“Dockerizing” is not the latest dance craze, but it is making moves in app development circles. The company that invented it, Docker, has given app developers freedom to fail without fear, and it turns out that is a pretty valuable commodity.
With the growth of open-platform app development, container-based virtualization is a way to stay secure while sharing and manipulating content in the virtual cloud.
But perhaps the main reason for the hype is that virtualized “containers” can be created and destroyed at little cost, which is why app developers and system administrators are choosing Docker’s container-based virtualization over virtual machines that often require specialized software and hardware and therefore are more costly.
Docker claims developers can build any app in any language using any tool chain.
As opposed to virtual machines, the Docker container is able to operate on only one single-host operating system and is composed of just the application and its dependencies with the goal of being more portable and efficient.
The company’s website claims, “‘Dockerized apps are completely portable and can run anywhere.” It can also be integrated into various infrastructure tools such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
Apparently, a lot of people want a piece of Docker. It has been downloaded more than 400,000 times.
So with all the possibilities, is this the future of virtualization in the cloud?
Some companies are staking their futures in the technology. Joyent Inc., an early cloud vendor, recently invested $15 million in hopes of merging Docker application containers with its container-based cloud infrastructure to perhaps pave the path to the full realization of OS-based virtualization.
Others, like Google subsidiary Kebernetes, are curious about the possibilities and are looking into building infrastructure products to run Docker containers.
And in the new year, Microsoft plans to integrate Docker into its next release of Windows Server.
But even with all the hype and investment, Docker is not without its detractors.
One drawback is that the guests must use the same operating system as the host, making it less versatile than other options.
And safety is alway a concern with an open source network.
With all those pieces of wandering code, there is always potential for a breach. According to Docker itself, you must be careful to not allow non-root users to gain root access on the host. “Make sure you control access.”
That leads to the question: How do you make sure you control access? That could spell trouble if the host is not vigilant of who has access to the platform.
Despite these concerns, many companies and app developers continue to dabble with Docker, but it remains to be seen if Docker is a fad or a new standard in the server virtualization market.
For now, it appears to be a valuable tool for app developers and system administrators with room to grow.
