What is Docker actually? How would it benefit us? Docker is an open platform designed for building, distributing, and running applications. It allows you to isolate your applications from the underlying infrastructure, enabling faster software delivery. With Docker, you can manage your infrastructure just like your applications. By leveraging Docker’s approach to packaging, testing, and deploying code, you can greatly minimize the time between writing code and deploying it to production.

The Docker Platform

Docker enables you to package and run applications in a loosely isolated environment known as a **container**. This isolation and security allow multiple containers to operate simultaneously on the same host. Containers are lightweight and include everything required to run an application, eliminating the need to depend on the host’s setup. You can easily share containers with others, ensuring consistency and reliability across different environments.

Docker also offers tools and a platform to manage the entire container lifecycle:

* Develop your application and its supporting services inside containers.
* Use containers as the core unit for testing and distributing your application.
* When ready, deploy your application to production—either as individual containers or as part of an orchestrated service. This process works seamlessly across local data centers, cloud environments, or hybrid setups.

What Can You Use Docker For?

Fast and Consistent Application Delivery

Docker helps make the development process faster and more reliable by letting developers work in consistent, standardized environments. Using containers, teams can package their applications and services so they run the same way everywhere — on a laptop, in testing, or in production. This makes Docker perfect for continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) workflows.

Here’s how it might look in practice:

* Developers build and test code locally using Docker containers, then share those containers with teammates.
* They push the same containers to a test environment to run both automated and manual tests.
* If any bugs show up, developers can fix them locally and redeploy the containers for retesting.
* Once everything checks out, deploying the updated version is as easy as pushing the new image to production.

In essence, Docker streamlines collaboration and ensures your apps run smoothly and consistently across every stage of development. Please refer this guide for Docker installation and deployment.