Cloud containerization is the practice of packaging an application with the files, libraries, and settings it needs to run. The package can then run consistently across many environments.
Why containers are useful
Containers make deployments more repeatable and portable. They are commonly used in cloud-native systems, microservices, CI/CD pipelines, and Kubernetes clusters.
Containers versus virtual machines
A virtual machine includes a full guest operating system. A container shares the host system more directly, which often makes it lighter and faster to start.
Containers help teams move from "it works on my machine" toward predictable deployments.