Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for controlling container execution. In some examples, a system can determine whether a block of a container image used in running a container is present in local storage at a host. If the block of the container image is present in the local storage at the host, then the system can use the block in the local storage to run the container at the host. If the block of the container image is absent from the local storage at the host, the system can fetch the block of the container image for the host from a container image storage node where the container image resides in its entirety. The system can use the block of the container image fetched from the container image storage node to run the container.