> The point is that Docker, the company, cannot monetize upon the technology, because the moment they start charging for their containerization technology, people will switch to an alternative container technology...
I see the thought process but disagree with the premise that they need to charge for their container technology directly.
For example, GitHub does not charge for git, but instead for the convenient layers that they add on top of it.
Another example is that Google does not charge for Kubernetes but you can buy support which every enterprise company wants and since GKE happens to be the most convenient way to get a K8s cluster rolling in the cloud (for most circumstances) and also now on a box now with GKE On-Prem, many will choose that path so Google still gets their money, just from product / services / support on top of the free core.
They can also monetize the "fallout paths" — turns out you're in over your head running all of that K8s stuff yourself? Come pay us more and use our K8s PaaS instead! Not sure if they actually have one yet, but consider something like GKE Serverless here.
Enterprise features and support around running containers in production are worth a lot of money.
Docker can continue charging for all of its porcelain layers on top like Docker Hub and Docker Enterprise and make plenty of money off of big fish.
They could also monetize by being acquired by Microsoft, Google, or Amazon.
1. GitHub was struggling badly. They had lay-offs, etc.
2. Google still makes the lion's share of it's money from search/ads. Google Compute is struggling and being subsidized by search/ads.
IMHO, Docker's only exit strategy is to sell. They don't have enough time left to grow an organic business. Silicon Valley money always wants paid back, sooner rather than later.
The layoffs and new CFO at Docker, IMHO, are all about cleaning up the finances so that a sale is possible at a good price.
Their last round of investment barely averted a down round. The value bump was minimal and the investors are mostly from a bank in Brazil that likely doesn't understand exactly what they bought into (a lot of uneducated money out there right now because there is no place to put it). None of the original investors participated which shows they don't believe in the company anymore.
Their most valuable asset is Windows support. Hence, the most likely aquirerer would be Microsoft. I'll bet a paycheck they sell for somewhere between 1.5B and 2.5B. Keep this thread for posterity :-)
It's painfully obvious to anybody that has been in this game for a while...
1 - Having too many people is more an indicator that they hired too fast or more than they could sustainably afford rather than indicating anything about their inherent monetization strategy and approach. Every company has a ceiling somewhere, even if it's getting acquired by Microsoft for $7.5B. That's a pretty nice ceiling to have.
2 - That seems fine and besides the point... Google is massive. Google Cloud (excluding the half that comes from G Suite) brings in $2B per year in revenue. That might only be a few percent of Google's overall, but a few percent of $80B is still a massive number.
I see the thought process but disagree with the premise that they need to charge for their container technology directly.
For example, GitHub does not charge for git, but instead for the convenient layers that they add on top of it.
Another example is that Google does not charge for Kubernetes but you can buy support which every enterprise company wants and since GKE happens to be the most convenient way to get a K8s cluster rolling in the cloud (for most circumstances) and also now on a box now with GKE On-Prem, many will choose that path so Google still gets their money, just from product / services / support on top of the free core.
They can also monetize the "fallout paths" — turns out you're in over your head running all of that K8s stuff yourself? Come pay us more and use our K8s PaaS instead! Not sure if they actually have one yet, but consider something like GKE Serverless here.
Enterprise features and support around running containers in production are worth a lot of money.
Docker can continue charging for all of its porcelain layers on top like Docker Hub and Docker Enterprise and make plenty of money off of big fish.
They could also monetize by being acquired by Microsoft, Google, or Amazon.