Dockerizing Python Applications
Introduction
Docker is a widely accepted and used tool by leading IT companies to build, manage and secure their applications.
Containers, like Docker, allow developers to isolate and run multiple applications on a single operating system, rather than dedicating a Virtual Machine for each application on the server. The use of these more lightweight containers leads to lower costs, better resource usage, and higher performance.
If you’re interested in reading more, you should take a look at Docker: A High Level Introduction.
In this article, we’ll write a simple Python web application using Flask and get it ready for “dockerizing”, followed by creating a Docker Image, and deploying it both to a test and production environment.
Note: This tutorial assumes that you have Docker installed in your machine. If not, you can follow the official Docker Install Guide.
What is Docker?
Docker is a tool that enables developers to ship their applications (along with libraries and other dependencies), ensuring that they can run with the exact same configuration, regardless of the environment in which they’re deployed.
This is done by isolating the applications in individual containers,