Docker

Concepts

A Docker container image is a lightweight, standalone, executable package of software that includes everything needed to run an application: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries and settings.

Containers isolate software from its environment and ensure that it works uniformly despite differences for instance between development and staging.

Docker runs on a Host Operating System.

Docker container technology was launched in 2013 as an open source Docker Engine. It leveraged existing computing concepts around containers and specifically in the Linux world, primitives known as cgroups and namespaces. Docker's technology is unique because it focuses on the requirements of developers and systems operators to separate application dependencies from infrastructure. Success in the Linux world drove a partnership with Microsoft that brought Docker containers and its functionality to Windows Server (sometimes referred to as Docker Windows containers).