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It's fair to say that in the hype cycle Docker (the technology) has passed its peak, but I don't think the conclusion that as a technology, it's finished, is wa

It's fair to say that in the hype cycle Docker (the technology) has passed its peak, but I don't think the conclusion that as a technology, it's finished, is warranted. Containerization is still on the rise and Docker is part of that. The toolset is still a good, fairly easy to use, place for individual developers to use containers on the client-side whilst creating containerized applications. For smaller deployments (without orchestration) a single Docker engine with things like compose, can still work well. Obviously on the orchestration side, Kubernetes has won, although it too will face the inevitable trough of disillusionment when people realise that all technologies have downsides. Personally, for simpler workloads, I think Docker swarm can still be a good answer, as it's a lot less complex than Kubernetes to set-up and maintain. The idea that the Redhat container stack (podman, CRI-O, et al) necessarily mean the end of Docker, doesn't really follow at all to me. If anything the increased use of containerd directly is a bigger threat to Docker's market share.

wodenokoto 8y ago
I think the main point to consider is, if Kubernetes is the technology for large deployments, who is left to buy enterprise solutions from Docker the company? And without enterprise sales, what is going to fund docker development for the small and simple docker workloads?
- raesene9 8y ago
  Well Docker the company is a different game. They have gone quite heavily for the enterprise market and support Kubernetes as part of their Docker EE product. Of course, whether that will give them enough success to justify their valuation, is another matter. Personally, I had thought they would get bought out by one of the large tech. players who is heavily investing in containerization (e.g. Microsoft) but that doesn't seem to have happened so far.
  - pbalau 8y ago
    Amazon might have a say in this, both their ECS and EKS solutions are based on docker.
- pknopf 8y ago
  The Docker company may not survive, but Docker will. Especially considering the work the Docker company is doing to support OCI. The dockerd internally uses containerd now, which supports both Docker images and OCI images.
  - alexandre_m 8y ago
    I always tend to think that the reason Docker developers decided to split the Docker products codebase (CE/EE) into the Moby components 2 years ago was that they foresaw the inevitable death of Docker in the long-term.
user5994461 8y ago
>>> It's fair to say that in the hype cycle Docker (the technology) has passed its peak, but I don't think the conclusion that as a technology, it's finished, is warranted. That's confusing the product and the technology. The technology is containerization, not Docker. Containerization is on the rise and will continue. Docker as a product AND a company, is doomed. They have no business model and no sales. All of Google/Amazon/RedHat/Linux are working on a substitute so they don't have to depend on it. The hype is in Kubernetes now and managed cloud solutions. Docker is an accidental dependency of Kubernetes, until it's finally get rid off.
- raesene9 8y ago
  That's a view for sure, and as a company I'm not sure what Docker's endgame is now. However, I think it's premature to write off Docker the technology. There's a load of scripts/tooling/mindshare baked into the Docker model for executing containers, and I don't think that's going to switch to another model overnight. As many people have commented on this thread, the killer app. for Docker the technology isn't running in production, it's running in development, where you're unlikely to want a full k8s cluster.
  - user5994461 8y ago
    Docker got over a $100M in VC funding, they can continue to operate without revenue for years. I hate to break it up to you but the model already switched overnight. The job market is the biggest indicator for sure. Any experience with Docker is mostly worthless at this point. No company will hire somebody with Docker experience alone, without Kubernetes. Kubernetes has replaced most of what you mention with its own idioms and tools. All the way from the lips of the CEO to the engineers in a F50, it's talking Kubernetes, not a mention of Docker.
    - raesene9 8y ago
      Well you've got your experiences and I've got mine, I don't think one set necessarily invalidates the other :) My experiences are that every k8s cluster I've seen uses Docker as the underlying CRI and in development land, Docker as a product is very prevalent.

wodenokoto 8y ago

I think the main point to consider is, if Kubernetes is the technology for large deployments, who is left to buy enterprise solutions from Docker the company? And without enterprise sales, what is going to fund docker development for the small and simple docker workloads?

raesene9 8y ago
Well Docker the company is a different game. They have gone quite heavily for the enterprise market and support Kubernetes as part of their Docker EE product. Of course, whether that will give them enough success to justify their valuation, is another matter. Personally, I had thought they would get bought out by one of the large tech. players who is heavily investing in containerization (e.g. Microsoft) but that doesn't seem to have happened so far.
- pbalau 8y ago
  Amazon might have a say in this, both their ECS and EKS solutions are based on docker.
pknopf 8y ago
The Docker company may not survive, but Docker will. Especially considering the work the Docker company is doing to support OCI. The dockerd internally uses containerd now, which supports both Docker images and OCI images.
- alexandre_m 8y ago
  I always tend to think that the reason Docker developers decided to split the Docker products codebase (CE/EE) into the Moby components 2 years ago was that they foresaw the inevitable death of Docker in the long-term.

user5994461 8y ago

>>> It's fair to say that in the hype cycle Docker (the technology) has passed its peak, but I don't think the conclusion that as a technology, it's finished, is warranted. That's confusing the product and the technology. The technology is containerization, not Docker. Containerization is on the rise and will continue. Docker as a product AND a company, is doomed. They have no business model and no sales. All of Google/Amazon/RedHat/Linux are working on a substitute so they don't have to depend on it. The hype is in Kubernetes now and managed cloud solutions. Docker is an accidental dependency of Kubernetes, until it's finally get rid off.

raesene9 8y ago
That's a view for sure, and as a company I'm not sure what Docker's endgame is now. However, I think it's premature to write off Docker the technology. There's a load of scripts/tooling/mindshare baked into the Docker model for executing containers, and I don't think that's going to switch to another model overnight. As many people have commented on this thread, the killer app. for Docker the technology isn't running in production, it's running in development, where you're unlikely to want a full k8s cluster.
- user5994461 8y ago
  Docker got over a $100M in VC funding, they can continue to operate without revenue for years. I hate to break it up to you but the model already switched overnight. The job market is the biggest indicator for sure. Any experience with Docker is mostly worthless at this point. No company will hire somebody with Docker experience alone, without Kubernetes. Kubernetes has replaced most of what you mention with its own idioms and tools. All the way from the lips of the CEO to the engineers in a F50, it's talking Kubernetes, not a mention of Docker.
  - raesene9 8y ago
    Well you've got your experiences and I've got mine, I don't think one set necessarily invalidates the other :) My experiences are that every k8s cluster I've seen uses Docker as the underlying CRI and in development land, Docker as a product is very prevalent.