Docker Use Cases - Yupu's blog

Docker
Enterprises are using the Docker Containers-as-a-Service platform within their enterprise. Here are some of the main use cases. To learn more just click
the buttons underneath each.

Continuous Integration

With integrations with tools like Jenkins, Docker allows developers to collaborate with each other to build more software, faster.

Continuous integration has become one of the most common use cases of Docker early adopters. CI merges development with testing, allowing developers to build code collaboratively, submit it the master branch, and checked for issues. This allows developers to not only build their code, but also test their code in any environment type and as often as possible to catch bugs early in the applications development lifecycle. Since Docker can integrate with tools like Jenkins and GitHub, developers can submit code in GitHub, test the code and automatically trigger a build using Jenkins, and once the image is complete, images can be added to Docker registries. This streamlines the process, saves times on build and set up processes, all while allowing developers to run tests in parallel and automate them so that they can continue to work on other projects while tests are being run. Since Docker works on prem, in the cloud or virtual environment and supports both Linux and Windows, enterprises no longer have to deal with inconsistencies between different environments types. Perhaps one of the most widely known benefits of the Docker CaaS platform.

As organizations embrace the DevOps philosophy and break down the traditional barriers that exist between Development and Ops teams, Docker provides some of the key tools to go DevOps and improve the application development process.

Traditionally a barrier has existed between two important groups. Developers looking to build and ship their code. And IT operations teams/System admins looking to maintain control and security over their company’s IT environment. Today DevOps has become widely adopted in the enterprise, as they aim to break down barriers that exist, and get development teams and operations teams working together. Docker enables DevOps by providing some of the key tooling necessary for companies to “go devops.”

The amount of data within enterprises is continuing to skyrocket, making it difficult to analyze it. Enterprises moving to Hadoop-based ecosystems that require pulling workloads from a variety of tools are using Docker to help them derive value from big data.

Big data has been quite the buzz over the past few years. As the amount of data both world-wide and within enterprises continues to grow, in order to remain competitive enterprises must find ways to store, and also analyze the data coming in. Several enterprises are adopting systems like Hadoop that support unstructured data like videos, metadata and images. In this case, a variety of tools are often used to gather this information, creating a need for a uniform way of transporting data across data analytics platforms. This is where Docker’s portability becomes an important asset for companies looking to remain competitive.
Docker CaaS platform provides a natively integrated end-to-end platform that enables enterprises to build, ship and run distributed applications anywhere. DevOps teams are not locked into any particular infrastructure and function anywhere, on prem, virtual or in the cloud. With Docker, enterprises are now using the Docker CaaS platform to move applications across different infrastructure types, allowing them to analyze it.

Docker containers contain only what’s necessary to build, ship and run applications. Unlike virtualization technology (VMs), there is no guest OS or hypervisor necessary for containers. This allows enterprises to reduce the amount of storage and eliminate hypervisor licensing costs within their organizations.

Virtualization took the industry by storm, creating a new way of managing applications. But hypervisor licensing costs can get expensive, and virtual machines can be inefficient. VMs include a guest operating within each machine, eating up valuable storage capacity. Docker containers are lightweight runtimes, and include only what’s necessary to run your applications. Each container running on a node shares the same Linux kernel, with no guest operating system within each container saving enterprises money, and storage space as well, with the ability to spin up or spin down containers based on their needs.
Cloud portability is another factor. Docker provides solutions that allow enterprises to leverage multiple cloud providers, enabling IT operations teams to move workloads across different cloud services, without locking them into using a specific infrastructure tooling. By doing so, Docker allows enterprises to get the most value out of their new and existing infrastructure by decreasing costs while increasing efficiency.