Docker Introduces Datacenter, A Comprehensive Container-as-a-Service Suite

Docker released on Tuesday a comprehensive platform for delivering container services that integrates its open-source and commercial technologies.

The product suite from the startup that shot Linux containers to the forefront of enterprise IT, called Docker Datacenter, includes the first general release of Universal Control Plane, a container management console.

"What Docker Datacenter does is actually integrate all those components into a turnkey solution that allows an operations team to set up a central framework on which their development team can self-service and build Dockerized applications," David Messina, Docker's senior vice president of marketing told CRN.

[Related: Docker, Addressing Security Concerns, Hardens Its Containers]

While the platform is initially being sold as an on-premises solution, ultimately it will be capable of running in any environment, be it in a private data center or in a public cloud, Messina told CRN.

"What it really does is provide a blending between our commercial software and open-source software in a fashion operations folks can get it up in minutes and quickly scale operations in production," Messina said.

Datacenter integrates several Docker technologies -- from the container runtime engine, to orchestration features, to security and a registry service -- in a common management framework under Universal Control Plane, which until Tuesday had been released only in beta.

Partners can deploy Datacenter to deliver to customers Container-as-a-Service (CaaS) solutions -- self-provisioning application environments that facilitate rapid application building and deployment.

Enterprises that beta-tested the new platform have already deployed those CaaS models that enable agile application development, rapid deployment to production environments and fluid life cycles, he said.

One early Docker Datacenter customer is ADP. The cloud-based human resources management and payroll giant entirely re-architected its development environment into a series of micro services that can be used to construct applications for its OpenStack on-premises cloud and its Amazon Web Services public cloud.

Docker Datacenter follows by a few weeks the release of Docker 1.10, a version that hardened security on its containers and added commercial features to ease enterprise deployments.