github.com/feiyang21687/docker@v1.5.0/docs/sources/index.md (about) 1 page_title: About Docker 2 page_description: Introduction to Docker. 3 page_keywords: docker, introduction, documentation, about, technology, understanding, Dockerfile 4 5 # About Docker 6 7 **Develop, Ship and Run Any Application, Anywhere** 8 9 [**Docker**](https://www.docker.com) is a platform for developers and sysadmins 10 to develop, ship, and run applications. Docker lets you quickly assemble 11 applications from components and eliminates the friction that can come when 12 shipping code. Docker lets you get your code tested and deployed into production 13 as fast as possible. 14 15 Docker consists of: 16 17 * The Docker Engine - our lightweight and powerful open source container 18 virtualization technology combined with a work flow for building 19 and containerizing your applications. 20 * [Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com) - our SaaS service for 21 sharing and managing your application stacks. 22 23 ## Why Docker? 24 25 *Faster delivery of your applications* 26 27 * We want your environment to work better. Docker containers, 28 and the work flow that comes with them, help your developers, 29 sysadmins, QA folks, and release engineers work together to get your code 30 into production and make it useful. We've created a standard 31 container format that lets developers care about their applications 32 inside containers while sysadmins and operators can work on running the 33 container in your deployment. This separation of duties streamlines and 34 simplifies the management and deployment of code. 35 * We make it easy to build new containers, enable rapid iteration of 36 your applications, and increase the visibility of changes. This 37 helps everyone in your organization understand how an application works 38 and how it is built. 39 * Docker containers are lightweight and fast! Containers have 40 sub-second launch times, reducing the cycle 41 time of development, testing, and deployment. 42 43 *Deploy and scale more easily* 44 45 * Docker containers run (almost) everywhere. You can deploy 46 containers on desktops, physical servers, virtual machines, into 47 data centers, and up to public and private clouds. 48 * Since Docker runs on so many platforms, it's easy to move your 49 applications around. You can easily move an application from a 50 testing environment into the cloud and back whenever you need. 51 * Docker's lightweight containers also make scaling up and 52 down fast and easy. You can quickly launch more containers when 53 needed and then shut them down easily when they're no longer needed. 54 55 *Get higher density and run more workloads* 56 57 * Docker containers don't need a hypervisor, so you can pack more of 58 them onto your hosts. This means you get more value out of every 59 server and can potentially reduce what you spend on equipment and 60 licenses. 61 62 *Faster deployment makes for easier management* 63 64 * As Docker speeds up your work flow, it gets easier to make lots 65 of small changes instead of huge, big bang updates. Smaller 66 changes mean reduced risk and more uptime. 67 68 ## About this guide 69 70 The [Understanding Docker section](introduction/understanding-docker.md) will help you: 71 72 - See how Docker works at a high level 73 - Understand the architecture of Docker 74 - Discover Docker's features; 75 - See how Docker compares to virtual machines 76 - See some common use cases. 77 78 ### Installation Guides 79 80 The [installation section](/installation/#installation) will show you how to 81 install Docker on a variety of platforms. 82 83 84 ### Docker User Guide 85 86 To learn about Docker in more detail and to answer questions about usage and 87 implementation, check out the [Docker User Guide](/userguide/). 88 89 ## Release Notes 90 91 A summary of the changes in each release in the current series can now be found 92 on the separate [Release Notes page](/release-notes/) 93 94 ## Licensing 95 96 Docker is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See 97 [LICENSE](https://github.com/docker/docker/blob/master/LICENSE) for the full 98 license text. 99