We are excited to share the new release of Docker Enterprise Edition. By supporting IBM Z and Windows Server 2016, this release puts us further in the lead with the first Containers-as-a-Service (CaaS) solution in the market for the modernization of all applications without disruption to you and your IT environment.

Docker Enterprise Edition (EE) 17.06 embraces Windows, Linux and Linux-based mainframe applications, bringing the key benefits of CaaS to the enterprise application portfolio. Most enterprises manage a diverse set of applications that includes both traditional applications and microservices, built on Linux and Windows, and intended for x86 servers, mainframes, and public clouds. Docker EE unites all of these applications into single platform, complete with customizable and flexible access control, support for a broad range of applications and infrastructure, and a highly automated software supply chain. These capabilities allow organizations to easily layer Docker EE onto existing processes and workflows, aligning to existing organizational structures while delivering improved resource utilization and reduced maintenance time.
This release includes UCP 2.2 and DTR 2.3 and establishes Docker EE as a key IT platform for both new application development as well as application modernization across both on-premises and cloud environments.

Multi-Architecture Orchestration

Docker EE is the only solution for modernizing Windows, Linux, and mainframe applications across on-premises and cloud, without requiring code changes. With organizations dedicating large portions of their IT budget towards maintaining existing apps and the digital era forcing everyone to focus on innovation, Docker EE provides a non-disruptive way to modernize existing applications to make them more portable, more scalable, and easier to update. Most enterprise organizations have a mixture of .NET, Java apps and mainframe applications in their portfolio. Docker EE provides a way to modernize all these different applications by packaging them in a standard format which does not require software development teams to change their code. Organizations can containerize traditional apps and microservices and deploy them in the same cluster, either on-premises or in the cloud.

Key new features include

• Support for full lifecycle management of Docker Windows containers including image scanning, secrets management, and overlay networking
• Integrate Windows and Linux applications through the use of overlay networking to support hybrid applications
• Ability to intelligently orchestrate across mixed clusters of Windows, Linux, and mainframe worker nodes
• With added support of Linux on IBM z Systems, Docker delivers a consistent experience (Compose files, networking, security, lifecycle management) across Linux, Windows, and Linux-on-mainframe applications

Secure Multi-Tenancy

As container adoption grows across an organization, roles and responsibilities need to align with existing organizational structures and processes. The latest release of Docker EE allows organizations to customize role-based access control and define both physical and logical boundaries for different teams sharing the same Docker EE environment. These new capabilities allow teams to bring their own organizational models to a Docker environment whether that is a shared IT services model where different teams rent their own nodes, multiple teams share resources, or a specific team is granted access to a collection of specific resources. The enhancements allow complex organizations to easily onboard new lines of business while keeping application owners separate across a shared environment.
Key new features include:

• Leverage built-in default roles or create custom roles with granular permissions from the entire Docker API
• Assign grants to users and teams for resource collections that include services, containers, volumes, networks, and secrets
• Leverage RBAC for nodes to segment a team’s access to a specific set of nodes within a Docker EE environment

Policy-Based Automation

Docker EE is a platform solution that supports a wide variety of applications, and a key priority is ensuring that this diversity does not add complexity nor slow down the software supply chain. In a dynamic container environment, organizations need to automate as much of the process as they can without sacrificing security. New features in Docker EE allow organizations to create predefined policies that can remove bottlenecks in the process to maintain compliance and prevent human errors, while still accelerating application delivery.
Key new features include:

• Automatic image promotion using pre-defined policies to move images from one repository to another within the same registry
• Immutable repositories prevent image tags from being modified or deleted, ensuring that production app repositories are secure and locked down
• New APIs for:
  • Access control permissions
  • User / Team / Org management
  • Cluster configuration

Next Steps:

There are many new and exciting capabilities with this release of Docker Enterprise Edition and over the next few weeks, we’ll be going into more detail on each of them. To learn more, check out these additional resources:

• See the new features in action in our new hosted demo environment. With no software to install, you’re just minutes away from experiencing Docker EE 17.06 for yourself.
• Register for these upcoming webinars:
  • Thursday, Aug. 24th: What’s New with Docker Enterprise Edition
  • Tuesday, Aug. 29th: Docker Captains on Deck: Swarm
  • Thursday, Aug. 31st: Deploying Multi-OS Applications with Docker
  • Also stay tuned for What’s New sessions in your local region
• Discover What’s New in Docker EE
• Read the documentation or learn more about Docker EE