Software containers enable enterprises to build applications that can run on many different types of infrastructure. In practice, though, most deployments run on hardware powered by Intel Corp. silicon because the chipmaker has a dominant share of the server market.

In a bid to foster the use of containers across other platforms, Docker Inc. today struck a partnership with Arm Ltd. The alliance will see the company significantly expand the support that its products provide for the British firm’s chip designs.

Arm doesn’t produce processors itself but rather licenses designs other to semiconductor makers. The company’s chips are primarily known for their efficiency, a feature that helped it make inroads into the data center market in recent years. Many leading server makers now sell Arm-based machines and Amazon Web Services Inc. recently joined the fray, too, by launching cloud instances that use the British firm’s Neoverse processor series.

As part of the new partnership, Docker will make it simpler to develop software that can run on such infrastructure. Currently, developers have to build their containerized applications on an Arm-powered computer if they want it to work with Arm servers. Docker will give the 2 million engineers who use its container platform the ability to create compatible applications on their existing Intel-based workstations, which will remove this adoption barrier.

The interoperability should also benefit enterprises writing software for connected devices. Arm chips power much of the “internet of things,” with the firm’s semiconductor partners having shipped no less than 135 billion processors based on its designs to date.

“The pervasiveness of Arm-powered technologies across the global internet infrastructure market is unmatched and now nearly 2 million Docker developers will be able to build and scale applications for the cloud and these connected devices quickly and securely,” David Messina, Docker’s executive vice president of strategic alliances, said in a statement.

Further down the road, Arm and Docker plan to bring the latter’s commercial Docker Enterprise container platform to AWS’ Neoverse-powered instances. The companies also said the partnership will prioritize “secure device management,” suggesting their plans also involve Arm’s Pelion platform for managing connected device deployments.  

Photo: Arm