DEVOPSdigest

Docker announced the latest release of Docker Enterprise Edition (EE), a Container as a Service (CaaS) platform for managing and securing Windows, Linux and mainframe applications across any infrastructure, both on premises and in the cloud.

IT organizations are under pressure to modernize for the digital era but are constrained by the management and maintenance of diverse applications, disparate infrastructure and multiple technology stacks. Docker EE removes these barriers with a set of capabilities that accelerate the path to production without retooling, recoding, re-educating the staff or reinstituting new policies. With the latest release, organizations have a container management platform that unites Windows, Linux and Mainframe apps on a single platform complete with customizable and flexible access control for Bring Your Own (BYO) environments; support for a broad range of applications and infrastructure types; and new capabilities for creating predefined policies that unify and automate the software supply chain.

“Customers come to Docker with a common challenge- how can they accelerate business growth when 80 percent of their annual budget is spent simply on maintaining their current infrastructure,” said Banjot Chanana, Head of Product Management for Docker. “With Docker EE, organizations can shift more investment into innovation by reducing the costs of maintaining their existing applications, while increasing flexibility and security. Docker EE enables organizations to unite traditional applications and microservices built on Windows, Linux or mainframe onto a single, secure software supply chain, accelerating application delivery by 13x while reducing IT spend more than 50 percent.”

The latest release of Docker Enterprise Edition enables organizations to modernize traditional applications and microservices built on Windows, Linux or mainframe and manage these all in the same cluster. By using one orchestration system for all application types, organizations can centralize access controls, security policies, etc. across teams and business units without requiring changes in code, processes or procedures. With the additional support for IBM Z, enterprises can use Docker EE to deliver a consistent operational experience from application composition to networking to security across Linux, Windows and mainframe applications while managing all three in a mixed cluster.

As container adoption grows across an organization, roles and responsibilities need to align with existing organizational structures and processes. With the latest release of Docker EE, organizations can customize role-based access and define both physical and logical boundaries for different users and teams sharing the same Docker EE environment. These new capabilities allow teams to BYO IT services model to a Docker environment where different teams rent their own nodes, multiple teams share resources, or a specific team is granted access to a collection of specific resources. The enhancements allow complex organizations to easily onboard new lines of business or incorporate shadow IT projects while preserving workflows and keeping application owners separate across a shared environment. As a result, IT can securely consolidate teams into the same infrastructure while enabling them to maintain separate physical and logical boundaries - without disrupting workflows, roles or processes.

Image management is one area that becomes more challenging as a Docker EE environment grows and the number of images increase proportionately. Docker EE allows organizations to securely automate and accelerate the software supply chain, ensuring that there are no errors, human or otherwise, as an application moves from test and dev all the way through production. New features such as automated image promotion gives IT the ability to define criteria that, when met, will remove the complexity and risks when moving applications into production environments. Another feature, immutable repositories, prevents image tags from being over-ridden when they have been promoted to production environments, providing another layer of assurance that only the right and latest images are running in production. Together these features enable organizations to meet their strict compliance requirements through policy automation while empowering teams to increase the velocity of their development process.

The latest version of Docker Enterprise is immediately available.