Odoo has to run somewhere, deployed on infrastructure, and Docker is one way of deploying it. This piece is about deploying Odoo with Docker.
What deploying Odoo with Docker means
Deploying Odoo means setting Odoo up to run on infrastructure, so it is genuinely running and usable. Docker is a containerisation technology: a way of packaging and running software in containers, a defined, self-contained way of running a piece of software. Deploying Odoo with Docker means deploying Odoo in that containerised way, running Odoo as a container, or containers, rather than installed directly on a server in the traditional way.
What deploying with Docker offers
Deploying Odoo with Docker offers, principally, consistency. A containerised deployment packages the software in a defined, self-contained way, so the way Odoo runs is consistent and defined, the same wherever the container is run, rather than depending on the particulars of a directly-installed environment. This consistency is the genuine appeal: a Docker deployment of Odoo is a defined, repeatable way of running it. For a business or a developer that values that consistency and the way of working that containerisation brings, deploying Odoo with Docker is an attractive option.
Docker is one option, not the only way
An honest point. Deploying Odoo with Docker is one way to deploy Odoo; it is not the only way, and it is not automatically the right way for every situation. Odoo can be deployed in other ways, and the right way to deploy Odoo for a given business depends on the business's situation, its infrastructure, its capabilities, what suits it. Docker deployment suits a business or setup where the containerised way genuinely fits, and is valued. A business should choose how to deploy Odoo based on what genuinely suits it, with Docker as one well-regarded option among the ways available.
Deployment is a genuine technical matter
An honest note. Deploying Odoo, whether with Docker or another way, is a genuine technical matter: setting Odoo up to run, properly, reliably, on infrastructure is genuine technical work, and it should be done properly, with the genuine technical care it needs. Deploying Odoo with Docker, in particular, involves genuinely working with the containerisation technology correctly. A business should ensure its Odoo deployment, however it is done, is done properly, as the genuine technical task it is, so Odoo runs reliably.
The takeaway
Deploying Odoo with Docker is deploying Odoo in a containerised way, running it as a container rather than installed directly on a server traditionally. What it offers, principally, is consistency: a defined, self-contained, repeatable way of running Odoo, the same wherever it is run. Docker is one option for deploying Odoo, not the only way, and the right way to deploy depends on what genuinely suits the business. Deployment is a genuine technical matter, and should be done properly, with genuine technical care, so Odoo runs reliably. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.