More details about containerd, Docker’s core container runtime component
Today we announced that Docker is extracting a key component of its container platform, a part of the engine plumbing–containerd a core container runtime–and commits to donating it to an open foundation. containerd is designed to be less coupled, and easier to integrate with other tools sets. And it is being written and designed to address the requirements of the major cloud providers and container orchestration systems.
Because we know a lot of Docker fans want to know how the internals work, we thought we would share the current state of containerd and what we plan for version 1.0. Before that, it’s a good idea to look at what Docker has become over the last three and a half years.
The Docker platform isn’t a container runtime. It is in fact a set of integrated tools that allow you to build ship and run distributed applications. That means Docker handles networking, infrastructure, build, orchestration, authorization, security, and a variety of other services that cover the complete distributed application lifecycle.

The core container runtime, which is containerd, is a small but vital part of the platform. We started breaking out containerd from the rest of the engine in Docker 1.11, Continue reading