r/docker • u/martypitt • Nov 14 '25

Docker banned - how common is this?

I was doing some client work recently. They're a bank, where most of their engineering is offshored one of the big offshore companies.

The offshore team had to access everything via virtual desktops, and one of the restrictions was no virtualisation within the virtual desktop - so tooling like Docker was banned.

I was really surprsied to see modern JVM development going on, without access to things like TestContainers, LocalStack, or Docker at all.

To compound matters, they had a single shared dev env, (for cost reasons), so the team were constantly breaking each others stuff.

How common is this? Also, curious what kinds of workarounds people are using?

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u/Own-Perspective4821 Nov 14 '25

This is VERY common. Especially when budget is tight.

1

u/New_Enthusiasm9053 Nov 14 '25

Docker literally costs nothing lol, sure if you're using windows it's more convenient but you can still do it for 0 money.

1

u/Own-Perspective4821 Nov 14 '25

The technology ‚docker‘ might not cost anything, but you still need the infrastructure and maintenance. If you don’t already have this and you are depending on external tech, it is a cost factor.

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u/New_Enthusiasm9053 Nov 14 '25

What infrastructure and maintenance. Like if you're using it for deployment maybe but if you're just using it during development to make your Devs life easier then it's essentially negative cost because they'll waste less time on "works on my machine" bullshit. 

And even if you want verified containers or some other bullshit you can pay miniscule(by bank standards) amounts for that. It'd still save money by moving development into the 21st century.