Nearly half (45%) of developers say they don’t have enough time for learning and development, according to a developer experience research study by Harness and Wakefield Research. Additionally, developer onboarding is a slow and painful process, with 71% of executive buyers saying that onboarding new developers takes at least two months. 

To accelerate innovation and bring products to market faster, organizations must empower developers with robust support and intuitive guardrails, enabling them to succeed within a structured yet flexible environment. That’s where Docker fits in: We help developers onboard quickly and help organizations set up the right guardrails to give developers the flexibility to innovate within the boundaries of company policies. 

Setting up developer teams for success 

Docker is recognized as one of the most used, desired, and admired developer tools, making it an essential component of any development team’s toolkit. For developers who are new to Docker, you can quickly get them up and running with Docker’s integrated development workflows, verified secure content, and accessible learning resources and community support.

Streamlined developer onboarding

When new developers join a team, Docker Desktop can significantly reduce the time and effort required to set up their development environments. Docker Desktop integrates seamlessly with popular IDEs, such as Visual Studio Code, allowing developers to containerize directly within familiar tools, accelerating learning within their usual workflows. Docker Extensions expand Docker Desktop’s capabilities and establish new functionalities, integrating developers’ favorite development tools into their application development and deployment workflows. 

Developers can also use Docker for GitHub Copilot for seamless onboarding with assistance for containerizing applications, generating Docker assets, and analyzing project vulnerabilities. In fact, the Docker extension is a top choice among developers in GitHub Copilot’s extension leaderboard, as highlighted by Visual Studio Magazine.

Docker Build Cloud integrates with Docker Compose and CI workflows, making it a seamless transition for dev teams. Verified content on Docker Hub gives developers preconfigured, trusted images, reducing setup time and ensuring a secure foundation as they onboard onto projects. 

Docker Scout provides actionable insights and recommendations, allowing developers to enhance their container security awareness, scan for vulnerabilities, and improve security posture with real-time feedback. And, Testcontainers Cloud lets developers run reliable integration tests, with real dependencies defined in code. With these tools, developers can be confident about delivering high-quality and reliable apps and experiences in production.  

Continuous learning with accessible knowledge resources

Continuous learning is a priority for Docker, with a wide range of accessible resources and tools designed to help developers deepen their knowledge and stay current in their containerization journey.

Docker Docs offers beginner-friendly guides, tutorials, and AI tools to guide developers through foundational concepts, empowering them to quickly build their container skills. Our collection of guides takes developers step by step to learn how Docker can optimize development workflows and how to use it with specific languages, frameworks, or technologies.

Docker Hub’s AI Catalog empowers developers to discover, pull, and integrate AI models into their workflows, bridging the gap between innovation and implementation. 

Docker also offers regular webinars and tech talks that help developers stay updated on new features and best practices and provide a platform to discuss real-world challenges. If you’re a Docker Business customer, you can even request additional, customized training from our Docker experts. 

Docker’s partnerships with educational platforms and organizations, such as Udemy Training and LinkedIn Learning, ensure developers have access to comprehensive training — from beginner tutorials to advanced containerization topics.

Docker’s global developer community

One of Docker’s greatest strengths is its thriving global developer community, offering organizations a unique advantage by connecting them with a wealth of shared expertise, resources, and real-world solutions.

With more than 20 million monthly active users, Docker’s community forums and events foster vibrant collaboration, giving developers access to a collective knowledge base that spans industries and expertise levels. Developers can ask questions, solve challenges, and gain insights from a diverse range of peers — from beginners to seasoned experts. Whether you’re troubleshooting an issue or exploring best practices, the Docker community ensures you’re never working in isolation.

A key pillar of this ecosystem is the Docker Captains program — a network of experienced and passionate Docker advocates who are leaders in their fields. Captains share technical knowledge through blog posts, videos, webinars, and workshops, giving businesses and teams access to curated expertise that accelerates onboarding and productivity.

Beyond forums and the Docker Captains program, Docker’s community-driven events, such as meetups and virtual workshops (Figure 1), provide developers with direct access to real-world use cases, innovative workflows, and emerging trends. These interactions foster continuous learning and help developers and their organizations keep pace with the ever-evolving software development landscape.

For businesses, tapping into Docker’s extensive community means access to a vast pool of knowledge, support, and inspiration, which is a critical asset in driving developer productivity and innovation.

Empowering developers with enhanced user management and security

In previous articles, we looked at how Docker simplifies complexity and boosts developer productivity (the right tool) and how to unlock efficiency with Docker for AI and cloud-native development (the right process).

To scale and standardize app development processes across the entire company, you also need to have the right guardrails in place for governance, compliance, and security, which is often handled through enterprise control and admin management tools. Ideally, organizations provide guardrails without being overly prescriptive and slowing developer productivity and innovation. 

Modern enterprises require a layered security approach, beginning with trusted content as the foundation for building robust and compliant applications. This approach gives your dev teams a good foundation for building securely from the start. 

Throughout the software development process, you need a secure platform. For regulated industries like finance and public sectors, this means fortified dev environments. Security vulnerability analysis and policy evaluation tools also help inform improvements and remediation. 

Additionally, you need enterprise controls and dashboards that ensure enterprise IT and security teams can confidently monitor and manage risk. 

Setting up the right guardrails 

Docker provides a number of admin tools to safeguard your software with integrated container security in the Docker Business plan. Our goal is to improve security and compliance of developer environments with minimal impact on developer experience or productivity. 

Centralized settings for improved dev environments security 

Docker provides developer teams with access to a vast library of trusted and certified application content, including Docker Official Images, Docker Verified Publisher, and Docker Trusted Open Source content. Coupled with advanced image and registry management rules — with tools like Image Access Management and Registry Access Management — you can ensure that your developers only use software that satisfies your company’s security policies. 

With a solid foundation to build securely from the start, your organization can further enhance security throughout the software development process. Docker ensures software supply chain integrity through vulnerability scanning and image analysis with Docker Scout. Rapid remediation capabilities paired with detailed CVE reporting help developers quickly find and fix vulnerabilities, resulting in speedy time to resolution.

Although containers are generally secure, container development tools still must be properly secured to reduce the risk of security breaches in the developer’s environment. Hardened Docker Desktop is an example of Docker’s fortified development environments with enhanced container isolation. It lets you enforce strict security settings and prevent developers and their containers from bypassing these controls. With air-gapped containers, you can further restrict containers from accessing network resources, limiting where data can be uploaded to or downloaded from.

Continuous monitoring and managing risks

With the Admin Console and Docker Desktop Insights, IT administrators and security teams can visualize and understand how Docker is used within their organizations and manage the implementation of organizational configurations and policies (Figure 2). 

These insights help teams streamline processes and improve efficiency. For example, you can enforce sign-in for developers who don’t sign in to an account associated with your organization. This step ensures that developers receive the benefits of your Docker subscription and work within the boundaries of the company policies. 

For business and engineering leaders, full visibility and governance over the development process help ensure compliance and mitigate risk while driving developer productivity. 

Unlock innovation with Docker’s development suite

Docker is the leading suite of tools purpose-built for cloud-native development, combining a best-in-class developer experience with enterprise-grade security and governance. With Docker, your organization can streamline onboarding, foster innovation, and maintain robust compliance — all while empowering your teams to deliver impactful solutions to market faster and more securely. 

Explore the Docker Business plan today and unlock the full potential of your development processes.

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The need for secure and high quality software becomes more critical every day as the impact of vulnerabilities increases and related costs continue to rise. For example, flawed software cost the U.S. economy $2.08 trillion in 2020 alone, according to the Consortium for Information and Software Quality (CISQ). And, a software defect that might cost $100 to fix if found early in the development process can grow exponentially to $10,000 if discovered later in production. 

Docker helps you deliver secure, efficient applications by providing consistent environments and fast, reliable container management, building on best practices that let you discover and resolve issues earlier in the software development life cycle (SDLC).

Shifting left to ensure fewer defects

In a previous blog post, we talked about using the right tools, including Docker’s suite of products to boost developer productivity. Besides having the right tools, you also need to implement the right processes to optimize your software development and improve team productivity. 

The software development process is typically broken into two distinct loops, the inner and the outer loops. At Docker, we believe that investing in the inner loop is crucial. This means shifting security left and identifying problems as soon as you can. This approach improves efficiency and reduces costs by helping teams find and fix software issues earlier.

Using Docker tools to adopt best practices

Docker’s products help you adopt these best practices — we are focused on enhancing the software development lifecycle, especially around refining the inner loop. Products like Docker Desktop allow your dev team in the inner loop to run, test, code, and build everything fast and consistently. This consistency eliminates the “it works on my machine” issue, meaning applications behave the same in both development and production.  

Shifting left lets your dev team identify problems earlier in your software project lifecycle. When you detect issues sooner, you increase efficiency and help ensure secure builds and compliance. By shifting security left with Docker Scout, your dev teams can identify vulnerabilities sooner and help avoid issues down the road. 

Another example of shifting left involves testing — doing testing earlier in the process leads to more robust software and faster release cycles. This is when Testcontainers Cloud comes in handy because it enables developers to run reliable integration tests, with real dependencies defined in code. 

Accelerate development within the hybrid inner loop

We see more and more companies adopting the so-called hybrid inner loop, which combines the best of two worlds — local and cloud. The results provide greater flexibility for your dev teams and encourage better collaboration. For example, Docker Build Cloud uses the power of the cloud to speed up build time without sacrificing the local development experience that developers love. 

By using these Docker products across the software development life cycle, teams get quick feedback loops and faster issue resolution, ensuring a smooth development flow from inception to deployment. 

Simplifying AI application development

When you’re using the right tools and processes to accelerate your application delivery and maximize efficiency throughout your SDLC, processes that were once cumbersome become your new baseline, freeing up time for true innovation. 

Docker also helps accelerate innovation by simplifying AI/ML development. We are continually investing in AI to help your developers deliver AI-backed applications that differentiate your business and enhance competitiveness.

Docker AI tools

Docker’s GenAI Stack accelerates the incorporation of large language models (LLMs) and AI/ML into your code, enabling the delivery of AI-backed applications. All containers work harmoniously and are managed directly from Docker Desktop, allowing your team to monitor and adjust components without leaving their development environment. Deploying the GenAI Stack is quick and easy, and leveraging Docker’s containerization technology helps speed setup and simplify scaling as applications grow.

Earlier this year, we announced the preview of Docker Extension for GitHub Copilot. By standardizing best practices and enabling integrations with tools like GitHub Copilot, Docker empowers developers to focus on innovation, closing the gap from the first line of code to production.

And, more recently, we launched the Docker AI Catalog in Docker Hub. This new feature simplifies the process of integrating AI into applications by providing trusted and ready-to-use content supported by comprehensive documentation. Your dev team will benefit from shorter development cycles, improved productivity, and a more streamlined path to integrating AI into both new and existing applications.

Wrapping up

Docker products help you establish sound processes and practices related to shifting left and discovering issues earlier to avoid headaches down the road. This approach ultimately unlocks developer productivity, giving your dev team more time to code and innovate. Docker also allows you to quickly use AI to close knowledge gaps and offers trusted tools to build AI/ML applications and accelerate time to market. 

To see how Docker continues to empower developers with the latest innovations and tools, check out our Docker 2024 Highlights.

Learn about Docker’s updated subscriptions and find the ideal plan for your team’s needs.

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Modern application development has evolved dramatically. Gone are the days when a couple of developers, a few machines, and some pizza were enough to launch an app. As the industry grew, DevOps revolutionized collaboration, and Docker popularized containerization, simplifying workflows and accelerating delivery. 

Later, DevSecOps brought security into the mix. Fast forward to today, and the demand for software has never been greater, with more than 750 million cloud-native apps expected by 2025.

This explosion in demand has created a new challenge: complexity. Applications now span multiple programming languages, frameworks, and architectures, integrating both legacy and modern systems. Development workflows must navigate hybrid environments — local, cloud, and everything in between. This complexity makes it harder for companies to deliver innovation on time and stay competitive. 

To overcome these challenges, you need a development platform that’s as reliable and ubiquitous as electricity or Wi-Fi — a platform that works consistently across diverse applications, development tools, and environments. Whether you’re just starting to move toward microservices or fully embracing cloud-native development, Docker meets your team where they are, integrates seamlessly into existing workflows, and scales to meet the needs of individual developers, teams, and entire enterprises.

Docker: Simplifying the complex

The Docker suite of products provides the tools you need to accelerate development, modernize legacy applications, and empower your team to work efficiently and securely. With Docker, you can:

• Modernize legacy applications: Docker makes it easy to containerize existing systems, bringing them closer to modern technology stacks without disrupting operations.
• Boost productivity for cloud-native teams: Docker ensures consistent environments, integrates with CI/CD workflows, supports hybrid development environments, and enhances collaboration

Consistent environments: Build once, run anywhere

Docker ensures consistency across development, testing, and production environments, eliminating the dreaded “works on my machine” problem. With Docker, your team can build applications in unified environments — whether on macOS, Windows, or Linux — for reliable code, better collaboration, and faster time to market.

With Docker Desktop, developers have a powerful GUI and CLI for managing containers locally. Integration with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code allows developers to code, build, and debug within familiar tools. Built-in Kubernetes support enables teams to test and deploy applications on a local Kubernetes cluster, giving developers confidence that their code will perform in production as expected.

Integrated workflows for hybrid environments

Development today spans both local and cloud environments. Docker bridges the gap and provides flexibility with solutions like Docker Build Cloud, which speeds up build pipelines by up to 39x using cloud-based, multi-platform builders. This allows developers to focus more on coding and innovation, rather than waiting on builds.

Docker also integrates seamlessly with CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, and GitHub Actions. This automation reduces manual intervention, enabling consistent and reliable deployments. Whether you’re building in the cloud or locally, Docker ensures flexibility and productivity at every stage.

Team collaboration: Better together

Collaboration is central to Docker. With integrations like Docker Hub and other registries, teams can easily share container images and work together on builds. Docker Desktop features like Docker Debug and the Builds view dashboards empower developers to troubleshoot issues together, speeding up resolution and boosting team efficiency.

Docker Scout provides actionable security insights, helping teams identify and resolve vulnerabilities early in the development process. With these tools, Docker fosters a collaborative environment where teams can innovate faster and more securely.

Why Docker?

In today’s fast-paced development landscape, complexity can slow you down. Docker’s unified platform reduces complexity as it simplifies workflows, standardizes environments, and empowers teams to deliver software faster and more securely. Whether you’re modernizing legacy applications, bridging local and cloud environments, or building cutting-edge, cloud-native apps, Docker helps you achieve efficiency and scale at every stage of the development lifecycle.

Docker offers a unified platform that combines industry-leading tools — Docker Desktop, Docker Hub, Docker Build Cloud, Docker Scout, and Testcontainers Cloud — into a seamless experience. Docker’s flexible plans ensure there’s a solution for every developer and every team, from individual contributors to large enterprises.

Get started today

Ready to simplify your development workflows? Start your Docker journey now and equip your team with the tools they need to innovate, collaborate, and deliver with confidence.

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