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CoreOS today announced the acquisition of Quay.io, a privately held Docker container repository service. Financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed.
Quay provides private repositories for Docker container apps, which is also something that Docker Inc., the lead commercial vendor behind the open-source Docker project also provides. Docker is an increasingly popular open-source container virtualization technology that is challenging the hypervisor virtual model for virtual application deployment.
CoreOS, a startup with backing from Andreessen Horowitz, has developed a purpose-built Linux operating system for delivering Docker containers, clustering and high availability. CoreOS launched its 1.0 stable release on July 28.
Quay founders Jacob Moshenko and Joseph Schorr will now join the CoreOS team and have been tasked with building out a New York City office. Currently, CoreOS only has an office in San Francisco.
Alex Polvi, CEO of CoreOS, told eWEEK that Quay.io has many customers although the company is not currently releasing the exact number.
Even though the acquisition was just announced today, CoreOS is already rapidly moving to productize the new service.
“Quay.io will be a vital part of CoreOS, and we will continue to build out the offering,” Polvi said. “Starting today, we are launching CoreOS Enterprise Registry, which is powered by Quay.io and available through our Managed Linux offering.”
Managed Linux is the CoreOS commercial enterprise supported offering. With Managed Linux, CoreOS users get the CoreUpdate dashboard and CoreUpdate to manage and update servers.
From a competitive perspective, Polvi considers the new CoreOS Enterprise Registry, which is powered by Quay.io, an option for customers in the marketplace.
“Quay.io is an alternative to Docker Hub, and CoreOS Enterprise Registry is an alternative to open-source registries,” Polvi said. “Overall, Quay is providing more choice in the Docker registry ecosystem.”
Docker Hub is a service launched by Docker Inc. on June 9, providing users with a repository of Docker-ready applications. As part of Docker Hub, there are public repositories for applications, as well as private repositories that are offered as commercial service offered by Docker Inc.
“Similar to Github Enterprise, CoreOS Enterprise Registry provides tools to group together teams within your organization, and assign permissions to them so they can work together securely,” Polvi said. “CoreOS Enterprise Registry includes a rich user interface, access control lists and powerful tools for teams collaborating with containers.”
Quay.io is fully compatible with CoreOS, so wherever an IT professional can run CoreOS, they can also use CoreOS Enterprise Registry, Polvi said. This includes inside a data center or with service providers such as Rackspace or Google.
When asked why CoreOS needed to acquire its own private repository technology, Polvi said that everything built at the company speaks open APIs, which allows organizations to choose which components are best for them. CoreOS offers a curated set of products for companies that want full solutions, he added.
“Many customers were asking us for the ability to have a private repository so they can use Docker containers in a secure and fast way,” Polvi said. “CoreOS Enterprise Registry is our solution for companies that want their own registry.”
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.