On the Topic of Lock-In
While talking with customers over the past couple of weeks during a multi-country/multi-continent trip, one phrase that kept coming up is “lock-in”, as in “we’re trying to avoid lock-in” or “this approach doesn’t have any lock-in”. While I’m not a huge fan of memes, this phrase always brings to mind The Princess Bride, Vizzini’s use of the word “inconceivable,” and Inigo Montoya’s famous response. C’mon, you know you want to say it: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” I feel the same way about lock-in, and here’s why.
Lock-in, as I understand how it’s viewed, is an inability to migrate from your current solution to some other solution. For example, you might feel “locked in” to Microsoft (via Office or Windows) or “locked in” to Oracle (via their database platform or applications), or even “locked in” to VMware through vCenter and vSphere. Although these solutions/platforms/products might be the right fit for your particular problem/need, the fact that you can’t migrate is a problem. Here you are, running a product or solution or platform that is the right fit for your needs, but because you may not be able Continue reading
Recoding for the Future
It’s been three years since the Docker project launched, and it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. In just the past year, we’ve nearly tripled the number of employees and contributors, launched a broad set of both open source and … ContinuedFrom Board Member to Team Member: Leading Product Development at Docker
Docker was unleashed on an unsuspecting world in March 2013. Prior to that, I had the distinct pleasure of getting an early preview of Solomon Hykes’ vision of creating a programmable layer for the Internet in a dotCloud board meeting. … ContinuedDocker Community Spotlight: Arun Gupta
Arun Gupta (@arungupta) wears many hats: VP of Developer Advocacy at Couchbase, author of a best-selling book, an avid runner, founding member of Devoxx4Kids USA, Java Champion, dedicated father, globe trotter, JUG leader and a Docker Captain. Arun first started … ContinuedConvince Your Boss to Send You to DockerCon 2016
Do you really want to go to DockerCon, but are having a hard time convincing your boss on pulling the trigger to send you? Have you already explained that sessions, training and hands-on exercises are definitely worth the financial investment … ContinuedGet Ready for Docker’s 3rd Birthday!
Last month, we announced our plans to celebrate the Docker Project’s 3rd birthday by organizing a series of events focused on providing Docker training to beginners. Over the past few weeks we have been amazed (once again) by the energy … Continued#SwarmWeek: It’s a Wrap – Thanks Y’all!
Thank You. Wow what a week! When we first brainstormed Swarm Week, it was to help spread awareness of Docker Swarm to the community. What we did not anticipate was the tremendous support from the community to proactively share your … Continued[#SwarmWeek Edition] Docker Online Meetup #35: Docker Swarm
As part of #SwarmWeek, we hosted a Docker Online Meetup all about Docker Swarm. Docker Swarm is native clustering for Docker. It turns a pool of Docker hosts into a single, virtual Docker host. Because Docker Swarm serves the standard … Continued#SwarmWeek: Realtime Cluster Monitoring with Docker Swarm and Riemann
Lately I’ve become fascinated with Riemann, a piece of software written in Clojure for the purpose of supervising the health of distributed systems. Created by Kyle Kingsbury (a.k.a. aphyr) of Jepsen fame, Riemann is a powerful tool for montioring, processing, … Continued#SwarmWeek – Five Tips for the Advanced Swarm User
Today in Swarm Week, we’re getting more advanced with Swarm. In addition to orchestration tutorial video featuring Jérôme Petazzoni, we wanted to share some tips for you to try as you start getting familiar with creating and using Swarm clusters. … Continued#SwarmWeek: Advanced Orchestration with Docker Swarm
Jérôme Petazzoni, Docker’s tinkerer extraordinaire, has been running full day on container orchestration with the full Docker stack. The whole workshop uses a demo application using DockerCoin (not a real currency, he tells us). It’s got with web frontends, web … ContinuedHow Ansible Makes Automating Windows Easier
In case you missed it, Ansible 2.0’s Windows support includes a number of improvements and new features that make automating Windows with Ansible easier. Because of Red Hat’s commitment to solid cross-platform management, you’ll also see an acceleration of these kinds of improvements in future Ansible releases. I’ll highlight a few of the items I’m most excited about from 2.0, and give a quick peek at what’s scheduled for future releases.
Windows Update Support
Update management is a common pain point for Windows administrators. The new win_updates module makes it easy to orchestrate updates during your maintenance windows- no more logging into individual machines to kick off updates or hoping a scheduled update pass actually ran!
IIS Modules
2.0 shipped with a suite of modules for managing IIS. From configuring websites, AppPools, virtual directories, and more- now Ansible can deploy and manage your IIS apps with ease.
Performance Enhancements to File Copy
Since WinRM doesn’t have a built-in file transfer mechanism, Ansible has to jump through some “interesting” hoops to deploy its module code and copy files from the control host to a managed Windows box. Historically, this process was very slow, and could only transfer small Continue reading