CaaS stands for Container as a Service. It is a type of cloud service model that allows users to upload, edit, start, stop, scale and otherwise manage containers, applications and clusters. Containers are a form of lightweight virtualization that isolate the applications from the underlying operating system and hardware, making them more portable, efficient and secure.
CaaS is relevant in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) because it enables organizations to create and manage cloud-native applications and services more efficiently and flexibly. CaaS allows application teams to spin up containers on demand, without having to install and configure the container engine or the orchestration platform. CaaS also supports various features and functions, such as load balancing, networking, storage, security, monitoring, etc., that enhance the functionality and reliability of cloud applications and services.
CaaS also provides access to a wide range of choices for the container engine and the orchestration platform, such as Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, etc., that most organizations cannot practically or affordably maintain themselves. CaaS also lets users try or test new operating systems, languages and other tools without having to make substantial investments in them, or in the infrastructure required to run them.
CaaS is a core service in OpenStack, which is an open source cloud management platform. OpenStack CaaS provides standardized container services for application instances, such as web servers, database servers, etc. OpenStack CaaS supports different types of container engines and orchestration platforms, such as Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, Magnum, etc.