Why do you prefer Docker over a non-Docker approach?

Question

This is regarding situations in which both Docker and a non-Docker solution would both have satisfied your use case.I work at an organization following a microservice architecture via Azure - we create API services and have all of the Azure tools to handle things such as load-balancing. We have four environments, Development, Testing, Staging and Production. I've found that if we're working on a feature, we run 1 service and point it to Development environment, which in the Development configuration is pointing to the other required Development services, so we have no need to run multiple different services simulataneously unless we need to work on those specific services. Additionally, we build web apps, so there's no need to build for different PC architectures. Ultimately, there is no need for us to use Docker, but as I suspect many web app developers are using Docker for...something.So, what is Docker doing for you that isn't solved by a non-Docker solution?

robbya · Accepted Answer

I think for your setup, I'd want to know how you ensure that your local development environment matches what you use elsewhere. Docker does a good job of defining what environment your code runs in. You could also do this with VMs and something like Ansible, or even manual instructions for configuring a clean os install. Each requires various setup time vs maintenance cost.Do you ever find that a bug presents itself in production that doesn't locally, then when you debug do you find that your local system was setup differently?

moondev · Answer

How long does it take to onboard a developer at your company to start developing?