A couple weeks ago, I attended DockerCon 2019 in San Francisco. It is the #1 cloud container industry conference for enterprise IT professionals, developers, architects, and business leaders. The conference showcased new tools that were designed to make it easier for developers to work with containers. Here are some of the highlights from the event:
1. Many 3rd-party Integrations
The expo floor featured a number of turn-key services aimed at developers less familiar with Docker. These products spanned a vast range of Docker container categories including:
- Hosting (e.g. AWS/MS/Google, Kubernetes centric, VMWare)
- Monitoring/metrics/telemetry (e.g. Datadog)
- Logging/analysis (e.g. LogDNA, Sysdig)
- Security (e.g. Twistlock, TrendMicro)
- CI/CD/deployments
These integrations are left entirely up to the customer, providing ultimate flexibility. Many support white-labelling and would allow companies to integrate these categories into their own, creating a more robust product.
2. Docker Enterprise 3.0
The beta of Docker Enterprise 3.0 was announced, providing an all-in-one managed solution for developers to automate the development and deployment of containerized applications. Enterprise 3.0 lets users set up a Docker environment with security and deployment templates suitable for them and push their applications into multiple cloud deployments. Developers are able to pick the templates that work best for their implementations, all the while following compliance and jurisdiction policies. The goal of Enterprise 3.0 is to provide ease and empowerment to agile developers, with IT-approved templates providing pre-built Docker tooling ready to go on a clear GUI. The product beta will be available later this quarter. I’m excited by the advances in Docker to automate security and for MedStack to leverage these changes.
3. Service Mesh – Istio
Docker plans to provide integration and support for the open source Istio service mesh (a configurable, low‑latency infrastructure layer that ensures communication amongst containerization) within Docker Enterprise 3.0. Istio, like other modules, could be swapped out for another service mesh the same way Docker currently provides support for Docker Swarm and Kubernetes container orchestration engines. Service meshes offer more security, by providing encryption and rules to manage communication within clusters and microservices, and is seeing a growing adoption within enterprise companies. Docker will provide support for Istio ingress controllers before adding full support for Istio and the Envoy proxy server.
It was a great opportunity to attend DockerCon and see the latest innovations from Docker and engage with the Docker community. Many enterprise customers went on stage to talk about their experience containerizing their applications, from Visa to Netflix. This year saw a deeper focus on security than the last, and a clear indication that container adoption has surpassed its initial buzz, with more enterprise customers turning to the service.
Learn how MedStack can secure your Docker deployments. You can request a technical overview here, or contact us at info@medstack.co.
