[Coté Memo #15] Docker for service providers, yyyy-dd-mm, $400m Docker valuation
Meta-data
Hello again, welcome to #15. Today we have 22 subscribers, so we're +/-0. I'd love to hear what you like, dislike, your feedback, etc.: memo@cote.io.
See past newsletters in the archives, and, as always, see things as they come at Cote.io and @cote.
Sponsor
451 Research, is having it's big cloud conferences this Fall, Oct. 6th to 8th. I'll have a session or two on developer relations and marketing, and other analysts will be talking about their area. Anyhow, if you're interested, I have a discount code you can use: go to the registration page, and enter the code MC200 to get $200 off the registration price.
Follow-up
Thanks for the continual feedback and encouragement on topic choice and other mechanics. It means very much to hear from you.
Tech & Work World
Containers for Service Providers
On an internal 451 email thread, I've been sorting out some foggy thinking on what service providers should do about Docker (and the like) if anything. As I recall, many service providers and "hosters" already use container technology to oversubsribe their nodes...that is, to make more money. They use things like Parallels and Virtuozzo. I don't really know anything about this world, so it's nice to have so many service provider people at 451 to help me sort things out.
Here's my current theoretic thinking on the topic of "Docker + service providers = what?":
(1.) Developers like Docker because it allows them to easily build up images for the different components in their applications. "Here's my image for the database," "here's my image for the PHP stack," "here's my image for the web server," etc.
(2.) Docker further builds in all sorts of notion of version control, layering code, etc. that developers like: "this is version 1.34b of John Boy's Apache HTTPD server [bonus points for ngnix!], which is tuned for mobile phone use" - Docker allows developers to get re-use from common components and carefully customize those "off the shelf/web" components exactly their liking.
(3.) Thus: developers (both ISV/SaaS/consumer and "corporate developers") seem poised to start using Docker as a fundamental packing mechanism for the applications they're building...like they would do with VM images or by crafting up Puppet/Chef usage.
(4.) Problem: there don't seem to be that many places you could easily run Docker images in "production."
(5.) Curious coincidence: it turns out that most hosters are already using some sort of container-like technology to [INSERT ALL Y'ALL'S GOBBLDYGOOK]. It just happens to be Virtuozzo and Parallels and not accessible to developers, instead:
(6.) With normal VPS all a developer gets is an SSH login - they don't get to build the OS up from the ground level and package it how they like.
Thus:
(7.) Hosters should look at running Docker clusters to solve for the problem in #4 opening up a new type of market for them and, arguably, giving them a (wait for it!) "post-cloud" play.
But:
(8.) Unknown: can Docker achieve all the profitable operations stuff hosters need like [INSERT ALL Y'ALL'S GOBBLDYGOOK] benefits that Virtuozzo and Parallels (or however hosters currently run) give? That is, does Docker "work"?
All of this makes the OS less fucked, as it were, and just suggests that hosters should look into how to run Docker images (or Red Hat Autonomic, or whatever lxc derivatives come and go).
The same argument, sort of, could then be made for CoreOS as well and Mesosphere and other (here it is again!) "post cloud" platforms.
Notes:
In case you didn't cotton-on, "[INSERT ALL Y'ALL'S GOBBLDYGOOK]" means my colleagues explanation of what things like Virtuozzo and Parallels do for service providers.
"The OS less fucked" was a notion we were throwing around, the operating system is less important in a world like this. Indeed, as I've been fond of saying over the years, for bleeding edge developers, the OS has become just another piece of middleware, some fundamental, bed-rock layer not to be fucked with.
Speaking of Docker
Rumors are that Docker is getting a $40m to $75m injection of cash and is to be valued at $400m. Total funding thus far has been $26m, including the original dotCloud stuff, those assets PaaSed off to some Germans recently.
That's some serious cash there, certainly matching the hype around Docker, but it can't be anywhere near the revenue flow. We'll see what wonderful "monetization" schemes the company comes up with. If Docker takes out VMware, then sure, it's worth all that, but that's a big if.
Also check out my RedMonk colleague Stephen O'Grady's commentary.
The Bluescreen of Darkness
Updating the firmware on my light bulbs
— Jason Snell (@jsnell) August 7, 2014
Yeah, it's gonna be a great next 5-10 years with this IoT stuff. You'll call up tech support and they'll say "is it plugged in" and you're say, "I'm calling about the plug itself. I have no idea."
yyyy-mm-dd
Just a reminder, that's about the best date format you can use (with or without hyphens as far as I'm concerned) for numerous reasons: it's a "standard," it logically "descends" from year, to month, to day, and it sorts well.
(For God's sake, don't do that thing where you drop the first two yy's, e.g., 140807 instead of 20140807. I mean: Y3K, anyone?
Fun & IRL
(I'm almost done with Deadwood, just the final episode to see. So I'll run out of these screenshots soon. Got any good ideas of stuff to watch in Netflix and Amazon Prime. Problem: I've seen most everything in there, 'cept'in' the HBO stuff in Prime.)
TBD Catalog
I don't really know what this is, but that's why it's fun. I long for those Fringeware days in the 90s where this kind of nonsense would just be blowing in tiny paper dust devils in the alleyways of Austin with a faint smell of pipe tobacco in the air. So long old times!