In today’s world, especially in Information Technology, we are seeing continuous day-by-day changes. These changes are related to technology, which is making our daily life easier and more convenient through the use of apps and websites. With these tools, we can do almost anything from anywhere. For example, we can order food online, buy clothes, hire a cab, book a hotel, make banking transactions, and much more. All we need is an internet connection and a smartphone or laptop.
Whenever our needs change, we must either adopt new technologies or improve the existing ones. Additionally, when new technology emerges, the concepts and logic we’ve used also require support. This support comes not only from the development strategy but also from the infrastructure that hosts and helps improve the technology.
That’s why the title of this blog is set to “Why Docker and Agile are a “Good Couple”, because AGILE is the strategy that is used to plan & develop a technology/software, whereas Docker is the way of deploying this software to a number of Containers, hosted on a single or multiple servers.
To fully understand this, we first need to know what exactly Agile and Docker are. In this blog, we will explain how these two work in parallel to support each other efficiently.
What is Agile?
A methodology refers to the procedures and methods that must be followed for a specific execution. The Agile methodology helps teams choose these methods and procedures to achieve agility. Agility means the ability to adapt to continuous changes in software development and make necessary improvements.
Agile methodology provides a clear path for teams to follow throughout the software development lifecycle. It helps them understand what they need to do to achieve their goals.
In software development, Agile methodology supports continuous iterations of development and testing throughout the entire process. Both development and testing happen side by side. In contrast, the traditional Waterfall model only begins testing after the complete software development.
I am using a diagram here to help you understand the complete Software Development Lifecycle using Agile Strategy. Check below diagram for your reference,
What is Docker?
In simple terms, Docker is an open-source platform that allows developers to create, ship, and run applications using containerization. It’s also a container management service. With Docker containers, we can easily separate applications from the infrastructure, enabling quicker software delivery. By implementing Docker’s methodology, we reduce the effort required to write, test, and run code in production.
By adopting Docker, we can easily develop applications, ship them into containers, and deploy them anywhere in our infrastructure. This feature has been a valuable tool for developers worldwide.
Docker becomes very useful since its launch in 2013, especially in Agile based development projects. Below diagram will help you understand what we have written here about docker.
Agile ‘Collaboration’ with Docker
To understand this, we need to know what were the challenges that came while developing software using an Agile Methodology. As we know, Agile is the way to follow the best practices in order to create quality software, but all these stages involve people who are working individually, or you can say that who are working in Silos with their own goals/key areas. This situation results in no communication between the teams who are eventually working for a common objective, that is, a reliable software. Look the below picture, where Dev team is not having any idea about the Infrastructure where the code is going to be deployed. Similar is the case with the Infra team.
Also, the Agile Development without Docker culture results in many issues as shown in the below picture.
To overcome all these situations the need for containerization with Docker arises.
The reason I am only talking about DOCKER instead of Virtualizationis because Dev-Infra team found it more easy to understand, easy to implement plus it helps in saving a lot of hardware resources, as we can run a number of Docker containers, in which our software/applications reside. Also, it becomes more easy to monitor the Software health check and the people working in Silos started working as a team. Below image will give you more clarity on what I want to explain to you,
Summing Up
Below are some of the key points that everyone should need to know about Agile and Docker Culture,
- When Docker and Agile both works in parallel then we can deploy the code much faster in an automated & repeatable way.
- With Docker and Agile, the lack of communication decreases plus knowledge sharing among the team increases.
- With Docker and Agile integration, Dev team, QA team, Operations team, all have a good clarity of what they all are doing.
- Agile focuses on Software development whereas Docker Culture focuses on how the created software spans efficiently on the number of servers with Docker containers.
- With the integration of Agile Methodology and Docker Culture, now organizations are doing rapid deployments every day without any worry about the hardware resources.
SERIGOR can help you in using Agile & Docker
The team at Serigor is capable of helping you in implementing the concept of Agile Methodology with Docker Deployments. We have a dedicated team to help you transform your plans into reality by providing help in technology consulting. Also, we can help you in hiring the skilled & trained staff that have the current market knowledge in the IT field with different Docker technologies. So, if you want to have an idea of how AGILE-DOCKER can help them to save the money and resources, we can explain with live examples as well as with live demos.