CoreOS Releases First Commercial Distribution Of The Kubernetes Container Orchestration Platform Developed By Google

CoreOS made generally available Tuesday the first commercial distribution of the Kubernetes container orchestration platform developed by Google.

Tectonic, which packages Kubernetes into an enterprise-grade product for deploying and managing clusters of containers, is the culmination of CoreOS's multi-year effort to deliver "Google-style infrastructure" to businesses, Alex Polvi, the company's CEO and founder, told CRN.

In that time, Google has become a close partner and investor in the San Francisco-based Linux developer, and Docker, the company that ignited widespread interest in containers and offers what has become the de facto standard for the technology, has increasingly come to look like a competitor.

[Related: Mirantis And CoreOS Developing First Commercial OpenStack-Kubernetes Integration]

Tectonic pulls together CoreOS' lightweight Linux distribution designed for hosting containers with open-source components like Kubernetes, Docker and Rocket, the CoreOS container standard that challenges Docker.

The technology allows organizations to seamlessly move distributed applications from development environments to the data centers and clouds where they can run them in production.

In developing Tectonic, CoreOS worked closely with the Google engineering team behind Kubernetes and the wider Kubernetes community, Polvi told CRN.

Google released Kubernetes 1.0 -- the first production version of the platform -- in July. But months earlier, in April, CoreOS released a closed beta version of Tectonic built from Kubernetes. An open beta version followed in July with the Kubernetes 1.0 release.

That jump-start is testament to the close relationship CoreOS enjoys with the Mountain View, Calif.-based technology giant.

The partnership began last year when Google introduced CoreOS Linux to its public cloud. Earlier this year Google Ventures led a $12 million funding round for CoreOS.

Google differs from most other cloud providers in that its infrastructure is based on a Linux container model and not virtual machines, making Google the largest container operator in the world.

With Rocket, CoreOS is challenging Docker's position as the sole driving force behind a container runtime standard.

Polvi told CRN Rocket offers a more-secure standard because of its ability to isolate containers in lightweight virtual machines.

Tectonic, which is agnostic to the container format it orchestrates, was released under its own brand name to impose separation from CoreOS's other open-source offerings.

The enterprise version released Tuesday adds features beyond the beta version, including Tectonic Identity for single sign-on, and Quay Enterprise, a secure container registry.

PUBLISHED NOV. 3, 2015