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CoreOS offers private Docker container registries for world+dog

Your containers, your data center, behind your firewall

Container-loving Linux vendor CoreOS has made its on-premises Docker container registry software available as a standalone product.

Previously, CoreOS Enterprise Registry was only available as part of the company's Premium Managed Linux offering, which it describes as "OS as a service."

As of Thursday, it is now available for use with any Docker-enabled OS – and these days, what Linux distro hasn't gone gaga for Docker? Even Microsoft is getting into the act.

The Enterprise Registry software, which is based on tech that CoreOS acquired when it bought Docker hosting startup Quay.io in August, allows companies to store and manage images of containerized applications that can be instantiated as Docker containers.

CoreOS is fond of describing the Quay.io online service as being like a Github for Docker images. Sticking with that metaphor, CoreOS Enterprise Registry is like Github Enterprise, in that companies can install it in their own data centers, behind their own firewalls.

That makes it well suited for companies that want to deploy containerized Linux environments but don't want to trust outside vendors with the intellectual property that goes into their containers.

The software includes a granular, per-user permissions system, where certain team members can be granted access to modify repositories while others can be given read-only access, for example. It also allows admins to configure "robot accounts" for use with automated processes.

Auditing tools are also available for admins to track repository commits, access changes, and other stats.

Although CoreOS Enterprise Registry is an on-premises software offering, however, it's still priced as a subscription service, with fees based on how many unique containers customers deploy per month.

The "Starter" tier costs $10 per month for up to 20 containers. More than that will cost you $100 per month, up to a maximum of 50 containers. CoreOS says it will announce pricing for larger plans soon.

This pricing model is different from that of the hosted Quay.io service, which charges based on the number of private repositories you can create. But CoreOS says the per-container approach is best for its on-premises offering.

"If we charged by user, you'd be penalized for having too many developers, and we if we charged by repository, you'd be penalized for trying different approaches," the company's website explains. "So it's better to just charge you once your containers are doing useful work."

Or that's how it works for now, at any rate. CoreOS says it will notify customers if the model is going to change in the future, which suggests a bit of trial-and-error as far as the business plan. For now, though, the company says it only plans to charge customers for their sustained usage, and it won't nickel and dime customers if they go over their plan's limits for a day or two. ®

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