Last week saw containers return to the center of attention in the cloud after Docker Inc. unleashed three orchestration tools that make the technology much more viable for enterprise-scale projects. The additions span the bulk of the application management lifecycle, starting with the initial set-up.

Instead of having to individually configure the hosts in their deployments, developers can now leverage the newly unveiled Docker Machine to define operational parameters for their entire environments at once from the comfort of a command line interface. That functionality enables bulk management of instances, although most of that task can be performed automatically using Docker Swarm, which provides a unified interface for distributing containers across different environments.

The third and final addition to the startup’s operational roster – Docker Compose – allows developers to bring the different pieces together into a functioning service with a simple script that acts as a nerve center for the instances that make up the application. The three new solutions take out much the hassle that has previously been involved in deploying and managing large-scale container projects, but don’t address the fundamental issue of connecting the links in the chain.

That’s where Weaveworks Inc. comes in with its software-defined networking technology for Docker, which earned the startup $5 million in fresh funding from Facebook Inc. backer Accel Partners a few days prior to the debut of its new operational tools. The capital will help the firm expand into Europe and accelerate the development of its namesake software, which provides a virtual switch for Docker that serves as a single point of communications among instances in a service and with the outside world.

The solution aims to reduce the amount of manual work involved in configuring and running containers at large-scale while eliminating the associated risk of human error. That’s the same goal Docker is aiming for with its new tools and HP hopes to reach through its new partnership with Chef Inc., which hit the radar shortly after Weaveworks revealed its latest funding round. The agreement will see the hardware titan incorporate the company’s widely-used configuration software into its data center automation bundle to help organizations manage their infrastructure with the same kind of flexibility that containers are already enabling in the public cloud.