Docker Captains are select members of the community that are both experts in their field and are passionate about sharing their Docker knowledge with others. Today, we’re introducing “Docker Captains Take 5”, a regular blog series where we get a closer look at the Docker experts who share their knowledge online and offline around the world. A different Captain will be featured each time and we will ask them the same broad set of questions ranging from what their best Docker tip is to whether they prefer cats or dogs (personally, we like whales and turtles over here). To kick us off we’re interviewing Ajeet Singh Raina who has been a Docker Captain since 2016 and is a DevRel Manager at Redis Labs. He is based in Bangalore, India.
How/when did you first discover Docker?
It was the year 2013 when I watched Solomon Hykes for the first time presenting “The Future of Linux Containers” at PyCon in Santa Clara. This video inspired me to write my first blog post on Docker and the rest is history.
What is your favorite Docker command?
The docker buildx CLI is one of my favorite commands. It allows you to build and run multi-architectural Docker images with just one-liner CLI:
$ docker buildx build –platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64,linux/arm/v7, linux/arm/v6 .
I frequently use this tool to build Docker images for my tiny $99 NVIDIA Jetson Nano board as well as Raspberry Pi.
What is your top tip you think other people don’t know for working with Docker?
If you’re looking for a process to automate Docker container base image updates, Watchtower is a promising tool. Watchtower monitors running containers and watches for changes to the images those containers were originally started from. Whenever an image gets changed,this tool automatically restarts the container using the new image. Cool, isn’t it?
What’s the coolest Docker demo you have done/seen ?
Early this year, I ran Kubernetes 101 workshop for almost 4 hours in one of Docker Bangalore Community Meetup events at SAP Labs, India in front of an audience of more than 550 people. It was an amazing experience going LIVE and covering the overall KubeLabs tutorials running on Play with Kubernetes playground.
What have you worked on in the past 6 months that you’re particularly proud of?
One of the most exciting projects which I have worked on in the last 6 months is titled “Pico”. The Pico project is all about object detection and text analytics using Docker, Apache Kafka, IoT, and Amazon Rekognition System. Imagine you can capture live video streams, identify objects using deep learning, and then trigger actions or notifications based on the identified objects – all using Docker containers. With Pico, you will be able to set up and run a live video capture, analysis, and alerting solution prototype. This project excited dozens of Indian universities and provided me opportunities to travel and showcase it to larger communities.
The project is hosted over ARM Software Developer GITHUB repository
What will be big news for Docker in the next year?
Docker Inc. announcing 10+ million Docker Hub repositories.
What is the biggest challenge that we as a community will need to tackle in 2021?
In 2021, the sustainability of community events despite the pandemic and lockdowns is going to be the biggest challenge for us.
What are your goals for the Docker community in the next year?
Being a Docker Captain as well as Community Leader, I have below a list of goals for 2021:
- Grow Docker Bangalore Community members from 10k to 12k
- Target 250+ blogs around Docker and Ecosystem in Collabnix by 2021
- Conduct Joint Meetup with all other leading Docker communities across India
- Take OSCONF (An Open Source Community Conference) – a conference dedicated to Docker & Kubernetes community to the international level
What talk would you most love to see at the next DockerCon?
Exciting use cases around emerging AI, Docker and IoT Edge Platforms
What is the technology that you’re most excited about and holds a lot of promise?
I’m excited about the emerging “No-code” development platform. A no-code development is an emerging platform that uses a visual development environment to allow layman users to create apps, through methods such as drag-and-drop, adding application components to create a complete application. With no-code, you don’t need coding knowledge to create apps.
Rapid fire questions…
What new skill have you mastered during the pandemic?
Artificial Intelligence using Docker
Cats or Dogs?
Dogs
Salty, sour or sweet?
Sweet
Beach or mountains?
Beach
Your most often used emoji?
🐳