Docker issues beta releases for Mac, Windows, Azure and AWS

New preview releases based on updated Docker Engine 1.12

Docker has issued public beta releases of Docker for Mac and Windows, and private betas of Docker for the AWS and Azure cloud platforms, all based on an updated Docker Engine with built-in orchestration.

The releases were announced at DockerCon in Seattle, and continue to expand support for the Docker platform to enable applications and services to run in containers.

Docker announced private betas of Docker support for the Mac and Windows operating systems in March, but has now opened the beta to anyone to download and evaluate.

The aim is to provide developers with an integrated, easy-to-deploy environment for building, assembling and shipping applications from Mac or Windows systems, Docker said.

The public betas now include an updated version of Docker Engine 1.12, which is itself still at Release Candidate stage. This includes a number of features most requested by the Docker community, most notably the built-in orchestration.

"Starting with Docker 1.12 you will be able to natively deploy and manage not just containers but entire multi-tier distributed applications by creating a distributed application bundle," said Mano Marks, Docker's director of developer relations, on the Docker blog.

Meanwhile, Docker has released private betas of Docker for AWS and Docker for Azure, touted as the best way to install, configure and maintain Docker container deployments on the two public cloud platforms.

Both are also based on Docker Engine 1.12, but feature additional capabilities that allow development teams to seamlessly move apps from developer systems to Docker staging and production environments.

Docker for AWS and Azure start a fleet of Docker 1.12 Engines with swarm mode enabled out of the box, meaning that the individual Docker engines form into a self-organising, self-healing swarm, distributed across availability zones for durability, Docker said.

In addition, both are able to configure security groups and virtual networks to create secure Docker environments, and automatically provision load balancers and update them dynamically as apps are created and updated.

General availability of Docker 1.12 is currently planned for July 2016, and updates to Docker for AWS and Azure are set to ship at the same time, the firm said.