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Docker Inc. has a full portfolio of products and service for organizations building and managing containers, but how do your users actually deploy containers? That’s a question that Docker Inc., the lead commercial sponsor behind the open-source Docker container effort, is now answering with the acquisition of privately held Tutum.
“Tutum is a cloud service to build, manage and deploy Docker applications,” Ben Golub, CEO of Docker Inc., told eWEEK. “What impressed us about Tutum is they really nailed the user experience for creating a unified experience to build, ship and run Docker.”
While Docker Inc. is not discussing the financial terms of the deal, the plan is to set up both Tutum and Docker Inc for greater success together, than the two companies could have had individually, Golub said.
From a branding perspective, the name Tutum has a particular meaning that could potentially be retained under Docker Inc.’s ownership, though Golum noted that no decisions have been made.
“Tutum means ‘secure and safe’ in Latin,” Borja Burgos-Galindo, co-founder and CEO of Tutum, told eWEEK. “People remember the name, despite it being unusual.
From a Docker integration perspective, the Docker Hub is an obvious place where Tutum fits in. Docker Hub provides developer workflow as well as container repository services.
“Tutum today is already well-integrated with the cloud version of Docker Hub and already uses a lot of the Docker native tools,” Golub said. “Where we see the product going is an integrated suite for build, ship and run.”
From a deployment perspective, Tutum is already integrated at many of the major cloud providers. Burgos-Galindo added that Tutum also has a “bring your own node” notion that enables users to deploy anywhere they want.
“So if you’re running in a cloud provider where we don’t have native support, you can still start a box with Tutum to deploy and manage the node and its containers,” Burgos-Galindo said.
Tutum today requires users to have some form of Linux distribution into which the Tutum technology can be deployed; the system can also even enable a developer to deploy to a laptop, he said.
“Tutum works through a reverse tunnel. So from the cloud, you can deploy to a virtual box running on a laptop,” Burgos-Galindo said.
Tutum today is a commercial service run as a hosted offering and is not open-source, he said, adding that Tutum’s service is still in beta and does not yet charge users. Tutum has a free tier of service for developers that both Golub and Burgos-Galindo said would continue into the future, even after the service reaches general availability.
“Docker has a broad range of commercial offerings at this point, and in all cases, we have an easy free way for people to get started. And then, as people start using Docker at scale, it feeds into our commercial model,” Golub said.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.