Containers have dramatically changed the ways in which application developers package and deploy software, initially in the cloud but soon in the enterprise as well. When combined with DevOps, microservices, and cloud-native applications, containers are revolutionizing the applications are designed, developed and managed over their lifetimes.

Containers, however, only take the development process part way to the operational environment, writes Wikibon Analyst Brian Gracely in his latest Professional Alert, “Docker is the Least Interesting Part of Docker.” Containers cover the artifacts-to-applications part of the journey, but that only takes an application part of the way to reliable deployment. Gracely provides a list of 10 management functions, including digital signatures to ensure a valid source of origination, scanning to ensure they do not contain malware and dynamic assignment of service names and IP addresses that can be read by a discovery service.

Fortunately, Docker and other vendors are developing platforms to manage containers that will eventually provide these advanced business functions. These companies hope they will also solve their major problem in the market: making money. These platforms will also help to make containers more popular inside the enterprise, where many CIOs today say they are unprepared for containers. Wikibon talked on theCUBE with leaders from the DevOps Enterprise Summit to better understand how large companies are adopting to the fast-moving trends within IT (see embedded video below).

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