I bet Jerry Chen is wearing his “docker” pants today to celebrate his first investment as a venture capitalist.  Docker, formerly known as dotCloud, announced today $15 million in Series B cash to build a business around its cloud open source technology, for a total of $26 million since 2011.

Is Docker the next VMware?  Jerry Chen thinks so.  Jerry, who we’ve interviewed on theCUBE many times, was the cloud czar at VMware, so catching his eye is something notable.   Can Docker lead the Linux container trend in cloud?

The round was led by Greylock Partners, and Jerry Chen (@theCUBE alumni) with participation by Insight Venture Partners and our existing investors: Benchmark (Peter Fenton), Trinity Ventures (Dan Scholnick), and Jerry Yang/AME Cloud Ventures.  Jerry Chen joins the board of directors representing @GreylockVC.

Here is my interview with #techathlete Jerry Chen at #AWSReinvent just a few months ago, talking about which player will be the AWS for the enterprise.

Betting big on cloud for the enterprise

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Docker is one of the many Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) companies betting big on the cloud movement, especially in the enterprise. Docker’s business model is to be the commercial entity behind the Docker.io project.

This past summer the company hired a new CEO Ben Golub.  Ben is a former Gluster, Plaxo, and Verisign executive who has quickly put his mark on the company.  Docker achieved rapid market success on the developer front and the business front.  Developer traction is growing in overall commits and business is booming with the notion of linux in the cloud.  Just recently Docker announced a partnership with Red Hat putting some credibility behind the open source linux container.

Docker is an interesting success story of entrepreneurial individuals both founders/employees and their investors. I am often critical of VCs who don’t add value, but I give credit where credit is due. In the case of Docker, the added value from the team is highlighted by Trinity VC Dan Scholnick, who tells the story of the Docker pivot. Most VCs would have shut this down, but this is a case where the VCs stayed by their team. Props to Scholnick and Fenton. Read Scholnic’s full story here.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has set the bar high for pushing down cost and increasing performance.   The question that we asked ourselves at #AWSReinvent this past fall was, “Can anyone take on AWS in the enterprise?”  Docker is going for this big bet with Linux containers, which allow those in the DevOps market to deploy software fast, especially software that they know and love – Linux.  If the software-defined world plays out in the enterprise this is a good strategy for Docker and makes the big VC play viable.

Great VC Hedge

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What Docker and its investors are doing is brilliant.  I call this the “cloud open source hedge play.” Docker’s is striving for perfection in strategy, product, and market execution.  If Docker nails the Linux container market, they can propel the DevOps movement into mainstream enterprise Cloud Ops.  This epic land grab would make Docker the VMware of the cloud (DevOps) generation, and position it as a viable player as “the AWS equivalent for the enterprise.”  If Docker falls short on the Linux container market, then they will have a huge lead nevertheless in the open source game, which they then can become the leading commercial vendor in that play.  In essence the “Cloudera and Hortonworks of Linux cloud.”    Nice hedge for both the company and the investors.

Expect more deals to come down the pipe.  VCs will see this move and put a horse on the track, ASAP.  Certainly VMware and Pivotal will take notice. Having more players like Docker minimizes the “lock in” from one vendor, especially the operating capital (op-x). Using software for time to value with linux is viable “functional lock-in” for Docker. Developer critical mass is a lock in that is community based. Call it “open lock-in.”

Here is our commentary and analysis on why we think there needs to be a player in the enterprise to take on AWS.

Fun times in the cloud game, or as we say, the CloudANGLE.