Over the years, I’ve worked on several enterprise applications that started out as monoliths. Initially, these systems worked beautifully. Everything was packaged in a single codebase, deployment was straightforward, and communication between components was simple and efficient. But as user demand grew and development teams expanded, these same applications began to show signs of strain. Release cycles slowed, onboarding became painful, and scaling even a small feature required far too much coordination. That’s when the containerization journey began.

This article is a real-world blueprint drawn from experience. It’s not just a checklist, but a practical migration story that walks through the exact stages I follow while moving from a monolith to containers. I’ll also reflect on the challenges and insights I’ve picked up along the way.