Why Docker Containers Matter, 6 Years After the Project First Started

eWEEK DATA POINTS: The open-source Docker container project was announced to the world in March 2013 by Solomon Hykes and has grown to become a cornerstone of the modern software development ecosystem.Few, if any, 6-year-old technologies have done as much to change the way applications are built and deployed as Docker.Docker, the eponymous name of the container technology and the company behind it, celebrated its six-year anniversary on March 20. From its earliest days, even as just a 1-year-old effort back in 2014, there was no shortage of optimism and excitement about Docker. With the Docker model, applications are more portable and run inside of containers, which are isolated instances that provide a more agile approach for development and deployment. Docker also introduced the "dockerfile" packaging format, which defines how a container image should be built. The container model that Docker first introduced has evolved over the past six years and is now the cornerstone of the broader cloud-native space, which includes the open-source Kubernetes container orchestration system. In this eWEEK Data Points article, we look at some of the key facts about Docker and the cloud-native revolution it has inspired.