What is a common approach to ensure software applications run on consistent environments during development?

Containerization is a method that allows developers to package software applications along with their dependencies into isolated units called containers. This approach ensures that applications run consistently across different environments, from development to production. By encapsulating all necessary libraries, configurations, and runtime components, containers eliminate the "it works on my machine" problem, where software may behave differently in various environments.

Containers are lightweight and leverage the host system's operating system kernel, enabling more efficient resource utilization compared to traditional virtual machines. With container orchestration tools like Kubernetes, it becomes easier to manage, scale, and deploy applications consistently, making containerization a preferred choice for modern application development and deployment practices.

In contrast, while virtualization creates isolated environments, these can be heavier and may not provide the same level of consistency for application dependencies. Server isolation and dedicated hosting focus more on resource allocation and security rather than ensuring uniform environments for application execution. Thus, containerization stands out as the most effective approach for achieving consistent environments in software development.