Today at the DockerCon Europe 2014 keynote, Docker Inc. made two exciting announcements: new orchestration APIs for Docker containers and Docker Hub Enterprise. These are valuable technologies for users building distributed applications using Docker containers on Azure, and we are thrilled to partner with Docker to ensure first-class support for Azure developers.
Docker Orchestration APIs
Docker’s newly announced orchestration APIs will help developers and system admins build, deploy, and manage highly-available, distributed applications across multiple Docker containers. The APIs are provided as three open services: Docker Machine, Docker Compose and Docker Swarm. Developers can choose to use one or more of the new APIs to create a custom orchestration solution for their application. In addition to managing Linux containers, these APIs will also allow developers to manage Windows Server containers upon availability.
As part of the recent partnership announcement, we’ve been actively partnering with Docker Inc. and the Docker community to make sure Azure customers can leverage these new APIs. In fact, MS Open Tech is already contributing code to support the alpha release of the Docker Machine service – making Azure a first-class Docker infrastructure provider. Going forward, Azure users can expect full support as the other orchestration APIs become available.
Docker Hub Enterprise
Docker also announced Docker Hub Enterprise – a new product which builds on the success of the public Docker Hub service. Docker Hub Enterprise enables deployment of Dockerized applications behind the enterprise firewall. This includes hosting private Docker images, one-click image upgrades, and multiple storage solutions including Azure Storage.
These features are especially exciting for enterprise customers building hybrid applications on both on-premises and Azure environments. Docker Hub Enterprise brings the functionality of Docker Hub to enterprise environments where access and compliance requirements are top priorities. This means that Azure customers will be able to leverage Docker in the way that makes most sense for their business.
Up Next
Today’s announcements represent the next step in building Docker applications and services. These new technologies provide additional flexibility for our users, and we’re embracing that value by investing continued engineering resources to contribute to Docker and the Docker community. From single container deployments to enterprise-grade distributed applications, users can expect industry-leading support for Docker on Azure.
Please check out all our updates since June 2014 regarding Docker support on Azure and stay tuned for more updates and tutorials as these new technologies become generally available.