Docker
A platform that packages software and its dependencies into standardized, isolated units called containers, ensuring the application runs identically on any computer.
What it is
Docker eliminates the "it works on my machine" problem. It bundles an application's code, runtime, system tools, and libraries into a container. Because the container shares the host operating system's kernel but remains isolated, it can be spun up reliably and instantly on a developer's laptop, a testing server, or a production cloud.
When you would use it
You use Docker when you need to reliably deploy software across varying environments, or when building microservices that must run independently without conflicting with each other.
Common operations
- Ensuring consistent local development environments across a team.
- Packaging a backend API for deployment to a cloud service.