The containerization movement fueled by Docker has extended across all geographic boundaries since the very beginning. Some of Docker’s earliest success stories were from Chinese based, web-scale companies running Docker in production before Docker had released its 1.0 version. Additionally, through the grass roots efforts of the development community, we have thriving Docker Meetups in 20 of China’s largest cities. This is a testament to the innovative spirit within the Chinese developer community because the ability to deliver great community content from Docker Hub has been highly constrained. That is why a partnership with China’s largest public cloud provider is so significant. Docker, in concert with Alibaba Cloud, is going to deliver a China-based instance of Docker Hub to ensure optimal access and performance to the thousands of Dockerized images that will serve as the foundation of a new generation of distributed applications in China.

In addition to formally providing Dockerized content on Docker Hub to China, Docker is commercially partnering with Alibaba to address the substantial demand for running enterprise applications in containers. A June 2016 Alibaba Cloud survey indicates that more than 80% respondents are already using or plan to use containers. Together Alibaba Cloud and Docker will make it easier for organizations of all sizes to containerize legacy applications, accelerate their digital transformations and build new microservices. Through this commercial partnership with Alibaba Cloud, we look to serve the unique needs of global enterprises in China and to deepen our roots in the market.

Specifically, the commercial partnership entails:

Providing a China-based Docker Hub running on Alibaba Cloud for the distribution of thousands of Dockerized applications

Enabling Alibaba to resell Docker’s commercial offerings in China, including Docker Datacenter and Commercially Supported Docker Engine

Creating “Docker For Alibaba Cloud” – a configuration of Docker for Alibaba that has been created by Docker

Agility is key to innovation. By partnering with Alibaba Cloud to deliver a locally-hosted Docker Hub, developers will enjoy significantly faster image downloads and UI response rates. Now, development teams will begin leveraging Docker Hub to integrate source code management, build and QA tools. This enables users to reduce their commit-to-deploy cycle times from days to minutes, often enabling them to ship applications more frequently than before.

We are excited to advance the user experience for developers throughout China and to help unlock the innovation and creativity that will help transform the economy. In addition, we’ve added Alibaba Cloud to Docker’s growing list of supported cloud environments where Docker Datacenter can be easily and quickly installed. Our collaboration further enables application portability – without sacrificing the security, policy and control that comes with Docker Datacenter, an integrated platform where both developers and IT ops teams can meet to collaborate. This is another critical step towards enabling ‘write-once, run-anywhere’ apps that can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud. Overall, there is a vast opportunity in this collaboration between Docker and Alibaba Cloud as China’s cloud spending is expected to increase roughly 5X over the next three years.