“It’s not that we use technology. We live technology.” This quote emphasizes the importance of technology in this day and age where technological developments are happening rapidly. Speaking of this flourishing field of technological developments, a Docker is yet another beneficial addition to it in the form of an open software platform that is meant for building, running and shipping applications. It refers to a collection of PaaS (Platform as a Service) products which deliver software in packages (containers) by using OS level virtualization. Docker develops applications based on containers which are tiny, lightweight execution environments. Containers remain isolated from each other but can interact with each other via channels that are well-defined. Containers bundle their own libraries, software and configuration files. Since the services of a single OS kernel are shared by all the containers, these consume a lesser amount of resources than virtual machines. The software which hosts the containers is known as a Docker Engine. Docker has aided in popularising the technology of containers and increased the use of containerization and microservices in the domain of software development as part of cloud-native development.
To digress, the mention of cloud brings to mind cloud hosting, which uses cloud technology to make websites accessible. It is a type of web hosting service that is provided by a web hosting company. The most renowned web hosting companies are referred to as the “Best Cloud Hosting Company”, the “Best Windows Hosting Company”, the “Best Linux Hosting Company” etc.
Returning to our main topic, Docker’s purpose is to enable the separation of one’s applications from one’s infrastructure to attain a swifter software delivery. It enables the management of one’s infrastructure in the same way as one manages one’s applications. The methodologies that are used by a docker for testing, shipping and deploying code quickly aid in substantially reducing the delay that exists between writing code and running it during the production phase.
The Components of Docker
There are three main components in the Docker. These are software, objects and registries. With regard to the software component, the Docker daemon (dockerd) is a process that manages persistently Docker containers and takes care of container objects. The Docker client program (docker) provides a CLI (Command-line Interface) which enables users’ interaction with dockerd. The various entities that are used for assembling an application in Docker are known as the Docker objects. Docker objects are mainly containers, services and images. Docker API or CLI is used to manage a Docker container, which is essentially a standardized, encapsulated environment for running applications. It is the function of a Docker service to enable containers to be scaled across many Docker daemons. This collection of cooperating Docker daemons (swarm) interact through the Docker API.
A Docker image refers to a read-only template, which is used for building containers. Applications are stored and shipped with the aid of images. Another component is a Docker registry, which is Docker images’ repository. Docker clients download images from the registries for using those images or upload the images that have been built by them. Docker registries are either public or private. Docker Hub and Docker Cloud are the main public registries. Notification-based events can be created by Docker registries.
The Functioning of Docker
Docker packages applications and their dependencies in virtual containers that are capable of being run on Windows, Linux or macOS computers. Hence, an application has the flexibility to run in various environments, such as on-premises, in a private cloud and/or in a public cloud. When Docker is running on Linux, it uses the Linux kernel’s resource isolation features along with a union-capable file system which ensure that containers are able to run within one Linux instance. This helps to avoid the overhead that is involved in starting as well as maintaining virtual machines. Docker that runs on macOS uses Linux virtual machines for running the containers. Since Docker containers are lightweight, several containers can be run simultaneously on a single server or VM (virtual machine). High-level API (Application Programming Interface) are implemented by Docker for providing lightweight containers which can run processes in isolation.
The Uses of Docker
Docker enables applications’ consistent and swift delivery. Development life cycle is streamlined by Docker. This is attained by enabling the work of developers in standardized environments through the use of local containers that provide services and applications.
Another important use of Docker has to do with responsive deployment and scaling. Highly portable workloads are used by the container-based platforms of Docker. Docker containers are capable of being run in a variety of environments, such as on the physical or virtual machines in data centers, on the laptops of developers, on cloud etc. By being portable and lightweight, Docker can easily and dynamically manage workloads. It can scale up or down services and applications in almost real-time, as per the requirements of businesses.
Docker makes it possible to run a large amount of workload on a single piece of hardware. It is an efficient and cost-effective option when looking for an alternative to hypervisor-based virtual machines. Docker is an ideal choice for high density environments as well as for small to medium-sized deployments, wherein there is a need for extracting more with a lesser number of resources.
Benefits of Docker
There are many benefits of using Docker. Let us touch upon these benefits. A high ROI (Return on Investment) along with the advantage of cost savings make Docker a popular option. Docker reduces infrastructure resources significantly because it uses fewer resources to run an application. This reduced requirement for infrastructure benefits businesses as it helps them to do away with server costs and the need for employees to maintain such servers. Another major benefit has to do with standardization and productivity.
Docker standardizes environments by ensuring consistency across multiple cycles of development and release. Repeatable environments for development, testing and production are provided by Docker. Standardizing service infrastructure enables engineers to analyse efficiently and fix bugs within an application.
Docker functions at fast speed which makes it possible to quickly replicate and attain redundancy. Docker provides CI (container image) efficiency by enabling the creation of a container image and the usage of that image throughout the deployment process. It ensures the separation of non-dependent steps and runs these parallelly. Docker ensures parity.
Hence, images run the same regardless of the server or the device on which these are running. It renders the production infrastructure easier to maintain and more efficient in terms of functioning.
Docker delivers faster configurations and simplifies work. A user’s configuration can be translated into code and then it can be deployed easily. Docker is capable of being used in a wide range of environments and ensures rapid deployment by reducing deployment time.
This is made possible by the creation of container for each process by it and by not booting an OS. Moreover, Docker makes available consistent environments from the phase of development to production. Docker containers are configured in a way that enables them to maintain internally all dependencies and configurations. For carrying out an upgrade during a product’s release cycle, the necessary changes can be made easily to Docker containers.
Post which these can be tested and implemented. This flexibility provided by Docker is another of its many benefits. Docker enables the creation, testing and release of images that are deployable across multiple servers. Another major benefit of Docker has to do with portability. Moreover, Docker is scalable. New containers can be created quickly whenever there is a requirement.
Docker enables the isolation and segregation of applications and resources and ascertains that each container gets its own resources which remain isolated from the other containers. Since each application is run on its own container, Docker facilitates clean app removal.
Once an application isn’t needed, its container can be deleted. No temporary or configuration files will remain on one’s host OS. Additionally, Docker ensures the use of only those resources by each application that have been assigned to it. Since a particular application isn’t consuming all the available resources, there isn’t performance degradation or total downtime for the other applications. Last but not the least, an important benefit of using Docker is the security provided by it by thoroughly isolating the applications that are running on containers from each other. This facilitates total control over traffic management and its flow.
Conclusion:
Docker is one of those technological developments that has simplified and accelerated workflow and provided the necessary freedom to developers for carrying out innovations through their choice of application stacks, tools along with deployment environments for their individual projects.
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