Kerberos.io — the road to Docker
Docker is a game changer for all of us. It has changed the way how we look at software. In the past, releasing software was a moment of stress, uncertainty, and making a cross your fingers gesture.
The stress remains, however the uncertainty disappeared; at least for most of it. Never before we were so sure, that our software will work on any machine that can host your Docker container. Using a single line of code, you can run your software, thanks to Mr. Docker Magic.
This is no different for Kerberos.io, over the years we have matured the Kerberos.io product with the help of an amazing Open Source community (thank you everyone).
In the beginning we were compiling the Kerberos.io source code to different architectures and distributed the binaries manually. A very cumbersome process, however still today's reality for most companies; due to many reasons, for example legacy code, unable to port or upgrade, etc.
While Docker was getting more traction we, our community, looked into Docker as an option to further, and more rapidly, distribute the Kerberos Open Source project.
How it all started.
A few years ago (2018) we made the first version of our Kerberos.io Open Source Docker container. First impression was wow, and it still is nowadays.
Before Docker we focussed mainly on the Raspberry Pi; Kerberos.io was initially developed for the Raspberry Pi. We didn't put any empathise on IP cameras, and were mainly inspired by the Raspberry Pi camera, and USB camera. Our goal was to built the cheapest every surveillance camera, though using the latest technologies, and a delicious UX.
After a while we received feedback from the community why we didn't focused on IP camera's as well? Good point, it was never our intention to do this, but actually this started the whole process towards the Docker technology.
We realised that a lot of people weren't interested in running their surveillance system on a Raspberry Pi; low performance, life-time, etc. Our community wanted to host Kerberos.io on a NUC, a VM, a server, etc. This one wouldn't fly, as we only had a nice installer for flashing Kerberos.io to your Raspberry Pi, there was no other option available than compiling everything yourself.
Welcome Docker, we’ll stay together until the end..
After investigating Docker, it really opened a new world for all of us. By creating a Dockerfile, composed of simple bash instructions, we were able to create the first Kerberos.io Open Source Docker image.
When released we've seen a huge adoption of Kerberos.io in the Docker community. Now, in just a couple of minutes everyone can run a video surveillance solution. Awesome.
If you want to read more about setting up Kerberos.io on Docker, read here.