The pandemic has created a lot of frustration for businesses all over the world. However, some companies have been well insulated from the crisis. Docker is among the lucky companies. The startup recently announced that it has been thriving in spite of the economic fallout from COVID-19.
Docker Perseveres During the COVID-19 Crisis
Docker Inc. has reported that over 11 billion pulls had been conducted from their hub last month. The number of Docker pulls has continued to grow every year.
Pull volume is not the only indication that Docker has been incredibly resilient in the face of a pandemic. The number of containers and repositories is also on an upswing. Docker reports that the number of repositories has increased by 1 million since 2019. There are currently 7 million Docker repositories online.
Some industry analysts have questioned whether Docker has been growing as a result of the pandemic or in spite of it. Amazon and many other digital businesses have seen a steady increase in revenue and profitability, as customers resort to them over their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
Docker recently answered this question and said that demand for new solutions during the pandemic appears to at least partially explain the growth in Docker containers and repositories, as well as the growing need for third-party addons like JFrog.
Docker talked about some of these issues in one of their press releases. They pointed out that Docker Hub is a cloud-based solution, which offers many important advantages during a terrifying pandemic. Developers are able to access this platform 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is a more attractive option than traditional digital and hardcopy storage options, which might be much more limited during this economic crisis.
While the increased demand for Docker containers appears to clearly be correlated with the pandemic, the crisis has had other effects that are more difficult to discern.
Docker recently talked about some of the mistakes that it has made in recent months, which has pushed management to revert back to the basics of their digital management strategy. Although some of these issues are directly the result of the pandemic, others superseded it.
The company points out that only 40% of its workforce was remote before the pandemic struck. They obviously had to move to a remote working model as states across the country implemented stay at home orders during the beginning of the outbreak.
Fortunately, Docker had an excellent digital infrastructure in place. The vast majority of the company’s employees were able to easily transition to the new remote working system.
This has helped Docker become more cost-effective, although productivity might have declined on a couple of fronts. The company will need to carefully assess all available metrics to make this determination.
Docker also talked about the increased demand for new applications, which appears to be a major driver in Docker container growth. However, this could be both an opportunity and a risky gamble for Docker.
The applications that companies need are going to have to serve purposes that have not been previously addressed. Their concerns have changed in the face of the pandemic, so new applications need to be carefully thought out.
Scott Johnson, the current CEO of Docker stated in an interview that the company will need to backtrack from some of the errors that it has made in recent years. The biggest mistake that Docker made was pursuing more markets then it could comfortably handle.
The company initially focused solely on the developer market. As their platform became popular, Docker executives decided to try penetrating the enterprise market as well.
Johnson said that the company was spreading itself too thin. This is a mistake that startups can’t afford to make in their early stages when they still have an adequate funding available. They are paring down their target markets to focus on those that they have the best track record with.
Overall, the future for Docker looks very promising. The company is performing very well in the face of a pandemic, but still has to make up lost ground with some of the mistakes that it made before. The outlook is still promising though.
