A good idea often has many parents. This is how it is for Docker. Docker looks like a trending, shiny new piece of technology, and a required part of a software developer’s vocabulary. To be used liberally. But the idea behind Docker - containerisation - is not new and the same concept is used even in proprietary software. Docker does appear to have the most accessible implementation to date, though. Their logo, a whale loaded up with containers is a perfect image for this company and its main product. Those of us that have used Solaris may recognise these ‘containers’ as ‘zones’, which have been in Solaris for some time. Mainframe people may even see a glimmer of IBM MVS. Let me describe the main idea behind Docker. For maybe 10 years, people have been using Virtual machines (VM). Each VM contains a complete copy of an Operating System (OS). This is flexible, in that each VM can have a different OS and be completely isolated from all other VMs running on the same server....
A whale of a time - what’s so good about Docker? A good idea often has many parents. This is how it is for Docker. Docker looks like a trending, shiny new piece of technology, and a required part of a software developer’s vocabulary. To be used liberally. But the idea behind Docker - containerisation - is not new and the same concept is used even in proprietary software. Docker does appear to have the most accessible implementation to date, though. Their logo, a whale loaded up with containers is a perfect image for this company and its main product. Those of us that have used Solaris may recognise these ‘containers’ as ‘zones’, which have been in Solaris for some time. Mainframe people may even see a glimmer of IBM MVS. Let me describe the main idea behind Docker. For maybe 10 years, people have been using Virtual machines (VM). Each VM contains a complete copy of an Operating System (OS). This is flexible, in that each VM can have a different OS an...