Docker is an innovative technology that has revolutionized the way developers and admins build, test, and deploy applications. With Docker, you can quickly package your software into standardized units called containers, which contain everything your code needs to run including libraries, system tools, code, and runtime. Using Docker on AWS provides a low-cost, highly reliable way to run and manage your distributed applications at scale.
How Docker works?
Docker is an operating system for containers that virtualizes the operating system of a server. Docker provides a standard way to run your code and is installed on each server, giving you simple commands to build, start, or stop containers. AWS services like AWS Fargate, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, and AWS Batch make it easy to run and manage Docker containers at scale.
Why use Docker?
Using Docker provides many benefits, including the ability to ship code faster, standardize application operations, seamlessly move code, and save money by improving resource utilization. With Docker, you get a single object that can reliably run anywhere, and the straightforward syntax gives you full control. There is a robust ecosystem of tools and off-the-shelf applications ready to use with Docker, making it a popular choice among developers and admins alike.
When to use Docker?
You can use Docker containers as a core building block for creating modern applications and platforms, including distributed microservices architectures, continuous integration and delivery pipelines, highly-scalable data processing systems, and fully-managed platforms for your developers. The recent collaboration between AWS and Docker makes it easier to deploy Docker Compose artifacts to Amazon ECS and AWS Fargate.
Run Docker on AWS:
AWS provides support for both Docker open-source and commercial solutions, with a number of ways to run containers on AWS. Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) is a highly scalable, high performance container management service that lets you easily deploy your containerized applications from your local Docker environment straight to Amazon ECS. AWS Fargate is a technology for Amazon ECS that lets you run containers in production without deploying or managing infrastructure. Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (EKS) makes it easy for you to run Kubernetes on AWS, and AWS Batch lets you run highly-scalable batch processing workloads using Docker containers.
What is a Docker Image?
Docker images are read-only templates that define your container and contain the code that will run, including any definitions for any libraries and dependencies your code needs. AWS provides Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), an image registry for storing and quickly retrieving Docker images.
Overall, Docker on AWS provides a powerful combination for developers and admins looking to build, test, and deploy applications quickly and reliably at any scale.
