4 ms·

The general trend is away from this and towards containers which leave it up to a monolithic kernel to secure individual processes. Most people run VMs for har

• derefr 11y ago
  That was the trend five years ago. We're on unikernels now.
  • bsaul 11y ago
    Who is "we" ? I had the impression unikernels were still a highly experimental work in progress you could only use with ocaml and that noone had ever used in production for anything serious.
    • amirmc 11y ago
      It's beyond experiments now and there are clear uses for such things. For example, a recent post describes using MirageOS to build a firewall VM [1]. There are also network security/intrusion-detection systems [2]. There are a number of ways to build unikernels and they're not all OCaml (which is just MirageOS) -- http://unikernel.org http://unikernel.org is trying to bring these together. [1] http://roscidus.com/blog/blog/2016/01/01/a-unikernel-firewall-for-qubesos/ http://roscidus.com/blog/blog/2016/01/01/a-unikernel-firewal... [2] https://galois.com/project/cyberchaff/ https://galois.com/project/cyberchaff/
      • bluejekyll 11y ago
        Don't forget standard posix stuff with rumprun.
        • amirmc 11y ago
          Yes, of course. I should also have linked to the Unikernel+Docker demo [1], which is taking legacy software and using Rump Kernels and the Docker toolchain to deploy unikernels (to show how all these things can create a multiplier effect in terms of benefits). It would be great to get a list of live unikernel deployments listed somewhere to address questions like this when they come up. [1] http://unikernel.org/blog/2015/unikernels-meet-docker/ http://unikernel.org/blog/2015/unikernels-meet-docker/
    • ris 11y ago
      "Who is "we" ?" Hipsters.
    • meddlepal 11y ago
      They're pretty cutting edge still but not that experimental. I think we'll see unikernels explode in popularity towards the end of 2016 or in 2017.