Webiator

Containers have various features that can be very helpful in web development. In this article we examine how docker containers change the face of web development and solve various problems for web developers. Let's look at some of the advantages of using containers for web development:

Large community around Docker

The great thing about Docker is the ready-to-use containers. With its growing developer community, there are thousands of ready-to-use containers for popular applications like MySQL or WordPress.
For example, if you want to run WordPress, you can download it from the Docker Hub and run it with this single line of code:

docker run --name some-wordpress --link some-mysql:mysql -d wordpress

High reproducibility in all environments

One of the biggest challenges in application development is the multitude of problems that arise from the different environments between production, quality assurance and development. This also applies to the development machines used in the project. Docker images are inherently immutable. You can achieve consistency in environments from development to production without much effort and ensure that your code will run through quality assurance and production without many complications.
Since new and modified docker images are created based on an existing docker image, the docker images are very helpful in an organized approach to incremental updates. By minimizing the differences between different environments, you can work with containers on your local computer/environment, save time and effort, and increase productivity.

Security advantages of containers

The execution of various containers offers some safety advantages. If you run applications in different containers, each container only has access to the ports and files that the other container explicitly exposes.
In addition, containers provide more control over what data and software is installed on the container. Malware running in one container does not affect other containers.

Isolation, scalability & performance

A container is executed in its own isolated runtime environment with a process area and a network stack. This simplifies the handling of security problems. An advantage of isolation is the ability to perform tests without dependencies and a lot of effort. An example of this would be if you want to check how different versions of a library affect the page rendering speed for your web interface. You can easily install different versions of the library in different instances of your container while keeping the application and database containers the same.
Because docker images and instances consume far less resources than virtual machines, sharing docker images is much more efficient for the entire team. This also means that you can run many more containers than virtual machines on the same physical hardware. You can also quickly switch containers between different hosts and environments when a hardware failure or increased workload occurs. Migration from virtual machines or traditional web or application servers, on the other hand, is a much more complex and intensive process.
Another aspect is the time to get started. You can get a container up and running in seconds instead of configuring a virtual machine and waiting for your operating system to boot. This simplifies the on-boarding process for new resources.

Dockerize your web development

By containerizing your applications, provisioning is not only faster, but also much more efficient. The portability and flexibility gained with containers is tremendous. As a web developer, you can upgrade your development environment with Docker. When it comes to troubleshooting, the Docker community is very actively involved in supporting other developers.
The ease with which instances of containers can be deployed and their near-instant start time allow you to experiment without serious consequences and make many more mistakes. The more bugs you can afford, the more you can learn from them. It's no wonder that more and more DevOps teams are moving to containers to save time, resources, and give them the chance to stay agile and competitive.

We at webiator also rely on Docker and its lean architecture right from the start. Were we able to arouse your curiosity?Contact us and we will be happy to assist you!