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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Products, Docker Business, Docker Desktop, Docker Hub, Docker Scout, Popular Topics
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