Docker & Container Services

Build Once. Ship Anywhere. Sleep Soundly.

Fat images, slow builds, secrets baked into layers, "works on my machine" bugs — containers promise portability and then betray you at 3 a.m. We fix the image, the pipeline, the registry and the runtime, so your containers actually behave the same in every environment.

Audit My Containers Explore The Stack
✓ Docker Engine · BuildKit ✓ Compose · Swarm · K8s ✓ ISO 27001 Ready
docker-compose · softfix/app-stack

api

healthy

app:a7f3d2c · 84 MB

worker

healthy

app:a7f3d2c · 84 MB

postgres

healthy

postgres:16 · 412 MB

redis

healthy

redis:7-alpine · 41 MB

nginx

healthy

nginx:alpine · 48 MB

$ docker compose ps · 5 services · 469 MiB total · 0 restarts

0

Smaller Images

0

Containers Shipped

0

Critical CVEs

0

Happy Clients

90% smaller Slimmer images Multi-stage + distroless bases
Zero CVEs Scanned before push Trivy + Grype on every build
Reproducible Same digest, every time Pinned bases, locked layers
Portable Laptop → prod, unchanged Same image runs everywhere
A container, dissected

Six layers between "docker build" and production.

Every container we ship is small, signed, scanned and documented. Here's what goes into one.

01

Base layer

Pinned distroless base

alpine or distroless with digest pinning — no apt, no shell, no surprises.

02

Build stage

Multi-stage, cached

Separate build and runtime stages. BuildKit cache mounts keep rebuilds under 20s.

03

Security

SBOM + scan gate

Syft generates SBOM, Trivy blocks on critical CVEs before the image ever leaves CI.

04

Runtime

Non-root user, read-only FS

Containers run as UID 10001, drop capabilities, mount filesystem read-only.

05

Signing

Cosign / sigstore

Every image signed at push. Admission controller rejects unsigned tags in prod.

06

Registry

Hardened registry

Harbor or ECR with retention policies, replication and vulnerability feeds.

Docker & Container Services

Everything from first Dockerfile to fleet management.

We containerise monoliths, optimise fat images, harden registries, migrate to Kubernetes — and hand it all over with docs your team can actually follow.

Dockerfile authoring 01

Dockerfile Authoring & Review

Multi-stage builds, cache-friendly layer ordering, pinned digests, distroless bases.

Legacy containerization 02

Legacy App Containerization

Turn that 12-year-old Java monolith into a small, portable image — without a rewrite.

Docker Compose 03

Docker Compose & Local Dev

One command to spin up the whole stack. Parity between local, CI and prod.

Kubernetes migration 04

Docker → Kubernetes Migration

Compose files become Helm charts. Health probes, resources, HPA and PDB configured.

Container security 05

Container Security Hardening

Non-root, seccomp, AppArmor, read-only FS, signed images, admission policies.

Registry setup 06

Private Registry Setup

Harbor, ECR, GHCR, Artifactory. Retention, replication, RBAC and scan-on-push.

Image optimization 07

Image Size Optimisation

From 1.8 GB to under 100 MB. Cold pulls drop from minutes to seconds.

Observability 08

Container Observability

cAdvisor, Prometheus, OTel sidecars. CPU, memory, throttling, restarts — all visible.

Supply chain 09

Supply-Chain & SBOM

Syft, Grype, Cosign. Every image has a signed SBOM you can hand to auditors.

BuildKit 10

Build Acceleration (BuildKit)

Cache mounts, parallel stages, cross-platform builds. CI time cut in half.

Container networking 11

Container Networking

Overlay networks, service mesh sidecars, DNS, egress control and TLS termination.

Managed container platform 12

Managed Container Platform

Monthly retainer: base image updates, CVE patching, upgrades and incident response.

Image size — the honest math

Same app. 1/15th the weight.

A typical Node.js image we inherit vs the one we hand back. Smaller images pull faster, boot faster, and have a smaller attack surface.

Cluttered server rack before optimization

Before · what we usually inherit

1.24 GB

ubuntu:20.04 base · 47 CVE · root user · cold pull 92s

✗ apt-get update && install build-essential python3 gcc

✗ COPY . . (includes node_modules, .env, .git)

✗ USER root

✗ No SBOM, no scan, no signature

Clean optimized container stack

After · what we ship back

84 MB

distroless · 0 CVE · UID 10001 · cold pull 4s

✓ FROM node:20-alpine AS build (digest-pinned)

✓ COPY package*.json → cached layer

✓ FROM gcr.io/distroless/nodejs20 AS runtime

✓ USER 10001 · --read-only · no shell

✓ SBOM + Cosign signature attached

Reference Dockerfile

Small, signed, and reviewed like code.

Dockerfiles live in your repo, go through PR review, and are covered by tests. No more "just tweak the base image on the server and rebuild".

  • Layer order optimised for cache hits

  • Base images pinned by SHA256 digest

  • Build tools never make it to runtime stage

  • .dockerignore excludes .git, node_modules, .env

  • Healthchecks baked into the image itself

Dockerfile — node-api dockerfile 
# ---- build stage ----
FROM node:20-alpine@sha256:a1b2c3… AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json package-lock.json ./
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.npm \
    npm ci --omit=dev --ignore-scripts

# ---- runtime stage ----
FROM gcr.io/distroless/nodejs20-debian12@sha256:d4e5f6…
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY . .

USER 10001:10001
EXPOSE 3000
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s \
    CMD ["/nodejs/bin/node", "./healthcheck.js"]

ENTRYPOINT ["/nodejs/bin/node", "server.js"]

$ docker buildx build . · 6 layers · 84 MB · 18s cold build ✓ signed · 0 CVE

How a container engagement runs

Four steps. No drama.

  1. 1 Step 1

    Inventory

    Every app, runtime, port, volume and dependency mapped. You get a spreadsheet of what exists today.

  2. 2 Step 2

    Containerise

    Dockerfiles written, images optimised, docker-compose for local. Everything verified builds on CI.

  3. 3 Step 3

    Harden & Sign

    Non-root, scanned, SBOM attached, signed with Cosign. Registry configured with retention and replication.

  4. 4 Step 4

    Ship & Hand Over

    Deploy to your runtime (Compose, Swarm, K8s or ECS). Runbooks, docs, and a training session for the team.

The container stack we work in

Runtimes, registries, orchestrators — all covered.

Do Docker Engine
Co Compose
BK BuildKit
K8 Kubernetes
Sw Swarm · Nomad
Ha Harbor
EC ECR · ECS
AC ACR · AKS
Tr Trivy · Grype
Sy Syft (SBOM)
Cs Cosign
Hl Helm · Kustomize
Engagement models

Three ways to work with us on containers.

Audit · 1–2 weeks

Container & Image Audit

A written report on image sizes, CVEs, layer waste, build times and runtime risks.

  • Image size & layer analysis
  • CVE & secret scan report
  • Prioritised fix roadmap
Fixed fee · free if you engage us after
Most Common Build · 4–10 weeks

Containerise & Harden

Dockerfiles, Compose, registry, signing, scan gates and deployment to your runtime of choice.

  • All apps containerised
  • CI build + scan pipeline
  • Team handover & docs
Quoted after audit
Retainer · monthly

Managed Container Platform

Base-image updates, CVE patching, registry upkeep, upgrades and incident response.

  • Monthly base image refresh
  • Continuous CVE monitoring
  • On-call escalation
Monthly, based on image count
Why Softfix

Containers You Can Actually Trust

0
Containers Shipped
0
Avg Image Reduction
0
Experts
0
Client Satisfaction
FAQ

Docker questions, answered straight

Do we actually need Docker, or is it overkill?
Depends. If you ship one PHP app to one server, maybe not. But if you have more than one environment (dev, staging, prod), more than one developer, or more than one service, containers pay for themselves quickly — mostly by eliminating "works on my machine".
Our images are huge. Can they really get 10x smaller?
Almost always yes. We routinely take 1–2 GB images down to 50–150 MB with multi-stage builds and distroless bases. The classic wins: don't ship build tools, don't COPY . before installing deps, use alpine or distroless, and set a proper .dockerignore.
Will Docker work with our existing CI?
Yes. GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI, Azure DevOps — all have first-class Docker support. We wire image build, scan, sign and push into whichever you already run. No tool migration required.
Is Kubernetes required if we use Docker?
No. Plenty of teams run Docker Compose on a single VM, Docker Swarm, or ECS and are perfectly happy. K8s makes sense past a certain scale. We'll tell you honestly which one fits.
How do you handle secrets in images?
Never baked in. Build-time secrets use BuildKit secret mounts; runtime secrets come from Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, or Kubernetes secrets mounted as files. We also scan every image for accidentally-committed credentials.
Talk to a QA Engineer

Tell us about your platform.

No polished brief needed. Just a few lines: what stack you're on, what's slowing down, and what security concerns you have. Our QA leads will reply within a working day.

Email

sales@softfix.in

Phone

+91 81890 10044

Address

1st Floor, CP/140, Viraj Khand-4, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226010

Happy to sign an NDA first. We won't add you to a mailing list.

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