Definition
Plain language
Software that bundles an application with everything it needs to run, so it works the same anywhere.
As stated in the literature
A containerization platform packaging applications with their dependencies into isolated, portable runtime environments.
Why it matters: Containerization is how nearly all modern ML services get deployed, making reproducibility and isolation the default rather than a special effort.
For example, a team ships their model server as a Docker image, and it runs identically on a laptop, a cloud VM, and a Kubernetes cluster.
Heard on the show
“Real SSH connections into Docker containers.”Episode 001 — When AI Models Quietly Protect Each Other From Shutdown