Docker, Inc. Adds Support for Wasm to Docker Desktop Tools

Docker, Inc. today announced at the Kubecon + CloudNativeCon North America conference that developers will be able to use their Docker Desktop environments to build applications using Web Assembly (Wasm) software artifacts.

Originally developed under the auspices of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for building browser applications, Wasm is emerging as a portable binary instruction format for building software that describes a memory-safe, sandboxed execution environment. Unlike containers that today are limited to running on either Linux or Windows, Wasm promises to make it possible for developers to write code once and deploy it anywhere using more than 40 different programming languages.

Docker, Inc. CEO Scott Johnston said a technical preview of Wasm support in Docker Desktop will enable developers will be able to continue building cloud-native applications using containers alongside Wasm artifacts rather than having to acquire, deploy and secure a separate application development environment.

That approach also ensures that investments in Docker Desktop will continue to be relevant as Wasm emerges as another approach to building and deploying cloud-native applications, he added. Docker, Inc. also announced today it has joined the ByteCode Alliance, a consortium created to build foundations upon which Wasm application can be built and deployed.

It’s not clear to what degree Wasm might ever supplant containers but for now the expectation is Wasm applications will be built and deployed alongside each other depending on the use case and level of scale required.

Wasm provides an alternative to the current dominant method for building software that relies on the aggregation of software components that tend to lack distinct boundaries between them. One of the issues of that approach is that it becomes relatively simple for malware to infect all the components of an application. Wasm, in contrast, requires code to be executed in a stateless and reactive sandbox that prevents malware from moving from one software component to another. As such, Wasm applications are not only portable but inherently more secure. That capability may prove critical as more organizations continue to review their software development processes now that it’s become apparent cybercriminals are endeavoring to compromise software supply chains.

Docker, Inc, will also be working with providers of continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platforms to ensure Wasm becomes just another artifact that needs to be incorporated within a DevOps workflow, noted Johnston. Ultimately, Wasm should reduce much of the complexity that DevOps teams encounter when attempting to deploy applications across multiple platforms, he added.

Naturally, it’s still early days as far as adoption of Wasm is concerned, but as tools that developers already employ start to add support for Wasm the number of applications being built using this type of software artifact should steadily increase. The challenge DevOps teams will encounter is finding ways to continuously update Wasm applications alongside applications built using containers and their existing portfolios of monolithic applications. In effect, many DevOps teams will soon be supporting three distinct types of software architectures across a distributed computing environment that continues to expand as more applications are deployed at the network edge.

In the meantime, IT teams may want to start classifying what types of applications they may want to build in Wasm. At the same time, they should continue using containers to build and deploy other apps based on the relative maturity of these two distinct artifacts for building cloud-native applications.

Mike Vizard

Mike Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist with over 25 years of experience. He also contributed to IT Business Edge, Channel Insider, Baseline and a variety of other IT titles. Previously, Vizard was the editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise as well as Editor-in-Chief for CRN and InfoWorld.

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