Hey awesome reader, in this article, I’ll be giving a basic introduction to docker, how it works, why you, as a developer, should use it for packaging your applications and its impact on the development ecosystem. Happy reading.

What is a Docker?

Docker is an open source containerization platform. It is a platform that makes it easier, simpler, and safer in building, deploying, and managing containerized applications. Docker provides the ability to package and run an application in a loosely isolated environment called a container. The isolation and security allows you to run many containers simultaneously on a given host. Containers are lightweight and contain everything needed to run the application, so you do not need to rely on what is currently installed on the host. You can easily share containers while you work, and be sure that everyone you share with gets the same container that works in the same way.

How Does Docker Work?

Docker packages an application and all its dependencies in a virtual container that can run on any Linux server.
Each container runs as a n isolated process in the usr space and takes up less space than regular VMs due to their layered architecture. So it will always work the same regardless of it’s environment.

Why should you use Docker?

Let’s say you want to create an application. And that’s working fine on your machine. But in production it doesn’t work properly(Developers experience a lot). The reason could be due to Dependencies, Libraries and versions, Framework, OS Level features, Microservices that the developer’s machine has but not in the production environment.
We need a standardized way to package the application with its dependencies and deploy it on any environment. And that’s where docker comes in.
Docker is a tool designed to make it easier to create, deploy, and run applications by using containers.

Impact on the Development Ecosystem

Traditionally, developing an application and deploying it in a production environment hasn’t been easy. Development and production environments are often configured differently, which makes it difficult to resolve problems quickly when something was broken.
Docker is inexpensive, easy to deploy, and offers increased development mobility and flexibility. Here are some major impacts of using Docker:

• As an open-source tool, Docker automates deploying applications in software containers.
• It allows developers to package applications with all required parts like libraries and other dependencies and deploy them as one package.
• Docker helps developers create a container for each application and focus more on building it without having to worry about the operating system.
• Developers can easily move their software from one host to another using containers to deploy software. Containers are portable and self-contained.
• Containers are the standard for delivering microservices in the cloud. Microservices are deployed in separate containers and use virtual networks when they need to communicate with each other. Each microservice container is isolated from the others, making debugging much easier.
• Containers are easy to install and run because they don’t require installing an application or runtime environment. All you need is a Docker container image running on a container platform such as Docker Engine or Kubernetes.

Conclusion

Docker is a popular containerization technology that makes it easy to deploy applications. In this article, we’ve looked at a basic introduction to docker, how it works, why you should use it for packaging your applications and its impact on the development ecosystem. Thanks for reading.