// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// * nodes/nodes-containers-using.adoc

[id="nodes-containers-using-about_{context}"]
= Understanding Containers 

The basic units of {product-title} applications are called _containers_.
link:https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/containers#overview[Linux container technologies]
are lightweight mechanisms for isolating running processes so that they are
limited to interacting with only their designated resources.

Many application instances can be running in containers on a single host without
visibility into each others' processes, files, network, and so on. Typically,
each container provides a single service (often called a "micro-service"), such
as a web server or a database, though containers can be used for arbitrary
workloads.

The Linux kernel has been incorporating capabilities for container technologies
for years. {product-title} and
Kubernetes add the ability to orchestrate containers across
multi-host installations.
