Docker Acquires Orchard
Docker, Inc. today announced that it has acquired Orchard Laboratories, Ltd., for an undisclosed amount. Orchard is an early Docker community member and creator of solutions on the Docker platform, including a hosted Docker service and Fig, an application composition and orchestration tool. With the Orchard team and technologies extending Docker’s capabilities for developers, this acquisition accelerates Docker’s mission of delivering an open platform to build, ship, and run distributed applications.
“Our goal is to provide the best tools and experiences for developers creating web-scale applications that move frictionlessly between bare metal, virtualized, and cloud environments,” said Ben Golub, CEO, Docker. “Orchard really stood out to us with their vision of what developers need and their delivery of well-designed services and products.”
Fig, Orchard’s orchestration tool, is noteworthy in the ease with which a developer can compose and manage a multi-container Docker application. After defining the application’s containers and their dependencies in a simple configuration file, the developer can - with a single command - automatically start all the components of the application, including containers, network connections, and storage dependencies. This eliminates the overhead and inevitable mistakes inherent in re-typing multiple complex terminal commands or creating rigid, unmaintainable custom scripts.
“Docker and the potential of its community and platform interested us from the start,” said Ben Firshman, CEO and co-founder, Orchard. “We’re excited to bring our products and experiences from Orchard, and join with the Docker team to build great tools that developers love to use.”
Firshman and co-founder Aanand Prasad will lead developer environment initiatives at Docker while continuing to maintain Fig. Orchard, the hosted Docker service, will not be a focus, and Orchard customers have already been informed and will be provided with a smooth transition program. Firshman and Prasad will continue to reside in London where, in addition to their product leadership work, they will help expand Docker’s European footprint.
