Docker restructure sees enterprise platform business sold to open source cloud firm Mirantis

Container technology firm Docker has secured a $35m investment to fund a restructure of its business, after disposing of its enterprise arm to OpenStack distribution provider Mirantis.

The investment will enable Docker to refocus its business back onto the interests of the developer community, the company said in a blog post, and concentrate on building out the capabilities of its Docker Hub and Docker Desktop offerings.

Meanwhile, the acquisition of Docker’s enterprise platform business, for an undisclosed sum, by Mirantis is being pitched as an important next step in the latter’s push to help enterprises move workloads between cloud and on-premise environments with greater ease using the Kubernetes container orchestration platform.

The acquisition will accelerate Mirantis’s plans to provide “Kubernetes-as-a-service” to developers working within on-premise and cloud environments, the company said.

As well as the Docker platform, Mirantis has reportedly acquired “hundreds” of enterprise customers through the deal, with the company further claiming that one-third of the Fortune 100 currently use the platform.

“The Mirantis Kubernetes technology joined with the Docker Enterprise container platform brings simplicity and choice to enterprises moving to the cloud,” said Adrian Ionel, CEO and co-founder of Mirantis. “Delivered as a service, it is the easiest and fastest path to the cloud for new and existing applications.

“Docker Enterprise employees are among the most talented cloud-native experts in the world and can be immensely proud of what they have achieved. We are very grateful for the opportunity to create an exiting future together and welcome the Docker Enterprise team, customers, partners and community.”  

Docker said the changes will enable it to build on the work it has done since its inception six years ago, which has served to popularise the use of containers by making the technology easier for developers to access and use.

This, in turn, has paved the way for a “vibrant community ecosystem” of supporting open source and commercial technologies to form, including the Google-backed Kubernetes container orchestration offering.

This has also contributed to accelerated take-up of microservices-based applications within end-user organisations, and reduced the time it takes organisations to shift workloads from on-premise environments to the cloud.

“Going forward, Docker’s focus is to build on these foundations to advance developer workflows for modern apps,” said Docker in a blog post. “Along with real benefits, the last six years have also resulted in additional complexities, an explosion of choices and new potential threats of lock-in.

“In the light of these challenges, Docker and our community ecosystem have the opportunity to extend the open standards, functionality, automation tooling and cloud services of Docker Desktop and Docker Hub to better help developers build, share and run modern apps.”