Container company Docker has announced a Docker Data Center along with the new concept of ‘containers as a service’ in a bid to extend its cloud based technology to customer sites.
The Docker Datacenter (DDC) resides on the customer’s premises and gives them a self service system for building and running applications across multiple production systems while under operations controls.
It has also announced the general availability of Docker Universal Control Plane, a service that has been undergoing beta-testing since November 2015, which underpins the running of the container as a service (CaaS).
The advantage of the DDC is that it creates a native environment for the lifecycle management for Dockerized applications. Docker claims that 12 Fortune 500 companies have been beta testing the DDC along with smaller and companies in a range of industries.
Since every company has different systems, tools and processes the DDC was designed to work with whatever the clients have got and adjust to their infrastructure without making them recode their applications, explained Docker spokesman Banjot Chanana on the Docker website. Networking plugins, for example, can be massively simplified if clients use Docker to define how app containers network together. They can do this by choosing from any number of providers to provide the underlying network infrastructure, rather than have to tackle the problem themselves. Similarly, connecting to an internal storage infrastructure is a lot easier. Application programming interfaces provided by the on site ‘CaaS’ allow developers to move stats and logs in and out of logging and monitoring systems more easily.
“This model enables a vibrant ecosystem to grow with hundreds of partners,” said Chanana, who promised that Docker users will have much better options for their networking, storage, monitoring and workflow automation challenges
Docker says its DDC is integrated with Docker’s commercial Universal Control Plane and Trusted Registry software. It achieved this with open source Docker projects Swarm (orchestration), Engine (container runtime), Content Trust (security) and Networking. Docker and its partner IBM provide dedicated support, product engineering teams and service level agreements.