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Mohammad-Ali A'RÂBI
Mohammad-Ali A'RÂBI

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Reflecting on 2025: Author Debut, New Horizons, and Milestones

#2025

In 2025, I reached a milestone that reshaped my professional trajectory: I published my first book, Docker and Kubernetes Security. What began as a long-term writing project evolved into a broader body of work—spanning technical articles, conference talks, community initiatives, and a narrative-driven security series. The book was later nominated for the Best DevOps Book of 2025 Award, placing it alongside established titles such as The Phoenix Project Graphic Novel and marking a defining moment in my journey as an author and educator.

TL;DR: Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

Here's the year at a glance:

Docker and Kubernetes Security

Table of Contents

Docker and Kubernetes Security: A Milestone Achieved

The book took almost two years to write and half a year to publish. Together with the book, I launched DockerSecurity.io.

The website has a blog of its own, with the following articles published in 2025:

Docker and Kubernetes Security - The Best DevOps Book of the Year Finalist - Docker and Kubernetes Security

From supply chain to runtime: build safer images, lock down clusters, instrument logging & audit trails, and stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn from Mohammad-Ali A'râbi's comprehensive guide.

favicon dockersecurity.io

Black Forest Shadows: Container Security Advent Series

In December, I published a 24-day Advent series on container security, titled "Black Forest Shadows." The series was published both on DEV.to and Medium.

The series follows stories of Gord and Jack, among others, as they navigate Black Forest of 1865 and face shadowy monsters called "CVEs". The series combines folklore with practical container security tips that mimic the in-world challenges.
You have met these characters before: on my book's back cover, and in the preface.

Also, I'm compiling the entire Advent series into a book, which will be published in early 2026.

aerabi

Day 1 — Beginning the Security Advent: Defense in Depth (The Red Bear Inn)

Mohammad-Ali A'RÂBI ・ Dec 1 '25

#docker #adventofcode #security #kubernetes

Blog Posts

Posts about Docker and container security:

Posts about git:

Other posts:

Jack vs Gord

Conference and Meetup Talks

In 2025, I delivered four talks at various conferences and meetups:

Docker Meetup Black Forest and Cloud Native Freiburg

The Docker Meetup Black Forest continued to thrive in 2025, with regular events held at JobRad's campus in Freiburg. We were able to bring together Docker enthusiasts from the region and beyond to share knowledge and experiences. We were honored to welcome the following Docker Captains as speakers:

  • Timo Stark, traveling to Freiburg from Nuremberg
  • Jonas Scholz, traveling to Freiburg from Karlsruhe
  • Lize Raes, traveling to Freiburg from Basel, Switzerland
  • Julian König, local Docker Captain from Freiburg

In addition, we joined our forces together with DevOps Meetup Freiburg to create the Cloud Native Freiburg group, which is a CNCF Chapter. I also launched Dockburg.com as a community hub for both meetup communities.

LFX Mentorship Program

In 2025, I had the privilege of joining the Linux Foundation's LFX Mentorship Program as a mentor. Here is my mentorship profile. There are three graduated mentees listed under my profile, as well as 24 active mentees.

Podcast Appearances

In 2025, I had the opportunity to appear on a couple of podcasts and live-streams:

The latter appearances were part of the Docker Captains Summit 2025.

2026 Goals

As we enter 2026, I already have three confirmed talks at major conferences:

  • Dockerize Securely: SBOMs + Attestations + Bake at Jfokus 2026 in Stockholm, Sweden (February 3, 2026)
  • Java Supply Chain Security with Docker at JCON Europe 2026 in Cologne, Germany (April 20, 2026)
  • Defense Against the Dark Arts: NPM Attack at EnterJS 2026 in Mannheim, Germany (June 16, 2026)

I'm also working on two articles for JAVAPRO magazine, to be published in early 2026 (print version distributed at JCON Europe 2026).

Apart from these, here are my goals for 2026:

  • Complete and publish the "Black Forest Shadows" advent series as a book. 📖
  • Continue to grow the Docker and Kubernetes Security community through meetups and online content. 🌐
  • Become a CNCF Ambassador. 🤝
  • Start with my Git Kaizen project, inspired by my Git Weekly series. 🥋

What else should I put on the list? Let me know!

Final Thoughts

Looking back, 2025 was the year I stopped treating writing, speaking, and community work as side projects and started approaching them as a coherent, long-term craft. It clarified where I create the most value: at the intersection of engineering, security, and storytelling. Going into 2026, the focus is no longer on proving that I can ship—but on refining, deepening, and scaling what already works, while staying curious enough to explore new formats and ideas.

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