What was the answer? As the headline read on one of the information resources, “Unicorn [a company valued at 1+ billion USD] has fallen: Docker is abandoning enterprise.” And that was the reason for such a statement ...
Mirantis buys Docker Enterprise business
The main event of last night was the announcement of Mirantis that the company would buy from Docker Inc their key business - Docker Enterprise Platform:
“Docker Enterprise is the only platform that allows developers to seamlessly build any application, share it and run it safely anywhere: from a public cloud to a hybrid cloud. A third of Fortune 100 companies use Docker Enterprise as their platform for innovation. ”
The same press release states that the Docker Enterprise team acquired by Mirantis will continue to develop and support the platform , as well as implement new features expected by enterprise clients. The latter, incidentally, include Mirantis's maintenance-free as-a-service approach, integration with Mirantis Kubernetes and other cloud technologies, as well as a proven business model for the corporate sector.
From the announcement of Docker Enterprise 3.0, presented at the end of April this year
Mirantis in 2013 announced its distribution of the popular cloud platform OpenStack and since then (until relatively recently) in the professional community has been associated with this product. However, at the end of 2016, the company introduced its Kubernetes training and certification program, followed by other steps (for example, the announcement of the Mirantis Cloud Platform CaaS - Containers-as-a-Service - based on K8s), which clearly showed how the company's focus has shifted towards K8s . Today, Mirantis is among the top 20 contributing companies in the Kubernetes code base for all time.
Kubernetes for MCP (Mirantis Cloud Platform) - the current heir to the CaaS solution from Mirantis
Comment by Adrian Ionel, CEO and Co-Founder of Mirantis:
“Mirantis Kubernetes technology, along with the Docker Enterprise Container Platform, brings cloud-based companies simplicity and choice. It is delivered as a service and is the easiest and fastest way to the cloud infrastructure for new and existing applications. Docker Enterprise employees are among the most talented cloud experts in the world and can truly be proud of their accomplishments. We are very grateful for the opportunity to create an exciting future together and welcome the Docker Enterprise team, customers, partners and community. ”
If until now Mirantis had about 450 employees, the new acquisition will lead to a huge expansion of the staff - by 300 people. However, according to Adrian, the Docker marketing and sales teams will function separately for the first time, since Mirantis aims to make this transition as smooth as possible for all customers.
Although Mirantis and Docker Enterprise have a somewhat overlapping customer base, the deal between the companies will bring about 700 new enterprise customers to Mirantis.
Learn more about Mirantis vision for the future of products - how the Docker Enterprise platform will be combined with the company's existing solutions - will be told at a webinar on November 21.
Docker Inc itself called the sale of Docker Enterprise a new chapter in the life of a company aimed at developers.
“The future focus of Docker is to improve workflows for developers focused on modern applications, using the existing foundation.”
Under the "foundation" refers to solutions created during the life of the company, such as the actual Docker CLI utility, Docker Desktop and Docker Hub. Simply put, Docker Inc will now focus on developing products aimed directly at developers ( Docker Desktop and Docker Hub ).
Here's how an IT veteran and Open Source journalist Matt Asay commented on this announcement:
“I don’t understand the argument of“ selling our enterprise business in order to focus on developers, ”because developers are the key buyers / influentials in the enterprise, but I hope only for the best for Mirantis and Docker.”
The actions of Docker Inc are made more understandable thanks to the comments of its management. And the changes affected him.
Restructuring Docker Inc and New CEO
So, the sale of Docker Enterprise was not the only event yesterday in the life of Docker Inc. Along with this, the company announced additional investments and the appointment of a new CEO.
Investments in the amount of 35 million USD were received from Benchmark Capital and Insight Partners, who have already invested in the company before. This amount is very significant:
- total investments in Docker Inc since the foundation of the company (in 2010) amount to about 280 million USD;
- Docker has recently had problems attracting new investments.
The company has changed and CEO, and for the second time this year. Until yesterday, Docker Inc was headed by Rob Bearden (former CEO of Hortonworks), who was appointed to this post in May. The new head of the already restructured company was Scott Johnston , who has been with Docker Inc since 2014. His previous position is CPO (chief procurement officer).
Scott Johnston, new CEO at Docker Inc, photo from GeekWire
Comment by the previous CEO of the company (Rob Bearden) on recent events:
“I joined Docker to lead the next phase of the company's development. After a thorough analysis with the management team and the board of directors, we saw that Docker has two very distinctive and essentially different businesses: an active business for developers and a growing business for enterprise. We also found that the product and financial models were very different. This led us to the decision to restructure the company and split the two businesses, which should be the best solution for customers and allow Docker to successfully develop as a leading technology in the market.
Developers actively use the Docker legacy, therefore, after the analysis, the natural decision was to return the Docker focus to this community, which is most critical for us. Once the decision was made, I realized that Scott Johnston is the perfect candidate for the CEO position in a restructured company. Scott's strong past in product development in the early stages of startups is exactly what the Docker leader needs. Thanks to Scott for agreeing to take on a new role. We worked with him to ensure a soft transformation. ”
PS
Read also in our blog:
- “ What and why is Docker doing Moby to integrate with Kubernetes?” ";
- “ What is the essence of the Moby project and why did moby / moby suddenly become the main Docker repository? ";
- “The Past, Present, and Future of Docker and other container runtimes in Kubernetes ”;
- " Red Hat is replacing Docker with Podman ."