“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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