57. Discussing Docker Containers and Kubernetes with a Docker Captain

Mike Mondragon interviews Bret Fisher, who works as a freelance DevOps/sysadmin consultant, and who also has the designation of being a Docker Captain. Docker Captain is a distinction that Docker awards select members of the community that are Docker experts and are passionate about sharing their Docker knowledge with others. To that end, Bret walks us through the history of how he became involved in Docker, and indeed, the history of Docker itself: the problems it tried to solve, and the way the codebase evolved to provide those solutions.

Much of the conversation centers around the confusing terminology and processes present in the Docker ecosystem: when to use Docker Compose, the differences between running Docker locally and in production, and when to consider adopting Kubernetes. There are also various container runtimes which developers can make use of, and Bret touches on the characteristics of each as well.

Bret looks towards the future of Docker, the company, as they recently sold off a portion of their enterprise-focused business. Docker is returning to its original intent to provide developers with better tooling to deploy and isolate their applications. He urges caution to teams ready to move wholeheartedly to Docker and instead focus on solutions that match their problems, not those of immense enterprise corporations.

Links from this episode

• An explanation of a Docker Captain's role
• DevOps in Docker Talk is Bret's podcast
• Kata Containers, containerd, and cri-o are just some of the container runtimes out there
• Kelsey Hightower's Kubernetes: the hard way is a tutorial that walks you through setting up Kubernetes