StackEngine has released the results of a recent survey called the “State of Containers.” The results tell a compelling story of how enterprises are continuing to increase adoption and experimentation with container technology. Here are some of the findings:

  • Docker usage is growing in the enterprise
    • Over 70% of respondents are using or experimenting with Docker
  • Initial use of Docker is in test/dev environments, but production usage is on the rise
    • Usage numbers were 63% test, 53% dev, 31% production
  • Biggest challenges are security and lack of operational tools

You can find the survey results here; also, check out this cool infographic.

My Take

I believe the survey’s sample size and narrowly targeted survey audience have driven its numbers higher than those I see in large enterprises. The large enterprises I work with fall into two camps on container usage:

  1. Kick the tires on it: These large enterprises see the value in containers, but they worry about things like security, lack of tools, lack of skills, product immaturity, etc. They have a lot of proof-of-concept and R&D efforts going on, but not a lot of production usage, at least not broadly across their organizations.
  2. Wait and see: These large enterprises would rather let others live on the bleeding edge and are content to wait until containers are more advanced and proven.

I agree with the overall message of the survey, that container usage and interest is on the rise. However, I am not sure the numbers within the Fortune 500 are as high as the survey results might imply. Regardless, containers are taking IT shops by storm. An entire ecosystem of solutions is being created by startups and existing companies to fill in the gaps that are missing today. I can’t even count how many briefings I have had from companies that are building value-added services to existing container technologies. We are also seeing Docker competitors such as Rocket and DH2I entering the space. DH21 has recently launched a container management solution for Windows.

In summary, containers are hot, but many more features are still needed before mass adoption occurs in large enterprises. In the meantime, watch this space closely, as numerous vendors will appear to fill in the gaps.