For enterprise-scale distributed applications to be distinct in their operations and outputs, data is the most important instrument and ingredient. With IT containerization, the journey takes off in a brisk and bright fashion. IT as well as business software solutions are intelligently containerized through the smart leverage of the Docker Engine. However, the original instigation is the need for a faster and flawless realization of application-aware Docker containers, and hence, the data is tightly coupled with the application within the container. However, this closeness brings in some real risks. If the application collapses, then the data is also gone. Also, multiple applications might depend on the same data and hence, data has to be shared across.

In this chapter, we discussed the capabilities of the Docker Engine in facilitating the seamless data sharing between the Docker host and container as well as between containers. The data volume is being prescribed as the foundational building block for enabling data sharing among the constituents of the growing Docker ecosystem. In the next chapter, we will explain the concept behind the container orchestration, and see how this complicated aspect gets simplified through a few automated tools. Orchestration is indispensable for realizing composite containers.