You know, the real problem with R for production work is dealing with munged package dependencies. Writing a makefile with hand curated package deps is something I really wish I never had to do again.
Dependency management still sucks in R. Too many options, each a little different: Packrat, checkpoint, now lockbox. I have friends using Docker specifically to encapsulate their R package dependencies, too.
My small team is R-first and a big fan of the tidyverse, and we're exploring using Docker in tandem with tools like plumber (R package for building simple API's around R code) and pachyderm (language-independent, containerized data pipelining with straightforward cloud integration) for different projects. Does Syberia fit in nicely with these tools, or aim to replace them with its own set of conventions and philosophies?