System and methods for using container layers to facilitate cloud resource sharing and decrease startup times

Abstract

A package manager used with a containerization platform can organize code portions into immutable layers. Collections of layers can be organized and saved together as an executable unit. Disclosed solutions recognize that because layers do not change, they can be reused by the same user and can also serve as shared building blocks for multiple environments running simultaneously. To facilitate sharing layers, a system can analyze which ones are common to multiple environments and allow multiple simultaneous environments to share common layers. Layer compression and dominator algorithms can be used to address inherent layer constraints. To facilitate use of existing layers for efficient start-up, code packages can be organized into base layers and additional layers, and commonly-used layers can be cached. New or unique environment requests can combine previously-cached base layers and additional layers to avoid redundant calculations. A just-in-time approach can combine layers into new images on the fly and cache the new images for later use.