CoreOS Launches Stand-Alone Docker Container Registry for Private Deployments

CoreOS, the San Francisco-based startup that offers a version of Linux geared for large-scale compute clusters and optimized for Docker containers, has introduced a stand-alone version of its container registry customers can run in their own data centers.

Both CoreOS and Docker are recent comers to the cloud infrastructure market but have enjoyed a lot of support from developers. Both companies are aiming to enable traditional enterprises to develop and run software the way Internet giants like Facebook or Google do – constantly creating new features and deploying them in production across their massive data centers.

CoreOS got the registry capability through the acquisition of a New York startup called Quay.io in August and until now has been offering it as a hosted service bundled with its “managed Linux” offering. Now, by popular demand, customers who like the registry but don’t necessarily want to pay for the full-fledged enterprise-grade service can buy the software separately.

Docker the company (as opposed to the open source software project) hosts users’ container images in its public registry called Docker Hub. Quay.io offered private registry hosting services to make it more enterprise-friendly.

CoreOS only started offering Quay.io’s service in August, after it bought the two-person startup. But the registry was so popular with its customers that it decided to make it a stand-alone product.

“Due to popular demand we decided to make CoreOS Enterprise Registry available to any company solely looking for a private Docker registry,” CoreOS CEO Alex Polvi said in a statement.

The Docker container registry has an interface to manage permissions, audit code commits and deploy containers. It also automates deployment by pushing code into a user’s repository for access by their servers after it has been checked into GitHub and put through tests.