Enterprise Docker

Chapter 3. Who’s Using Docker, and for What?

Chapter 2 highlighted some of the features that make Docker so valuable and how Docker relates to older-generation infrastructure technology like virtual machines.

In this chapter, we’ll examine which types of companies have adopted Docker, the challenges they have faced in migrating to containers, and the strategies they have used for implementing Docker successfully.

Docker Adoption Trends

Surveys provide illuminating insight into the trends that have shaped Docker adoption so far. Following are the takeaways from recent studies of real-world Docker adoption, which suggest that Docker is ready for an enterprise.

An April 2016 survey by Docker revealed these trends:

• The vast majority of organizations using Docker are in the technology sector. However, other industries, such as education and financial services, also report Docker use.
• More than half of the companies using Docker are small, with fewer than 100 employees.
• The majority of Docker use cases—65 percent—center on the development of new applications. Modifying existing applications so that they can run inside Docker containers remains less common.

Also notable is a June 2016 survey by ClusterHQ, a container storage vendor. Its most interesting finding was that the use of Docker for production increased 96 percent since a similar survey the previous year, and that 76 percent of respondents reported using Docker in production.

Although the survey questions did not define “production” ...