Docker’s impact on agentic AI, security, developer productivity, costs, ROI.
An independent study by theCUBE Research.
To investigate Docker’s impact on developer productivity, software supply chain security, agentic AI development, cost savings, and ROI, TheCUBE Research asked nearly 400 enterprise IT & AppDev leaders from medium to large global enterprises. The industry context is that enterprise developers face mounting pressure to rapidly ship features, build agentic AI applications, and maintain security. All while navigating a fragmented array of development tools and open source code that require engineering cycles and introduce security risks. Docker transformed software development through containers and DevSecOps workflows, and is now doing the same for agentic AI development and software supply chain security. theCUBE Research quantified Docker’s impact: teams build agentic AI apps faster, achieve near-zero CVEs, remediate vulnerabilities before exploits, ship modern cloud-native applications, save developer hours, and generate financial returns.
Keep reading to get key highlights and analysis. Download theCube Research report and ebook to take a deep dive.
Agentic AI development streamlined using familiar technologies
Developers can build, run, and share agents and compose agentic systems using familiar Docker container workflows. To do this, developers would build agents safely using Docker MCP Gateway Catalog and Toolkit; run agents securely with Docker Sandboxes; and run models with Docker Model Runner. These capabilities align with theCUBE Research findings that 87% of organizations reduced AI setup time by over 25% and 80% report accelerating AI time-to-market by at least 26%. Using Docker’s modern and secure software delivery practices, development teams can implement AI feature experiments faster and in days test agentic AI capabilities that previously took months. Nearly 78% of developers experienced significant improvement in the standardization and streamlining of AI development workflows, enabling better testing and validation of AI models. Docker helps enterprises generate business advantages through deploying new customer experiences that leverage agentic AI applications. This is phenomenal, given the nascent stage of agentic AI development in enterprises.
Software supply chain security and innovation can move in lockstep
Security engineering and vulnerability remediation can slow development to a crawl. Furthermore, checkpoints or controls may be applied too late in the software development cycle, or after dangerous exploits, creating compounded friction between security teams seeking to prevent vulnerability exploits and developers seeking to rapidly ship features. Docker embeds security directly into development workflows through vulnerability analysis and continuously-patched certified container images. theCUBE Research analysis supports these Docker security capabilities: 79% of organizations find Docker extremely or very effective at maintaining security & compliance, while 95% of respondents reported that Docker improved their ability to identify and remediate vulnerabilities. By making it very simple for developers to use secure images as a default, Docker enables engineering teams to plan, build, and deploy securely without sacrificing feature velocity or creating deployment bottlenecks. Security and innovation can move in lockstep because Docker concurrently secures software supply chains and eliminates vulnerabilities.
Developer productivity becomes a competitive advantage
Consistent container environments eliminate friction, accelerate software delivery cycles, and enable teams to focus on building features rather than overcoming infrastructure challenges. When developers spend less time on environment setup and troubleshooting, they ship more features. Application features that previously took months now reach customers in weeks. The research demonstrates Docker’s ability to increase developer productivity. 72% of organizations reported significant productivity gains in development workflows, while 75% have transformed or adopted DevOps practices when using Docker. Furthermore, when it comes to AI and supply chain security, the findings mentioned above further support how Docker unlocks developer productivity.
Financial returns exceed expectations
CFOs demand quantifiable returns for technology investments, and Docker delivers them. 95% of organizations reported substantial annual savings, with 28% saving more than $250,000 and another 43% reporting $50,000-$250,000 in cost reductions from infrastructure efficiency, reduced rework, and faster time-to-market. The ROI story is equally compelling: 69% of organizations report ROI exceeding 101%, with 28% achieving ROI above 201%. When factoring in faster feature delivery, improved developer satisfaction, and reduced security incidents, the business case for Docker becomes even more tangible. The direct costs of a security breach can surpass $500 million, so mitigating even a fraction of this cost may provide enough financial justification for enterprises to deploy Docker to every developer.
Modernization and cloud native apps remain top of mind
For enterprises who maintain extensive legacy systems, Docker serves as a proven catalyst for cloud-native transformation at scale. Results show that nearly nine in ten (88%) of organizations report Docker has enabled modernization of at least 10% of their applications, with half achieving modernization across 31-60% of workloads and another 20% modernizing over 60%. Docker accelerates the shift from monolithic architectures to modern containerized cloud-native environments while also delivering substantial business value. For example, 37% of organizations report 26% to >50% faster product time-to-market, and 72% report annual cost savings ranging from $50,000 to over $1 million.
Learn more about Docker’s impact on enterprise software development
Docker has evolved from a containerization suite into a development platform for testing, building, securing, and deploying modern software, including agentic AI applications. Docker enables enterprises to apply proven containerization and DevSecOps practices to agentic AI development and software supply chain security.
Download (below) the full report and the ebook from theCUBE Research analysis to learn Docker’s impact on developer productivity, software supply chain security, agentic AI application development, CI/CD and DevSecOps, modernization, cost savings, and ROI. Learn how enterprises leverage Docker to transform application development and win in markets where speed and innovation determine success.
theCUBE Research economic validation of Docker’s development platform
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