Koality Co-Founders Jonathan Chu And Jordan Potter In theCUBE At AWS re:Invent

Red hot container startup Docker Inc. has bagged another acquisition in the form of Koality, an even smaller startup that builds development and testing tools, for an undisclosed fee. As a result of the deal, Koality’s four-man team will move into Docker’s headquarters to help it build out its Docker Hub tools.

Koality becomes Docker’s second catch in recent months, following its acquisition of UK-based Orchard Laboratories last month, which adds a container orchestration service on top of Docker. Clearly, Docker’s recent $40 million funding round is coming in handy as it scouts for talent and companies it thinks are a good fit for the lineup of tools that surround the open-source Docker container management system.

According to Docker, Koality’s team will be tasked with “helping to accelerate the development of solutions for managing the lifecycle of Dockerized, distributed applications.” Koality’s existing technology will be integrated with the Docker Hub, an initiative designed to help enterprises build distributed apps using a code repository behind a firewall.

Docker Hub acts as a central resource for developers to share apps, collaborate, create images and automate application workflows. There’s already more than 40,000 community-run Docker apps available on the hub. It’s a modular approach that’s a natural fit for the containerized app development model that Docker is all about.

“The Koality acquisition is about bringing a Docker Hub Enterprise solution to market more quickly,” David Messina, vice president of marketing at Docker, told eWeek.com. “The Koality team has built up a skill set and specific technology that is optimized to work well with enterprise application development life cycles that align with the security and compliance requirements of highly regulated industries.”

What’s interesting is that while we’ve seen lots of startups that focus on operational services designed to streamline containerization spring up around Docker in recent months (like StackEngine), Docker’s two recent acquisitions both emphasize application development rather than simply trying to make the lives of IT staff simpler.

By adding Koality, the Docker Hub edges one step closer to becoming an agent of change within enterprise IT development. In other words, it’s yet another smart acquisition for one of the smartest startups around.