Google today announced the alpha launch of Google Container Engine, a new managed service for building and running Docker container-based applications on its cloud platform.

Docker is probably the hottest technology in developer circles these days — it’s almost impossible to have a discussion with a developer without it coming up — and Google’s Cloud Platform team has decided to go all in on this technology that makes it easier for developers to run distributed applications.

In essence, this new service is a “Cluster-as-a-Service” platform based on Google’s open source Kubernetes project. Kubernetes, which helps developers manage their container clusters, is based on Google’s own work with containers in its massive data centers. In this new service, Kubernetes dynamically manages the different Docker containers that make up an application for the user.

Google says the combination of “fast booting, efficient VM hosts and seamless virtualized network integration” will make its cloud computing service “the best place to run container-based applications.” The company’s competitors would likely argue with that, but none of them offer a similar service at this point.

Google initially launched support for Docker images in May as part of its new Managed VM service. These managed VMs are coming out of Google’s limited alpha — with the addition of auto-scaling support — and with that, developers can now use Docker containers on Google’s platform without having to jump through any hoops. Managed VMs will remain in beta for now, though, which in Google’s new language means there is no access control and that charges may be waived, but there is no SLA or technical support obligation either.

And remember, because this new service is officially in alpha, it isn’t feature-complete and the whole infrastructure could melt down at any minute.