In modern software development, businesses are searching for smarter ways to streamline workflows and deliver value faster. For developers, this means tackling challenges like collaboration and security head-on, while driving efficiency that contributes directly to business performance. But how do you address potential roadblocks before they become costly issues in production? The answer lies in optimizing the development inner loop — a core focus for the future of app development.
By identifying and resolving inefficiencies early in the development lifecycle, software development teams can overcome common engineering challenges such as slow dev cycles, spiraling infrastructure costs, and scaling challenges. With Docker’s integrated suite of development tools, developers can achieve new levels of engineering efficiency, creating high-quality software while delivering real business impact.
Let’s explore how Docker is transforming the development process, reducing operational overhead, and empowering teams to innovate faster.
Speed up software development lifecycles: Faster gains with less effort
A fast software development lifecycle is a crucial aspect for delivering value to users, maintaining a competitive edge, and staying ahead of industry trends. To enable this, software developers need workflows that minimize friction and allow them to iterate quickly without sacrificing quality. That’s where Docker makes a difference. By streamlining workflows, eliminating bottlenecks, and automating repetitive tasks, Docker empowers developers to focus on high-impact work that drives results.
Consistency across development environments is critical for improving speed. That’s why Docker helps developers create consistent environments across local, test, and production systems. In fact, a recent study reported developers experiencing a 6% increase in productivity when leveraging Docker Business. This consistency eliminates guesswork, ensuring developers can concentrate on writing code and improving features rather than troubleshooting issues. With Docker, applications behave predictably across every stage of the development lifecycle.
Docker also accelerates development by significantly reducing time spent on iteration and setup. More specifically, organizations leveraging Docker Business achieved a three-month faster time-to-market for revenue-generating applications. Engineering teams can move swiftly through development stages, delivering new features and bug fixes faster. By improving efficiency and adapting to evolving needs, Docker enables development teams to stay agile and respond effectively to business priorities.
Improve scaling agility: Flexibility for every scenario
Scalability is another essential for businesses to meet fluctuating demands and seize opportunities. Whether handling a surge in user traffic or optimizing resources during quieter periods, the ability to scale applications and infrastructure efficiently is a critical advantage. Docker makes this possible by enabling teams to adapt with speed and flexibility.
Docker’s cloud-native approach allows software engineering teams to scale up or down with ease to meet changing requirements. This flexibility supports experimentation with cutting-edge technologies like AI, machine learning, and microservices without disrupting existing workflows. With this added agility, developers can explore new possibilities while maintaining focus on delivering value.
Whether responding to market changes or exploring the potential of emerging tools, Docker equips companies to stay agile and keep evolving, ensuring their development processes are always ready to meet the moment.
Optimize resource efficiency: Get the most out of what you’ve got
Maximizing resource efficiency is crucial for reducing costs and maintaining agility. By making the most of existing infrastructure, businesses can avoid unnecessary expenses and minimize cloud scaling costs, meaning more resources for innovation and growth. Docker empowers teams to achieve this level of efficiency through its lightweight, containerized approach.
Docker containers are designed to be resource-efficient, enabling multiple applications to run in isolated environments on the same system. Unlike traditional virtual machines, containers minimize overhead while maintaining performance, consolidating workloads, and lowering the operational costs of maintaining separate environments. For example, a leading beauty company reduced infrastructure costs by 25% using Docker’s enhanced CPU and memory efficiency. This streamlined approach ensures businesses can scale intelligently while keeping infrastructure lean and effective.
By containerizing applications, businesses can optimize their infrastructure, avoiding costly upgrades while getting more value from their current systems. It’s a smarter, more efficient way to ensure your resources are working at their peak, leaving no capacity underutilized.
Establish cost-effective scaling: Growth without growing pains
Similarly, scaling efficiently is essential for businesses to keep up with growing demands, introduce new features, or adopt emerging technologies. However, traditional scaling methods often come with high upfront costs and complex infrastructure changes. Docker offers a smarter alternative, enabling development teams to scale environments quickly and cost-effectively.
With a containerized model, infrastructure can be dynamically adjusted to match changing needs. Containers are lightweight and portable, making it easy to scale up for spikes in demand or add new capabilities without overhauling existing systems. This flexibility reduces financial strain, allowing businesses to grow sustainably while maximizing the use of cloud resources.
Docker ensures that scaling is responsive and budget-friendly, empowering teams to focus on innovation and delivery rather than infrastructure costs. It’s a practical solution to achieve growth without unnecessary complexity or expense.
Software engineering efficiency at your fingertips
The developer community consistently ranks Docker highly, including choosing it as the most-used and most-admired developer tool in Stack Overflow’s Developer Survey. With Docker’s suite of products, teams can reach a new level of efficient software development by streamlining the dev lifecycle, optimizing resources, and providing agile, cost-effective scaling solutions. By simplifying complex processes in the development inner loop, Docker enables businesses to deliver high-quality software faster while keeping operational costs in check. This allows developers to focus on what they do best: building innovative, impactful applications.
By removing complexity, accelerating development cycles, and maximizing resource usage, Docker helps businesses stay competitive and efficient. And ultimately, their teams can achieve more in less time — meeting market demands with efficiency and quality.
Ready to supercharge your development team’s performance? Download our white paper to see how Docker can help streamline your workflow, improve productivity, and deliver software that stands out in the market.
Collaboration and security are essential for delivering high-quality applications in modern software development, especially in cloud-native environments. Developers navigate intricate workflows, connect diverse systems, and safeguard applications against emerging threats — all while maintaining velocity and efficiency.
Think of development as preparing a multi-course meal in a high-pressure, professional kitchen, where precision, timing, and communication are critical. Each developer is a chef working on different parts of the dish, passing ingredients (code) along the way. When one part of the system encounters delays, it can ripple across the process, impacting the final result. Similarly, poor collaboration or security gaps can derail a project, causing delays and inefficiencies.
Docker serves as the kitchen manager, ensuring everything flows smoothly, ingredients are passed securely, and security is integrated from start to finish.
Seamless collaboration with Docker Hub and Testcontainers Cloud
Success in a professional kitchen depends on clear communication and coordination. In development, it’s no different. Docker’s collaboration tools, like Docker Hub and Testcontainers Cloud, simplify how teams work together, share resources, and test efficiently.
Docker Hub can be thought of as a kitchen’s “prepped ingredients station.” It’s where some of the most essential ingredients are always ready to go. With a vast selection of curated, trusted images, developers can quickly access high-quality, pre-configured containers, ensuring consistency and reducing the chance for mistakes.
Testcontainers Cloud is like the kitchen’s test station, providing on-demand, production-like environments for testing. Developers can spin up these environments quickly, reducing setup time and ensuring code performs in a real-world setting.
Effective coordination is critical whether you’re in a kitchen or on a development team, especially when projects involve distributed or hybrid teams. Clear communication ensures everyone is aligned and productive. The Docker suite of products provides the tools that make it possible for companies to more easily break down silos, share resources seamlessly, and ensure alignment — no matter how large your team is or where they work!
By streamlining collaboration, Docker reduces complexity and allows teams to move forward with confidence. With Docker Hub, Testcontainers Cloud, and integrated security features, teams can share resources, track progress, and catch issues early, enabling them to deliver high-quality results on time.
These tools improve efficiency, reduce errors, and help teams move faster through the development inner loop by making collaboration seamless and resource sharing simple.
Integrated security from code to production
Embedding security into every development step is essential to maintaining speed and delivering high-quality software. With Docker, security is embedded into every step of the development process so teams can identify and fix issues earlier than ever.
Docker Scout monitors container images in real-time, identifying vulnerabilities early to ensure your software is production-ready. By identifying and resolving risks early, developers can maintain high-quality standards and accelerate time to market.
Docker also integrates additional security features that work behind the scenes:
Hardened Docker Desktop (HDD) strengthens container isolation, protecting against software supply chain risks like malware.
Trusted Content offers developers secure, reliable base images, reducing vulnerabilities in the app’s foundation.
By building security into the workflow, Docker helps teams identify risks earlier, improve code quality, and maintain momentum without compromising safety.
Efficiency in action with Docker
Speed, collaboration, and security are paramount in today’s development landscape. Docker simplifies and secures the development process, helping teams collaborate efficiently and deliver secure, high-quality software faster.
Just as a well-managed kitchen runs smoothly, Docker helps development teams stay coordinated, ensuring security and productivity work together in perfect harmony. Docker removes complexity, accelerates delivery, and embeds security, enabling teams to create efficient, secure applications on time.
Ready to boost efficiency and collaboration in your development process? Explore the Docker suite of productsto see how they can streamline your workflow and improve your team’s productivity today.
In 2024, as developers and engineering teams focused on delivering high-quality, secure software faster, Docker continued to evolve with impactful updates and a streamlined user experience. This commitment to empowering developers was recognized in the annual Stack Overflow Developer Survey, where Docker ranked as one of the most loved and widely used tools for yet another year. Here’s a look back at Docker’s 2024 milestones and how we helped teams build, test, and deploy with greater ease, security, and control than ever.
Streamlining the developer experience
Docker focused heavily on streamlining workflows, creating efficiencies, and reducing the complexities often associated with managing multiple tools. One big announcement in 2024 is our upgraded Docker plans. With the launch of updated Docker subscriptions, developers now have access to the entire suite of Docker products under their existing subscription.
The all-in-one subscription model enables seamless integration of Docker Desktop, Docker Hub, Docker Build Cloud, Docker Scout, and Testcontainers Cloud, giving developers everything they need to build efficiently. By providing easy access to the suite of products and flexibility to scale, Docker allows developers to focus on what matters most — building and innovating without unnecessary distractions.
For more details on Docker’s all-in-one subscription approach, check out our Docker plans announcement.
Build up to 39x faster with Docker Build Cloud
Docker Build Cloud, introduced in 2024, brings the best of two worlds — local development and the cloud to developers and engineering teams worldwide. It offloads resource-intensive build processes to the cloud, ensuring faster, more consistent builds while freeing up local machines for other tasks.
A standout feature is shared build caches, which dramatically improve efficiency for engineering teams working on large-scale projects. Shared caches allow teams to avoid redundant rebuilds by reusing intermediate layers of images across builds, accelerating iteration cycles and reducing resource consumption. This approach is especially valuable for collaborative teams working on shared codebases, as it minimizes duplicated effort and enhances productivity.
Docker Build Cloud also offers native support for multi-architecture builds, eliminating the need for setting up and maintaining multiple native builders. This support removes the challenges associated with emulation, further improving build efficiency.
We’ve designed Docker Build Cloud to be easy to set up wherever you run your builds, without requiring a massive lift-and-shift effort. Docker Build Cloud also works well with Docker Compose, GitHub Actions, and other CI solutions. This means you can seamlessly incorporate Docker Build Cloud into your existing development tools and services and immediately start reaping the benefits of enhanced speed and efficiency.
Optimizing development workflows with performance enhancements
In 2024, Docker Desktop introduced a series of enterprise-grade performance enhancements designed to streamline development workflows at scale. These updates cater to the unique needs of development teams operating in diverse, high-performance environments.
One notable feature is the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) in Docker Desktop for Mac, which provides a robust alternative to the Apple Virtualization Framework. Available since Docker Desktop 4.35, VMM significantly boosts performance for native Arm-based images, delivering faster and more efficient workflows for M1 and M2 Mac users. For development teams relying on Apple’s latest hardware, this enhancement translates into reduced build times and a smoother experience when working with containerized applications.
Additionally, Docker Desktop expanded its platform support to include Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Windows on Arm architectures, enabling organizations to maintain a consistent Docker Desktop experience across a wide array of operating systems. This flexibility ensures that development teams can optimize their workflows regardless of the underlying platform, leveraging platform-specific optimizations while maintaining uniformity in their tooling.
These advancements reflect Docker’s unwavering commitment to speed, reliability, and cross-platform support, ensuring that development teams can scale their operations without bottlenecks. By minimizing downtime and enhancing performance, Docker Desktop empowers developers to focus on innovation, improving productivity across even the most demanding enterprise environments.
More options to improve file operations for large projects
We enhanced Docker Desktop with synchronized file shares (Figure 1), a feature that can significantly improve file operation speeds by 2-10x. This enhancement brings fast and flexible host-to-VM file sharing, offering a performance boost for developers dealing with extensive codebases.
Synchronized file sharing is ideal for developers who:
Develop on projects that consist of a significant number of files (such as PHP or Node projects).
Develop using large repositories or monorepos with more than 100,000 files, totaling significant storage.
Utilize virtual file systems (such as VirtioFS, gRPC FUSE, or osxfs) and face scalability issues with their workflows.
Encounter performance limitations and want a seamless file-sharing solution without worrying about ownership conflicts.
This integration streamlines workflows, allowing developers to focus more on coding and less on managing file synchronization issues and slow file read times.
Figure 1: Synchronized file shares.
Enhancing developer productivity with Docker Debug
Docker Debug enhances the ability of developer teams to debug any container, especially those without a shell (that is, distroless or scratch images). The ability to peek into “secure” images significantly improves the debugging experience for both local and remote containerized applications.
Docker Debug does this by attaching a dedicated debugging toolkit to any image and allows developers to easily install additional tools for quick issue identification and resolution. Docker Debug not only streamlines debugging for both running and stopped containers but also is accessible directly from both the Docker Desktop CLI and GUI (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Docker Debug.
Being able to troubleshoot images without modifying them is crucial for maintaining the security and performance of containerized applications, especially those images that traditionally have been hard to debug. Docker Debug offers:
Streamlined debugging process: Easily debug local and remote containerized applications, even those not running, directly from Docker Desktop.
Cross-device and cloud compatibility: Initiate debugging effortlessly from any device, whether local or in the cloud, enhancing flexibility and productivity.
Docker Debug improves productivity and seamless integration. The docker debug command simplifies attaching a shell to any container or image. This capability reduces the cognitive load on developers, allowing them to focus on solving problems rather than configuring their environment.
Ensuring reliable image builds with Docker Build checks
Docker Desktop 4.33 was a big release because, in addition to including the GA release of Docker Debug, it included the GA release of Docker Build checks, a new feature that ensures smoother and more reliable image builds. Build checks automatically validate common issues in your Dockerfiles before the build process begins, catching errors like invalid syntax, unsupported instructions, or missing dependencies. By surfacing these issues upfront, Docker Build checks help developers save time and avoid costly build failures.
You can access Docker Build checks in the CLI and in the Docker Desktop Builds view. The feature also works seamlessly with Docker Build Cloud, both locally and through CI. Whether you’re optimizing your Dockerfiles or troubleshooting build errors, Docker Build checks let you create efficient, high-quality container images with confidence — streamlining your development workflow from start to finish.
Onboarding and learning resources for developer success
To further reduce friction, Docker revamped its learning resources and integrated new tools to enhance developer onboarding. By adding beginner-friendly tutorials, Docker’s learning center makes it easier for developers to ramp up and quickly learn to use Docker tools, helping them spend more time coding and less time troubleshooting.
As Docker continues to rank as a top developer tool globally, we’re dedicated to empowering our community with continuous learning support.
Built-in container security from code to production
In an era where software supply chain security is essential, Docker has raised the bar on container security. With integrated security measures across every phase of the development lifecycle, Docker helps teams build, test, and deploy confidently.
Proactive security insights with Docker Scout Health Scores
Docker Scout, launched in 2023, has become a cornerstone of Docker’s security ecosystem, empowering developer teams to identify and address vulnerabilities in container images early in the development lifecycle. By integrating with Docker Hub, Docker Desktop, and CI/CD workflows, Scout ensures that security is seamlessly embedded into every build.
Addressing vulnerabilities during the inner loop — the development phase — is estimated to be up to 100 times less costly than fixing them in production. This underscores the critical importance of early risk visibility and remediation for engineering teams striving to deliver secure, production-ready software efficiently.
In 2024, we announced Docker Scout Health Scores (Figure 3), a feature designed to better communicate the security posture of container images development teams use every day. Docker Scout Health Scores provide a clear, alphabetical grading system (A to F) that evaluates common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) for software components within Docker Hub. This feature allows developers to quickly assess and wisely choose trusted content for a secure software supply chain.
Air-gapped containers: Enhanced security for isolated environments
Docker introduced support for air-gapped containers in Docker Desktop 4.31, addressing the unique needs of highly secure, offline environments. Air-gapped containers enable developers to build, run, and test containerized applications without requiring an active internet connection.
This feature is crucial for organizations operating in industries with stringent compliance and security requirements, such as government, healthcare, and finance. By allowing developers to securely transfer container images and dependencies to air-gapped systems, Docker simplifies workflows and ensures that even isolated environments benefit from the power of containerization.
Strengthening trust with SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications
Docker also achieved two major milestones in its commitment to security and reliability: SOC 2 Type 2 attestation and ISO 27001 certification. These globally recognized standards validate Docker’s dedication to safeguarding customer data, maintaining robust operational controls, and adhering to stringent security practices. SOC 2 Type 2 attestation focuses on the effective implementation of security, availability, and confidentiality controls, while ISO 27001 certification ensures compliance with best practices for managing information security systems.
These certifications provide developers and organizations with increased confidence in Docker’s ability to support secure software supply chains and protect sensitive information. They also demonstrate Docker’s focus on aligning its services with the needs of modern enterprises.
Accelerating success for development teams and organizations
In 2024, Docker introduced a range of features and enhancements designed to empower development teams and streamline operations across organizations. From harnessing the potential of AI to simplifying deployment workflows and improving security, Docker’s advancements are focused on enabling teams to work smarter and build with confidence. By addressing key challenges in development, management, and security, Docker continues to drive meaningful outcomes for developers and businesses alike.
Docker Home: A central hub to access and manage Docker products
Docker introduced Docker Home (Figure 4), a central hub for users to access Docker products, manage subscriptions, adjust settings, and find resources — all in one place. This approach simplifies navigation for developers and admins. Docker Home allows admins to manage organizations, users, and onboarding processes, with access to dashboards for monitoring Docker usage.
Future updates will add personalized features for different roles, and business subscribers will gain access to tools like the Docker Support portal and organization-wide notifications.
Figure 4: Docker Home.
Empowering AI innovation
Docker’s ecosystem supports AI/ML workflows, helping developers work with these cutting-edge technologies while staying cloud-native and agile. Read the Docker Labs GenAI series to see how we’re innovating and experimenting in the open.
Through partnerships like those with NVIDIA and GitHub, Docker ensures seamless integration of AI tools, allowing teams to rapidly experiment, deploy, and iterate. This emphasis on enabling advanced tech aligns Docker with organizations looking to leverage AI and ML in containerized environments.
Optimizing AI application development with Docker Desktop and NVIDIA AI Workbench
Docker and NVIDIA partnered to integrate Docker Desktop with NVIDIA AI Workbench, streamlining AI development workflows. This collaboration simplifies setup by automatically installing Docker Desktop when selected as the container runtime in AI Workbench, allowing developers to focus on creating, testing, and deploying AI models without configuration hassles. By combining Docker’s containerization capabilities with NVIDIA’s advanced AI tools, this integration provides a seamless platform for model training and deployment, enhancing productivity and accelerating innovation in AI application development.
We announced that Docker joined GitHub’s Partner Program and unveiled the Docker extension for GitHub Copilot (@docker). This extension is designed to assist developers in working with Docker directly within their GitHub workflows. This integration extends GitHub Copilot’s technology, enabling developers to generate Docker assets, learn about containerization, and analyze project vulnerabilities using Docker Scout, all from within the GitHub environment.
Accelerating AI development with the Docker AI catalog
Docker launched the AI Catalog, a curated collection of generative AI images and tools designed to simplify and accelerate AI application development. This catalog offers developers access to powerful models like IBM Granite, Llama, Mistral, Phi 2, and SolarLLM, as well as applications such as JupyterHub and H2O.ai. By providing essential tools for machine learning, model deployment, inference optimization, orchestration, ML frameworks, and databases, the AI Catalog enables developers to build and deploy AI solutions more efficiently.
The Docker AI Catalog addresses common challenges in AI development, such as decision overload from the vast array of tools and frameworks, steep learning curves, and complex configurations. By offering a curated list of trusted content and container images, Docker simplifies the decision-making process, allowing developers to focus on innovation rather than setup. This initiative underscores Docker’s commitment to empowering developers and publishers in the AI space, fostering a more streamlined and productive development environment.
Streamlining enterprise administration
Simplified deployment and management with Docker’s MSI and PKG installers
Docker simplifies deploying and managing Docker Desktop with the new MSI Installer for Windows and PKG Installer for macOS. The MSI Installer enables silent installations, automated updates, and login enforcement, streamlining workflows for IT admins. Similarly, the PKG Installer offers macOS users easy deployment and management with standard tools. These installers enhance efficiency, making it easier for organizations to equip teams and maintain secure, compliant environments.
These new installers also align with Docker’s commitment to simplifying the developer experience and improving organizational management. Whether you’re setting up a few machines or deploying Docker Desktop across an entire enterprise, these tools provide a reliable and efficient way to keep teams equipped and ready to build.
New sign-in enforcement options enhance security and help streamline IT administration
Docker simplifies IT administration and strengthens organizational security with new sign-in enforcement options for Docker Desktop. These features allow organizations to ensure users are signed in while using Docker, aligning local software with modern security standards. With flexible deployment options — including macOS Config Profiles, Windows Registry Keys, and the cross-platform registry.json file — IT administrators can easily enforce policies that prevent tampering and enhance security. These tools empower organizations to manage development environments more effectively, providing a secure foundation for teams to build confidently.
Desktop Insights: Unlocking performance and usage analytics
Docker introduced Desktop Insights, a powerful feature that provides developers and teams with actionable analytics to optimize their use of Docker Desktop. Accessible through the Docker Dashboard, Desktop Insights offers a detailed view of resource usage, build times, and performance metrics, helping users identify inefficiencies and fine-tune their workflows (Figure 5).
Whether you’re tracking the speed of container builds or understanding how resources like CPU and memory are being utilized, Desktop Insights empowers developers to make data-driven decisions. By bringing transparency to local development environments, this feature aligns with Docker’s mission to streamline container workflows and ensure developers have the tools to build faster and more effectively.
Figure 5: Desktop Insights dashboard.
New usage dashboards in Docker Hub
Docker introduced Usage dashboards in Docker Hub, giving organizations greater visibility into how they consume resources. These dashboards provide detailed insights into storage and image pull activity, helping teams understand their usage patterns at a granular level (Figure 6).
By breaking down data by repository, tag, and even IP address, the dashboards make it easy to identify high-traffic images or repositories that might require optimization. With this added transparency, teams can better manage their storage, avoid unnecessary pull requests, and optimize workflows to control costs.
Usage dashboards enhance accountability and empower organizations to fine-tune their Docker Hub usage, ensuring resources are used efficiently and effectively across all projects.
Figure 6: Usage dashboard.
Enhancing security with organization access tokens
Docker introduced organization access tokens, which let teams manage access to Docker Hub repositories at an organizational level. Unlike personal access tokens tied to individual users, these tokens are associated with the organization itself, allowing for centralized control and reducing reliance on individual accounts. This approach enhances security by enabling fine-grained permissions and simplifying the management of automated processes and CI/CD pipelines.
Organization access tokens offer several advantages, including the ability to set specific access permissions for each token, such as read or write access to selected repositories. They also support expiration dates, aligning with compliance requirements and bolstering security. By providing visibility into token usage and centralizing management within the Admin Console, these tokens streamline operations and improve governance for organizations of all sizes.
Docker’s vision for 2025
Docker’s journey doesn’t end here. In 2025, Docker remains committed to expanding its support for cloud-native and AI/ML development, reinforcing its position as the go-to container platform. New integrations and expanded multi-cloud capabilities are on the horizon, promising a more connected and versatile Docker ecosystem.
As Docker continues to build for the future, we’re committed to empowering developers, supporting the open source community, and driving efficiency in software development at scale.
2024 was a year of transformation for Docker and the developer community. With major advances in our product suite, continued focus on security, and streamlined experiences that deliver value, Docker is ready to help developer teams and organizations succeed in an evolving tech landscape. As we head into 2025, we invite you to explore Docker’s suite of tools and see how Docker can help your team build, innovate, and secure software faster than ever.
Software engineering is a dynamic, high-pressure field where development teams encounter a variety of challenges every day. As software development projects become increasingly complex, engineers must maintain high-quality code, meet time constraints, collaborate effectively, and prevent security vulnerabilities. At the same time, development teams can be held back by inefficiencies that can hinder productivity and speed.
Let’s explore some of the most common software engineering challenges and how Docker’s tools streamline the inner loop of cloud-native workflows. These tools help developers overcome pain points, boost productivity, and deliver better software faster.
Top 4 software engineering challenges developers face
Let’s be real — software development teams face a laundry list of challenges. From managing dependencies across teams to keeping up with the latest threats in an increasingly complex software ecosystem, these obstacles can quickly become roadblocks that stifle progress. Let’s dive into some of the most significant software engineering challenges that developers face today and how Docker can help:
1. Dependency management
One of the most common pain points in software engineering is managing dependencies. In any large development project, multiple teams might work on different parts of the codebase, often relying on various third-party libraries and services. The complexity increases when these dependencies span across different environments and versions.
The result? Version conflicts, broken builds, deployment failures, and hours spent troubleshooting. This process can become even more cumbersome when working with legacy code or when different teams work with conflicting versions.
Containerize your applications with their dependencies
Docker allows developers to package all their apps and dependencies into neat, lightweight containers. Think of these containers as “time capsules” that hold everything your app needs to run smoothly, from libraries and tools to configurations. And because these containers are portable, you get the same app behavior on your laptop, your testing server, or in production — no more hoping that “it worked on my machine” when it’s go-time.
No more version conflict drama. No more hours spent trying to figure out which version of the library your coworker’s been using. Docker ensures that everyone on the team works with the same setup. Consistent environments, happy devs, and no more dependency issues!
2. Testing complexities
Testing presents another significant challenge for developers. In an ideal world, tests would run in an environment that perfectly mirrors production; however, this is rarely the case. Developers often encounter problems when testing code in isolated environments that don’t reflect real-world conditions. As a result, bugs that might have been caught early in development are only discovered later, leading to costly fixes and delays.
Moreover, when multiple developers work in different environments or use different tools, the quality of tests can be inconsistent, and issues might be missed altogether. This leads to inefficiencies and makes it harder to ensure that your software is functional and reliable.
Leverage cloud-native testing environments that match production
One of Docker’s most significant benefits is its ability to create cloud-native testing environments. With Testcontainers Cloud, you can integrate testing within containers to create consistent, reliable testing environments that scale by defining test dependencies as code with confidence that they match production. Testing ensures that bugs and issues are caught earlier in the development cycle, reducing the time spent on troubleshooting and improving the overall quality of the software.
Docker Hub offers a repository of pre-configured images and environments, enabling developers to quickly share and collaborate on testing setups. This eliminates inconsistencies between test environments, ensuring all teams work with the same configurations and tools.
3. Lack of visibility and collaboration
Software development today often involves many developers working on different parts of a project simultaneously. This collaborative approach has obvious benefits, but can also lead to significant challenges. In a multi-developer environment, tracking changes, ensuring consistency, and maintaining smooth collaboration across teams can be hard.
Without proper visibility into the software development process, identifying issues in real-time and keeping everyone aligned becomes difficult. In many cases, teams end up working in silos, each using their own tools and systems. This lack of coherence can lead to misunderstandings, duplication of efforts, and delays in achieving milestones.
Accelerate teamwork with shared images, caches, and insights
Docker fosters collaboration by offering an integrated ecosystem where developers can seamlessly share images, cache, templates, and more. For example, Docker Hub and Hardened Docker Desktop allow teams to push, pull, and share secure images, making it easier to get started quickly using all the right configurations. Meanwhile, teams can also cut down on time-consuming builds and resolve failed builds with the Docker Build Cloud shared cache and Build insights.
Docker’s streamlined workflows provide greater visibility into the development process. With this improved collaboration and integrated workflows, software developers can enjoy faster development cycles and more time to innovate.
4. Security risks
Security is often a major concern in software development, yet it’s a challenge that many teams struggle to address consistently. Developers are constantly working under tight deadlines to release new features and fixes, which can sometimes push security considerations to the sidelines. As a result, vulnerabilities can be unintentionally introduced into the codebase through outdated libraries, insecure configurations, and even simple coding oversights.
The main challenge with security lies in identifying and managing risks across all development stages and environments. Developers must follow security protocols diligently and vulnerabilities need to be patched quickly, especially when building software for organizations with strict security regulations. This becomes increasingly difficult when multiple teams work on separate components, each potentially introducing its own security concerns.
Embed security into every phase of the development lifecycle
Docker solves these challenges by integrating security and compliance from build to production, without sacrificing speed or flexibility. For example, Docker Scout offers continuous vulnerability scanning and actionable insights, enabling teams to identify and address risks early. And with increased visibility into dependencies, images, and remediation recommendations, developers can be set up to prevent outdated libraries and insecure configurations from reaching production.
With tools like Hardened Docker Desktop, IAM, and RAM, Docker reduces the complexity of security oversight while ensuring compliance. These features help organizations avoid costly vulnerabilities, safeguard intellectual property, and maintain customer trust without slowing development speed. This simplified security management allows developers to deliver faster without compromising security.
Adopt Docker to overcome key challenges in software development
From dependency management to security risks, software developers face numerous challenges on their journey to deliver high-quality, secure applications. Docker’s unified development suite streamlines every stage of the inner loop, combining Docker Desktop, Docker Hub, Docker Build Cloud, Docker Scout, and Testcontainers Cloud into one powerful, cloud-native workflow ecosystem.
By streamlining workflows, enhancing collaboration, embedding security into every stage of development, and providing consistent testing environments, Docker empowers teams to build, test, and ship cloud-native applications with unparalleled speed and reliability. Whether you’re tackling legacy code or scaling modern applications, Docker ensures your development process remains efficient, secure, and ready for the demands of today’s fast-paced software landscape.
Docker’s subscription plans offer flexible, scalable access to a unified inner-loop suite, allowing teams of any size to accelerate workflows, ensure consistency, and build better software faster. It’s more than a set of tools — it offers a cohesive platform designed to transform your development lifecycle and keep your team competitive, efficient, and secure.
DockerCon 2023 was held October 4-5 in Los Angeles, California, and was a hybrid event, with the first in-person attendance since 2019. The keynotes both days were packed with Docker announcements and demos, plus customers and partners joined us on stage.
In this post, we round up highlights from DockerCon 2023. Event videos are available on-demand now on the DockerCon site and will be added to YouTube in the coming weeks.
Docker CEO Scott Johnston kicked off DockerCon 2023, celebrating 10 years of Docker.
“In the last 10 years, we’ve grown to more than 15 million developers, across the globe, and you all collectively — just on Docker Hub alone — have created and shared more than 15 million repos across open source, commercial, and many other communities,” he said. “Now, with your code, with your apps, with your Dockerfiles, your Docker Compose files, tweets, blog posts, YouTube videos, and introducing your colleagues to Docker, you have made it clear that Docker is the way to build, share, and run any application, anywhere.”
The first-day keynote included product announcements to accelerate the delivery of secure apps.
“With these products, Docker is clearly making ‘shift-left’ the new standard in developer experience,” writes Zevi Reinitz for Livecycle. “Each of these new tools aims to achieve a singular goal for developers everywhere: combine the responsiveness and convenience of local development with the on-demand resources, connectedness, and collaboration possibilities of the cloud. This combination enables developers to do their best work much earlier in the SDLC than they ever imagined possible.”
The second-day keynote, hosted by Docker CTO Justin Cormack, focused on innovations in artificial intelligence (AI).
“The critical importance of Docker to the modern development ecosystem cannot be overstated, and the new AI efforts could have a big impact on GenAI development efforts,” writes Sean Michael Kerner in VentureBeat.
Here’s a roundup of the news and announcement buzz at DockerCon:
Docker Desktop 4.24: Improving the developer experience
Prior to the event kickoff, Docker announced the release of Docker Desktop 4.24. This release brings the Docker Compose Watch GA release, a tool to improve the inner loop of application development. Docker Compose Watch enables devs to instantly see the impact of their code changes without manually triggering image builds. Read the Docker Compose Watch GA announcement to learn more.
Docker Desktop 4.24 also includes the GA release of the Resource Saver performance enhancement feature. This new feature automatically detects when Docker Desktop is not running containers and reduces its memory footprint by 10x, freeing up valuable resources on developers’ machines for other tasks and minimizing the risk of lag when navigating across different applications.
And with this latest Docker Desktop release, developers can view and manage Docker Engine state directly from the Docker Dashboard, minimizing clicks. Learn more in the Docker Desktop 4.24 announcement.
New local + cloud products
In the first-day keynote, we announced the Docker Scout GA release, next-generation Docker Build, and Docker Debug. The new products bring the power of the cloud to a development team’s “inner-loop” code-build-test-debug process.
The Docker Scout GA release enables developers to evaluate container images against a set of out-of-the-box policies. Scout’s new capabilities strengthen its position as integral to the software supply chain. Read the Docker Scout announcement to learn more.
Development teams can waste as much as an hour per day per team member waiting for their image builds to finish. To address this, next-generation Docker Build speeds up builds by as much as 39 times by automatically taking advantage of large, on-demand cloud-based servers and team-wide build caching.
Developers can spend as much as 60% of their time debugging their applications. But much of that time is taken by sorting and configuring tools and set-up instead of debugging. Docker Debug provides a language-independent, integrated toolbox for debugging local and remote containerized apps — even when the container fails to launch — enabling developers to find and solve problems faster.
The Mutagen File Sync feature of Docker Desktop takes file sharing to new heights with up to a 16.5x improvement in performance. To give it a try and help influence the future of Docker, sign up for the Docker Desktop Preview Program.
Udemy + Docker
Docker and Udemy announced a partnership to offer developers accessible learning paths to further their Docker education. Read the announcement blog post to learn more.
AI/ML announcements
Docker AI
Docker AI, Docker’s first AI-powered product, boosts dev productivity by generating guidance for developers that follows best practices and aids selecting up-to-date, secure images for their applications. Read the press release and “Docker dives into AI to help developers build GenAI apps” on VentureBeat to learn more.
Docker and partners Neo4j, LangChain, and Ollama launched a new GenAI Stack designed to enable developers to deploy a full GenAI stack in a few clicks. Read the blog post and press release to learn how the GenAI Stack simplifies AI/ML integration.
The GenAI Stack is available in early access now and is accessible from the Docker Desktop Learning Center or on GitHub.
OpenPubkey
During DockerCon, we announced our intention to use OpenPubkey, a project jointly developed by BastionZero and Docker and recently open-sourced and donated to The Linux Foundation. Read our blog post to learn about signing Docker Official Images using OpenPubkey.
Hackathon kicks off
A Docker AI/ML Hackathon kicked off the week of DockerCon. The Docker AI/ML Hackathon is open from October 3 – November 7, 2023. Winning projects receive prizes, including Docker swag and up to US$10,000.
Thank you to the DockerCon attendees, speakers, and sponsors for making the 2023 hybrid event a huge success! And thank you to Docker partners, customers, Docker Captains, and our community for helping make this year happen.
At DockerCon 2023, with partners Neo4j, LangChain, and Ollama, we announced a new GenAI Stack. We have brought together the top technologies in the generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) space to build a solution that allows developers to deploy a full GenAI stack with only a few clicks.
Here’s what’s included in the new GenAI Stack:
1. Pre-configured LLMs: We provide preconfigured Large Language Models (LLMs), such as Llama2, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4, to jumpstart your AI projects.
2. Ollama management: Ollama simplifies the local management of open source LLMs, making your AI development process smoother.
3. Neo4j as the default database: Neo4j serves as the default database, offering graph and native vector search capabilities. This helps uncover data patterns and relationships, ultimately enhancing the speed and accuracy of AI/ML models. Neo4j also serves as a long-term memory for these models.
4. Neo4j knowledge graphs: Neo4j knowledge graphs to ground LLMs for more precise GenAI predictions and outcomes.
5. LangChain orchestration: LangChain facilitates communication between the LLM, your application, and the database, along with a robust vector index. LangChain serves as a framework for developing applications powered by LLMs. This includes LangSmith, an exciting new way to debug, test, evaluate, and monitor your LLM applications.
6. Comprehensive support: To support your GenAI journey, we provide a range of helpful tools, code templates, how-to guides, and GenAI best practices. These resources ensure you have the guidance you need.
Figure 1: The GenAI Stack guide and access to the GenAI Stack components.
Conclusion
The GenAI Stack simplifies AI/ML integration, making it accessible to developers. Docker’s commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration means we’re excited to see the practical applications and solutions that will emerge from this ecosystem. Join us as we make AI/ML more accessible and straightforward for developers everywhere.
The GenAI Stack is available in Early Access now and is accessible from the Docker Desktop Learning Center or on GitHub.
We are excited to announce that Docker Scout General Availability (GA) now allows developers to continuously evaluate container images against a set of out-of-the-box policies, aligned with software supply chain best practices. These new capabilities also include a full suite of integrations enabling you to attain visibility from development into production. These updates strengthen Docker Scout’s position as integral to the software supply chain.
For developers building modern cloud-native applications, Docker Scout provides actionable insights in real-time to make it simple to secure and manage their software supply chain end-to-end. Docker Scout meets developers in the Docker tools they use daily, and provides the richest library of open source trusted content, policy evaluation, and automated remediation in real-time across the entire software supply chain. From the first base image pulled all the way to git commit, CI pipeline, and deployed workloads in production, Docker Scout leverages its large open ecosystem and the container runtime as vehicles for insights developers can easily act upon.
With Docker Scout operating as the system of record for the software supply chain, developers have access to real-time insights, identification of anomalies in their applications, and automated recommendations to improve application integrity, in tandem with Docker Desktop, Docker CLI, Docker Hub, and the full suite of Docker products. Docker Scout is designed to see the bigger picture and address challenges that are layered into the software supply chain.
Software supply chain
Through many in-depth conversations with our customers, we uncovered a clear trend: Developers are increasingly aware about not consuming content they don’t trust or haven’t permitted within their accepted range of organizational policies. To solve for this, Docker provides Docker Official Images, a curated set of Docker repositories hosted on Docker Hub. These images provide essential base repositories that serve as the starting point for most users. Docker and Docker Scout will continue to provide additional forms of software supply chain metadata for the Docker Official Image catalog in the coming months.
Trusted content is the foundation of secure software applications. A key aspect of this foundation is Docker Hub, the largest and most-used source of secure software artifacts, which includes Docker Official Images, Docker Verified Publishers, and Docker-Sponsored Open Source trusted content. Docker Scout policies leverage this metadata to track the life cycle of images, generate unique insights for developers, and help customers automate the enhancement of their software supply chain objectives — from inner loop to production.
Ensuring the reliability of applications requires constant vigilance and in-depth software design considerations, from selecting dependencies with a JSON file, running compilations and associated tests, to ensuring the safety of every image built. While some monitoring platforms focus solely on policies for container images currently running in production, the new Docker Scout GA release recognizes this is not sufficient to oversee the entire software supply chain, since that approach occurs too late in the development process.
Docker Scout offers a seamless set of actionable insights and suggested workflows that meet developers where they build and monitor today. These insights and workflows are particularly helpful for developers building Docker container images based on Docker Trusted Content (Docker Official Images, Docker-Sponsored Open Source, Docker Verified Publishers), and for many data sources beyond that, including data sourced from integrations with JFrog Artifactory, Amazon ECR, Sysdig Runtime Monitoring, GitHub Actions, GitLab, and CircleCI (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Integrate Docker Scout with tools you already use.
Policy evaluation
Current policy solutions support only a binary outcome, where artifacts are either allowed or denied based on the oversimplified results from policy analysis. This pass/fail approach and the corresponding gatekeeping is often too rigid and does not consider nuanced situations or intermediate states, leading to day-to-day friction around implementing traditional policy enforcement. Docker Scout now goes deeper, not only by indicating more subtle deviations from policy, but also by actively suggesting upgrade and remediation paths to bring you back within policy guidelines, reducing MTTR in the process.
Additionally, Docker Scout Policy makes for a productivity boost that stems from not having to wait for CI/CD to finish to know if you need to upgrade dependencies. Evaluating policies with Docker Scout prevents last-minute security blockers in the CI/CD that can impact release dates, which is one of the primary reasons teams tend not to adopt policy evaluation solutions.
Policy can take many forms: Specifying which repos or sources it is safe to pull in components or libraries from, requiring secure and verified build processes, and continuously monitoring for issues after deployment. Docker Scout is now equipped to expand the types of policies that can be implemented within these wider sets of definitions (Figures 2 & 3).
Figure 2: Docker Scout dashboard showing policy violations with fixes.Figure 3: Overview of the security status of images across all Docker-enabled repos over time.
Policy for maximal coverage
Our vision for policy is to allow developers to define what’s most developer-friendly and secure for their needs and their environments. While there’s a common thread across some industries, every enterprise has nuances. Whether setting security policies or aligning to software development life cycle tooling best practices, Docker Scout’s goal is to continuously evaluate container images, assisting teams to incrementally improve security posture within their cloud infrastructure.
These new capabilities include built-in out-of-the-box policies to maintain up-to-date base images, track associated vulnerabilities, and monitor for relevant in-scope licenses. Through evaluation results, users can see the status of policies for each image. Users will have an aggregated view of their policy results so they know what to focus on, as well as the ability to evaluate those results in more detail to understand what has changed within a given set of policies in a repo list view (Figure 4).
Figure 4: View from the CLI.
What’s next?
Docker Scout is designed to be with you in every step of improving developer workflows — from helping developers understand which actions to take to improve code reliability and bring it back in line with policy, to ensuring optimal code performance.
With the next phase on the horizon, we’re gearing up to deliver more value to our customers and always welcome feedback through our Docker Scout Design Partner Program. For now, the Docker Scout team is excited to get the latest solutions into our customers’ hands, ensuring safety, efficiency, and quality in a rapidly evolving ecosystem within the software supply chain.
Developers in our Docker-Sponsored Open Source (DSOS) Program will soon be able to access our Docker Scout Team plan, which includes unlimited local image analysis, as well as up to 100 repos for remote images, SDLC integrations, security posture reporting, and policy evaluation. Once Docker Scout is enabled for the DSOS program in late 2023, DSOS members can enable it on up to 100 repositories within their DSOS-approved namespace.
If you missed our webinar “Docker Scout: Live Demo, Insights, and Q&A” — or if you want to watch it again — it’s available on-demand. The audience had more questions than we had time to answer, so we’ve included additional Q&A below.
Many developers — and their employers — are concerned with securing their software supply chain. But what does that mean? Senior Developer Relations Manager Michael Irwin uses a coffee analogy (even though he doesn’t drink coffee himself!). To brew the best cup of coffee, you need many things: clean water, high-quality beans, and good equipment. For the beans and the water, you want assurances that they meet your standards. You might look for beans that have independent certification of their provenance and processing to make sure they are produced sustainably and ethically, for example.
The same concepts apply to producing software. You want to start with trusted content. Using images from Docker Official Images, Docker Verified Publishers, and Docker-Sponsored Open Source lets you know you’re building on a reliable, up-to-date foundation. From those images and your layered software libraries, Docker can build a software bill of materials (SBOM) that you can present to your customers to show exactly what went into making your application. And with Docker Scout, you can automatically check for known vulnerabilities, which helps you find and fix security issues before they reach your customers.
During the webinar, Senior Principal Software Engineer Christian Dupuis demonstrated using Docker Scout. He highlighted how Docker Scout utilizes SBOM and provenance attestation produced by BuildKit. He also showed Docker Scout indicating vulnerabilities by severity. Docker Scout doesn’t stop at showing vulnerabilities, it lets you know where the vulnerability is added to the image and provides suggestions for remediation.
The audience asked great questions during the live Q&A. Since we weren’t able to answer them all during the webinar, we want to take a moment to address them now.
Webinar Q&A
What source does Docker Scout use to determine the CVEs?
Docker Scout gets vulnerability data from approximately 20 advisory sources. This includes Linux distributions and code repository platforms like Debian, Ubuntu, GitHub, GitLab, and other trustworthy providers of advisory metadata.
We constantly cross-reference the SBOM information stored in the Docker Scout system-of-record with advisory data. New vulnerability information is immediately reflected on Docker Desktop, in the Docker Scout CLI, and on scout.docker.com.
How much does Docker Scout cost?
Docker Scout has several different price tiers. You can start for free with up to 3 image repositories; if you need more, we also offer paid plans. The Docker Scout product page has a full comparison to help you pick the right option.
How do I add Docker Scout to my CI pipeline?
The documentation on Docker Scout has a dedicated section on CI integrations.
How can I contribute?
There are several ways you can engage with the product team behind Docker Scout and influence the roadmap:
For feedback and issues about Docker Scout in the CLI, CI, Docker Desktop or scout.docker.com, open issues at https://github.com/docker/scout-cli.
Docker Scout works on all supported operating systems. You can use Docker Scout in Docker Desktop version 4.17 or later or log in to scout.docker.com to see information across all of your Docker Hub images. Make sure you keep your Docker Desktop version up to date — we’re adding new features and capabilities in every release.
You can use the Docker Scout CLI to export vulnerabilities into a SARIF file for further processing or export. You can read more about this in the Docker Engine documentation.
How does Docker Scout help if I’m already using scanning tools?
Docker Scout builds upon a system of record for the entire software development life cycle, so you can integrate it with other tools you use in your software delivery process. Talk to us to learn more.
Get started with Docker Scout
Developers want speed, security, and choice. Docker Scout helps improve developer efficiency and software security by detecting known vulnerabilities early. While it offers remediation suggestions, developers still have the choice in determining the best approach to addressing vulnerabilities. Get started today to see how Docker Scout helps you secure your software supply chain.
Connexion
