Containers are no-brainers, boosters say

"Docker is a way to drag cowboy developers into creating sane architectures."

That's the word from Juozas "Joe" Kaziukėnas, a developer-entrepreneur who is firmly in the Docker container camp. Docker, the open-source container technology which virtualizes applications at the operating system level, promises to cut the overhead of deploying applications on platforms.

As explained on the Docker website, the containers wrap up a piece of software in a complete file system that contains code, runtime, system tools and system libraries - all the components needed to run on any platform.

A recent survey of IT executives by Twistlock finds 86% have already deployed containers or plan to do so within the coming year. And there are quite a few already in production -- 55% report having 100 or more containers. However, more than nine in 10 container users express concern about the security of container technology.

Kaziukėnas agrees that security is holding back more widespread container adoption in enterprises, and acknowledges the technology has its detractors. But ultimately, it makes developers' jobs easier and speeds up the software delivery process.

"If Docker delivers anything, is that it teaches many more people the better way of shipping software," he says. He is bullish on Docker because it enables developers to release apps that will run anywhere without the need to adapt to platforms. "An app is wrapped in a tiny layer of dependencies and can be installed on any machine," he observes.

"Most infrastructures are a barely reliable mess of configuration files just waiting to stop working," Kaziukėnas says. "I want to treat my infrastructure like it was all iPhone apps. Which means only caring about the application, not about the host itself."