This is the summer of Docker’s ripening as it begins to mature into stable, enterprise-worthy software. The release of version 1.0 coincided with the first annual DockerCon, and finally moves Docker from an experimental state into a production-capable application. The pace of development is not slowing down after these successes, but rather appears to be ramping up as Docker adoption continues to grow and more companies get involved in the development process. The last few months have seen a major acquisition, improvements to security, and a multitude of bug fixes and new features.

Docker’s Orchard of Fig

One of the biggest moves taken by the company in recent months is the acquisition of Orchard: a company that provides hosting services for Docker containers. This is part of the company’s efforts to standardize Docker orchestration, something that has been handled differently by each distribution of Linux. The team coming from Orchard will spend part of their time developing an interface to make Docker orchestration easier.

This follows in the wake of Solomon Hykes’ announcement of Libswarm during his keynote at Dockercon. Libswarm is an orchestration application built to deploy applications made from multiple containers on infrastructures made of multiple machines by offering an API which can be accessed by any existing clustered system that includes a Libswarm back end.

Orchard also produces Fig, an open source application that allows users to build isolated development environments using Docker. The Orchard team will maintain Fig and launch a Developer Experience group aimed at making Docker a better tool for developers. This effort will include improvements to Mac and Windows support, the creation of more educational materials, and aiding with the development of Docker.

Renewed Efforts on Security

A major point of confusion with Docker and Linux containers is that “containers do not contain