Great question, not so great answer. I think the answer boils down to: "depends on your deployment needs". If you want to scale application across different mac

Great question, not so great answer. I think the answer boils down to: "depends on your deployment needs". If you want to scale application across different machines, break it in pieces. Ditto if you want to replace containers on upgrade (hot swap). But if you only use Docker to simplify deployment of interconnected parts which never function one without the other - don't break it in pieces. I know the last advice goes against the common wisdom, but in my experience this is so.