Docker Subscription is a service for your distributed applications that will help you support those applications as well as deploy them. The Docker Subscription package includes two critical software pieces and a support piece:
If you are a developer, sometimes the operations side of things are either a little difficult to get set up and manage or they require some training to get going. With Docker Subscription you can off load some of those worries by utilizing the expertise that is out there with commercial level support. With this support you will get responsive turn around on your issues. You will receive any hot fixes that are available or have been made available to patch your solution. Assistance with future upgrades is also part of the added benefit of choosing the Docker Subscription plan. You will get assistance with upgrading your environments to the latest and most secure Docker environments.
Pricing is broken down based on where you want to run your environment whether it is on a server of your choosing or if it's in a cloud environment. It is also based upon how many Docker Trusted Registries and/or how many commercially supported Docker Engines you wish to have as well. All of these solutions provide you with integration into your existing LDAP or Active Directory environments. With this added benefit, you can use items such as group policies to manage access to such resources. The last thing that you will have to decide is how quick a response time you want from the support end. All of those will result in the price you pay for the subscription service. No matter what you do pay though the money spent will be well worth it, not only in respect of the peace of mind you will get but the knowledge you will gain is priceless.
You can also change your plans on a monthly or annual basis as well as upgrade, in increments of ten, your Docker Engine instances. You can also upgrade in packs of ten the number of Docker Hub Enterprise instances. Switching between an on premises server to the cloud, or vice-versa, is also possible.
To break some things down so as to not be confused, the Docker Engine is the core of the Docker ecosystem. It is the command line tools that you use to run, build, and manage your containers or images. The Docker Hub Enterprise is the location where you store and manage your images. These images can be public or made private. We will learn more about DTR in the next section of this chapter.
For more information about Docker Subscription, please visit the link below. You can sign up for a free 30 day trial, view subscription plans, and contact sales for additional assistance or questions. The subscription plans are flexible enough to conform to your operating environment whether it is something you want support for 24/7 or maybe just half of that:
https://www.docker.com/docker-subscription
You can also view the breakdown for commercial support here:
https://www.docker.com/support
Bringing this all back to the main topic of the book, Securing Docker, this is by far the most secure you can get with your Docker environment that you will be using to manage your images and containers, as well as managing the location they are all stored and run from. A little extra help never hurts and with this option, a little help will defiantly go a long way.
The latest part to be added is the Docker Universal Control Plane. The Docker UCP provides a solution for management of applications and infrastructure that is Dockerized regardless of where they might be running. This could be running on premises or in the cloud. You can find out more information about Docker UCP at the following link:
https://www.docker.com/products/docker-universal-control-plane
You can also get a demo of the product using the above URL. Docker UCP is scalable, easy to set up, and you can manage users and access control through integrations into your existing LDAP or Active Directory environments.