Docker introduces Docker Enterprise 3.0 with desktop integration, launches Docker Applications

The growth of Docker, the San Francisco company behind the eponymous open source containerization platform, shows no signs of abating. Last March, it revealed that over 3.5 million apps have been placed in containers — portable execution environments that comprise the apps themselves along with requisite libraries and frameworks — using Docker technology and that more than 37 billion containerized apps have been downloaded globally. Meanwhile, analysts at DataDog report that Docker adoption among organizations with at least 1,000 hosts stands at 47%.

Many of Docker’s corporate users (more than 450, in fact) tap Docker Enterprise Edition, a suite of tools cross-compatible with local and cloud environments like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Linux distributions, and Windows. The end-to-end container-as-a-service (CaaS) platform has evolved rapidly since its debut in March 2017, and today at Docker’s annual DockerCon developer conference in San Francisco, the firm revealed the next major release in public beta: Docker Enterprise 3.0.

“Today we have over 750 enterprise customers driving their digital transformation efforts with the Docker platform,” said Docker CEO and chairman Steve Singh. “These companies are using technology to drive innovation across their entire organization. As the only independent container platform vendor, we’re excited to be able to offer customers high-velocity innovation, choice, and security across their entire application portfolio.”

Starting with Docker Enterprise 3.0, Docker Enterprise is integrated with Docker Desktop, Docker’s development environment for building, testing, and shipping containerized apps. Enhanced automation tools enable developers to deliver image registries with access to Docker Hub, Docker’s hosted library of over 100,000 container images, and to deploy apps to “enterprise-ready” environments.

Docker is introducing Docker Applications alongside Docker Enterprise 3.0, a technology that complements tools like Application Templates, Application Designer, and Version Packs and aims to unify management of apps distributed across toolchains into a single packaging format. It’s based on Cloud Native Application Bundle (CNAB) specification jointly developed by Docker and Microsoft and lets developers define the containers and resources to be deployed to runtime environments and tooling. Additionally, it automates the creation of Compose files, the configuration files that define services, networks, and volumes.

In the spirit of platform agnosticism, Docker is this week rolling out Docker Kubernetes Services (DKS), an offering that integrates Kubernetes — Google’s open source container orchestration system — from “developer desktop to production server.” Spotlight features include enhanced security, access controls, and automated lifecycle management, in addition to support for Docker Swarm Services (DDS) that interact with several instances across hosts.

Docker also took the wraps off of Docker Enterprise-as-a-service, a fully managed service on-premises or in the cloud. It’s initially available from French technology consulting company Capgemini and includes on-demand scaling, usage-based pricing, and monthly billing.

Lastly, Docker announced a new solution offering available through its Professional Services and Consulting program — Accelerate Greenfield — that supports app development and helps customers devise a containerization strategy. “Our new, complementary solution … enables [organizations] to quickly build new, container-first applications — anything from a new LAMP stack to cloud-native microservices — and deploy them on the same Docker Enterprise platform alongside their traditional apps,” said Docker Enterprise executive vice president and general manager Scott Johnston.

The release of Docker Enterprise 3.0 comes a week after Docker and British holding company Arm announced a strategic partnership that will see the two companies streamline the app development solutions for cloud, edge, and internet of things environments built on Arm architectures, and months after Docker secured $92 million of a targeted $192 million venture round. (To date, it’s raised $334 million.)

451 Research anticipates the app container industry will be worth more than $4.3 billion by 2022, and the competition is fierce. Red Hat’s OpenShift Container Platform and Pivotal’s Container Service (PKS) directly compete with Docker Enterprise Edition, as do managed Kubernetes offerings like AKS, EKS, and GKE.

Still, while Docker has never publicly revealed its revenue, Singh told reporters at DockerCon 2018 that it’s generating “triple-digit millions” in bookings and attracting big-name customers like ADP, Assa Abloy, GlaxoSmithKline, MetLife, PayPal, Splunk, Visa, and William & Mary.