Docker (Software)

Docker is a software platform for building, shipping and running applications inside lightweight, portable units called containers, each packaging an application together with the exact libraries and system tools it needs to run. The French-American programmer Solomon Hykes created Docker at the platform-as-a-service company dotCloud, which he had co-founded, and introduced it publicly in March 2013 before releasing it as open-source software the same year. Rather than inventing containerization itself, which built on existing Linux kernel features such as namespaces and control groups, Docker's contribution was a simple, standardized way to build and distribute containers, and it is widely credited with popularizing containerized software deployment across the technology industry, reshaping how developers package and operate applications at scale.