In today’s world, especially in Information Technology, we are seeing continuous changes day-by-day. These changes arerelated to technology which is making our daily life more easier and convenient by making use of Apps & Websites. Using these we can do anything from any location, for example, we can order food online, buy new clothes, hire a cab, book a hotel, do banking transactions and much more. All we need is, just an Internet connection plus a smartphone or a computer/laptop.
So whenever our demand or requirement changeswe have to look for the alternate technologies or we need to enhance the existing ones. And when the new technology emerges, with that the concept plus logic which we have used also needs support, not only by the developing strategy plus by the Infra where the things are hosted and are responsible for creating the better version of 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 understand all this, first, we need to understand what exactly Agile and Docker is. So, here in this blog, we will make you understand how both of these runs in parallel to support each other in an efficient way.
What is Agile?
A methodology means the procedures, methods that needs to be followed for a particular execution. The Agile Methodology helps you in choosing these methods and procedures to achieve the agility. By agility, we mean the ability to adapt the continuos changes in software development and to make the improvements wherever it is required.
Agile methodology provides a path using which all the teams get to know how to proceed during the lifecycle of developing a Software. Or one can say that they get the idea of what they have to do to achieve their goal.
In software development, the agile methodology helps in performing continuous iterations of development and testing throughout the software development phase. Both development as well as testing side by side in agile software development. Whereas, in the traditional Waterfall Model of software development, testing is done only after the complete development of the software.
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 words, Docker is an open-source platform where one can develop, ship, as well as run his/her applications by using the concept of Containerization. We can also say that it is a container management service. Using docker containers we can easily separate our applications from our infrastructure which in-turn helps us in delivering software quickly. Also by implementing the Docker’s methodology, we can easily reduce the effort from writing the code, to test the code, to make it run in the production.
By adopting the concept of Docker we can easily develop applications, can ship them into containers and finally can deploy them anywhere in our infrastructure. This feature comes as a helping hand for all the developers throughout the world.
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.