30 percent, 451 Research said.

The application container market is expected to grow this fast because enterprises see the technology’s value in helping developers move faster and manage their information technology infrastructure more efficiently, 451 Research said. Application containers are loved by developers because they allow them to write software that can run on any computing platform without making any changes to its code. They also provide an easy way to roll out faster updates on a continuous basis.

451 Research added that around half of the enterprises it surveyed are either using containers now, or planning to do so within the next two years.

“The promise of container technologies to increase developer speed, efficiency and portability across hybrid infrastructures, as well as microservices, are all driving growth,” said Jay Lyman, principal analyst at 451 Research. “Broader and deeper vendor participation along with increasing enterprise use indicate this market will continue to grow and as that growth continues, consolidation in the market is likely.”

The analyst firm said technology companies are scrambling to get aboard the container boat, with both established firms and startups tackling use cases in a variety of fields. These include DevOps, management and orchestration, monitoring networking, security and storage. The diversity of use cases not only demonstrates the broad applicability of containers, but also the opportunity for a wide range of tech companies to grab a slice of the pie.

Lyman said this opportunity will likely encourage other companies not yet involved in the space to enter the market, further accelerating growth. However, he also expects the market to consolidate at some point along the road as the ecosystem matures.

“The industry is already seeing these mergers and acquisitions that include IBM’s recent acquisition of Red Hat and VMware’s purchase of Heptio,” Lyman said. “These recent deals demonstrate how the container market is ripe for more consolidation as well as growth.”

Images: 451 Research