Let’s innovate with: Docker

As the sircle Paltform Innovation everyday we use a variety of innovative tools and technologies to do our job. So today I want to present you one of those tools, so sit back and let’s innovate with Docker.

What is Docker?

Docker is a free and open source containerization platform that allows the creation of containers, wich are small executable components that contain all the application code and dependencies needed to run the application in question. This containers are also standardized, this means that we will always get the same result regardless of the machine they are on, and so allowing us to test our applications in a safe environment without worrying that it will not work in production.

How does it work?

Docker works by using the OS-level virtualization offered by the Linux kernel (you can also use it on machines that are not running a Linux OS) to give every container it’s personal virtualized environment isolated from the other container. This is different from the more traditional virtual machine because with virtual machines you also have install an entire OS for every single instance.

Why use Docker instead of VMs?

Since docker does not require an entire OS for every single instance, containers can be deployd in just a few seconds (this also allows for really fast reboots when needed), compare to a traditional VM that needs to boot the OS and then the application. Containers are also lightweight and use very few resources making them ideal in a server environment or low spec system, they are also really fast compared to VMs since they don’t have to run an OS. It’s highly portable, since the container configuration is done with a Dockerfile you can just copy the file to another machine with Docker and your good to go. The containers are isolated, this means that every container can have it’s own version of a software. For example, if you have two application that need two different versions of PHP to work you can just specify the PHP version that you need during the creation of the Dockerfile and since the two containers are isolated they won’t interfere with eachother (with VMs you would have to create a separate VM every single time). Being isolated also makes them really secure, since the container can’t see the processes of other container, they also have their resources and you don’t risk having container stealing eachothers resources.

Conclusions

In conclusion, Docker is a really innovative piece of software that is a great alternative to VM, it’s also growing really quickly and getting adopted by big companies (such as Adobe, Netflix, Paypal and many more) and it’s really worth it to learn more about it (you can find two amazing courses on https://clann.sorint.it/academia/course/).

This is all for today and remember, keep on innovating.