Docker released alpha implementations of three orchestration services for multi-container distributed applications. The goal is to help developers and sysadmins to create and manage a new generation of portable distributed applications that are rapidly composed of discrete interoperable Docker containers that can scale to run in concert anywhere from the developer’s laptop to hundreds of hosts in the cloud.
The three new orchestration services are:
- Docker Machine: This service further expands the portability capabilities of distributed applications by providing the user the flexibility to provision any host with the Docker Engine, whether a laptop, a data center VM, or a cloud node. This saves a developer a significant amount of time in manual setup and custom scripting, resulting in faster iterations and compressing the development-to-deployment cycle.
- Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm is a Docker-native clustering service that works with the Docker Engines, provisioned by the new Docker Machine service, and creates a resource pool of the hosts on which the distributed applications run. By automatically scheduling container workloads and allocating resources, Docker Swarm provides users with high-performance and availability while eliminating inefficient and error-prone manual resource management.
- Docker Compose: This service provides developers with the ability to assemble applications from discrete, interoperable Docker containers completely independent of any underlying infrastructure, enabling distributed application stacks to be deployed anywhere and moved at any time. Defining a distributed application stack and its dependencies through a simple YAML configuration file converts what was an incredibly complex process into a simple one that can be executed in just a few keystrokes.
- Open APIs and Open Design Create Opportunity for Broad Ecosystem
“As we evolve from applications created from a small number of Docker containers on a handful of hosts to large, multi-Docker container applications spread across clusters and diverse infrastructures, it is important that users don’t lose the qualities that have made Docker so successful,” said Solomon Hykes, CTO and founder of Docker and the Chief Maintainer of the Docker open source project. “This includes native and open interfaces, the ability to be portable across all environments, and through a common UI the power to leverage a broad ecosystem of 18,000 tools and 60,000 Dockerized apps.”
Docker said its orchestration services are being backed by a partner ecosystem that includes Cisco, Digital Ocean, HP, IBM, Mesosphere, Microsoft and VMware.
