Google and Docker: “A Natural Fit.”
On June 10th, Eric Brewer is slated to give a keynote speech at a cloud technology conference in the Bay Area. Brewer is expected to embrace Docker, which Wired.com is calling “The Next Big Thing in Cloud Computing.” So you’re probably wondering, what is Docker? Before we describe Docker, let’s first look at Eric Brewer.
Brewer is one of the forefathers of cloud. As a professor of computer science in the mid-90s, Brewer was instrumental in the creation of Ikatomi which was one of the first search engines that used multiple low end hardware nodes versus a gigantic super computer to perform search queries. Brewer has since been retained by Google and he is often viewed as one of the most credible engineers in the world.
Brewer has been quoted as saying Google and Docker are a “Natural fit.” Docker doesn’t operate too far away from the model delivering software that Google has embraced for years. Docker is a tool that makes software and apps portable across a vast network of machines. When you use Docker in a cloud deployment, you can see how valuable this open source piece of software can be.
What’s the end result? Developers who use Docker should never have to worry about infrastructure again. Docker’s development isn’t complete yet though. Brewer notes that “It’s not perfect yet. This is an area where both Google and the community have some work to do.” Brewer further comments by saying, “A container running on one OS may not run on another.”
Many experts feel as if the portability of Docker will mean that applications may be born in the cloud but rapidly move to on-premises. Solomon Hykes it the CTO of Docker and he comments on this scenario by saying, “It’s OK for them to make it so that payloads can be more easily moved from Google to somewhere else.” Hykes continues on by saying it is OK, “Because they’re betting that more payloads will flow in than out.” As you look more into Docker, you begin to see how this open source creation really is a natural fit for Google.
