Amazon cloud adds support for SUSE's latest operating system, now featuring Docker

Amazon Web Services has just introduced support for operating system provider SUSE’s new Linux Enterprise Server 12 OS, which packs a technical preview of Docker’s trendy open-source container technology.

The recently released OS from the Linux distribution company comes as an Amazon Machine Image that customers can install atop Amazon’s EC2 service, which provides virtual slices of physical servers in Amazon’s data centers.

“SUSE has also included a technical preview of Docker in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12,” Amazon cloud chief evangelist Jeff Barr wrote in a blog post today. “Linux Containers and Docker are great ways to build, deploy, and manage applications and can be used with tools like Open Build Service and the KIWI image system for easy and powerful image building.”

Indeed, more and more server operating system sellers are working Docker into their distributions as developers clamor for the technology, which packages up application code into “containers” that people can easily move from one server environment to another without adjusting code. Red Hat introduced containers into its widely used Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution earlier this year. Distributions of Canonical’s Ubuntu also feature Docker.

Like Amazon, competing public clouds Microsoft Azure and Google Compute Engine also provide makes SUSE’s enterprise server operating system, but they have not made announcements about incorporating the latest version into their offerings.