Docker Inc. debuted new features for its developer tools at the DockerCon Live 2021 virtual event today that will make it easier to build software container applications.

The company also announced collaborations with Amazon Web Services Inc. and Mirantis Inc. to help developers more easily access software components they use in application projects. The announcement represents the biggest product update from Docker since its $23 million funding round earlier this year.

Palo Alto, California-based Docker pioneered software containers, which form the basic building blocks of many application projects in the enterprise. Containers enable software teams to bundle their applications into lightweight software packages that use infrastructure efficiently and can run in many different environments. Docker’s development tools are used by millions of programmers worldwide.

To ease the work of software teams using containers, the company today debuted an offering called Docker Development Environments. It’s designed to address a core requirement of enterprise application projects: Developers need a way of sharing project assets such as code with colleagues.

In addition to the application code itself, software projects consist of dependencies, or external software components on which the workload relies to run, and so-called application context. The latter term refers to certain technical details about how the workload is configured that are essential to development. According to Docker, Docker Development Environments will enable members of a software team to share such auxiliary project assets with a single command-line instruction.

The biggest benefit is speed. Normally, developers have to set up dependencies and application context manually on the infrastructure they use to write code, which can take a considerable amount of time in large projects. By reducing the chore to a simple command-line operation, Docker promises to free up that time and enable software teams to ship code faster. Removing the amount of manual tinkering involved in the task should also reduce the risk of bugs.

In addition, Docker debuted a new version of Docker Compose, its tool for building applications that comprise of multiple software containers. It allows developers to create a blueprint that specifies the configuration of containers in an application and how they interact with one another. 

The new release introduces the ability to access the tool from the Docker CLI command-line tool, which should boost usability. Docker Compose V2 additionally includes features that Docker says will make it easier to deploy Windows and Linux applications on graphics processing units. GPUs are the go-to choice for running artificial intelligence workloads in the enterprise.

Lastly, Docker is updating its Personal Access Tokens security feature. Personal Access Tokens enable companies to regulate how staff access repositories containing components of their application projects. With the update, administrators will gain the ability to assign users one of three levels of access based on their  role. A user can be given the ability to view repositories but not modify them, the ability to both read and modify them or, if needed, limited write permissions that allow them to change a repository only if it’s publicly accessible.

By providing more fine-grained controls for securing application projects, Docker hopes to streamline yet another aspect of container projects. 

“Today’s developers face a variety of languages, frameworks and architectures, as well as discontinuous interfaces between tools for each pipeline stage, resulting in application development that is enormously complex,” said Donnie Berkholz, Docker’s vice president of products. “Today’s announcements empower developers to ship faster by bringing their ideas to reality with Docker.”

The second major component of Docker’s product news today focused on Docker Hub. Docker Hub is a kind of app store that features containerized versions of operating systems, databases and other components developers use in their projects. It’s by far the most popular service of its kind in the container ecosystem, with a user base of 13 million developers who download components 13 billion times a month.

Docker features certified components known as Official Images that are curated by its employees. Thanks to partnerships with AWS and Mirantis, Official Images will become available for download directly via the companies’ respective Amazon Elastic Container Registry Public and Mirantis Secure Registry services.

On the occasion, Docker also launched a program called Docker Verified Publisher program for companies that distribute their software products via the Docker Hub. The program allows participating firms to display a badge next to their software that informs developers it’s safe to download. VMware Inc., IBM Corp.’s Red Hat and Datadog Inc. are among the companies that have signed up so far. 

“More than half of applications run on containerized infrastructure, and Docker Hub is the primary source for container images, according to our published studies,” said Michael Gerstenhaber, Datadog’s senior director of product management. 

Photo of Docker CEO Scott Johnston: SiliconANGLE