Docker Inc. and Arm are working to ease the development of cloud-native applications for edge and IoT devices. The move is the initial phase of a new partnership between the two companies.

The initial phase of the partnership focuses on delivering a seamless developer environment, starting with the integration of Arm capabilities into Docker Desktop Community. The companies claim this will allow for more applications to be built faster and more securely.

Docker Inc. developers will be able to use a Docker Enterprise Engine to build container platforms on Arm-based frameworks like Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 A1 instances that are based on the recently launched AWS Graviton processors. Arm developers will gain access to Docker Inc.-based platforms as an extension of the Arm Neoverse platform.

David Messina, executive vice president of strategic alliances at Docker Inc., explained in an email that Docker developers can “use the same Docker commands they are familiar with and apply them to x86 and Arm to build applications for the cloud and edge quickly and securely.”

Developers taking advantage of the tie-up will not have to change how they code. They will just have more direct access to frameworks from both companies. The ability to build those containers on top of an AWS instance should also lower the cost of production for enterprises that have typically built those containers on top of their Intel x86-based infrastructure.

"We have drastically simplified the development flow for those looking to realize the benefits of moving existing cloud native workloads to Neoverse servers," wrote Mohamed Awad, vice president of marketing for Arm's Infrastructure Line of Business, in a blog post. "At the same time, we have also enabled IoT and embedded developers to leverage the portability and scalability that comes with using Docker.

Docker Inc., which initially created the Docker container platform, and Arm also plan to address end-to-end management of the full product lifecycle, unified development environments for heterogeneous compute, and scaling cloud-native efficiencies to consolidate edge workloads.

Arm first unveiled the Neoverse brand last October. Earlier this year, it added cloud and edge applications to its Neoverse platform.

Neoverse has become a strategic platform for Arm as it battles Intel’s extensive reach in the data center market.

AWS quickly followed the Neoverse launch by announcing it had built its Graviton computing instances based on this Arm architecture. That marked the first time AWS had worked with Arm-based processors, which are considered very energy efficient. AWS has worked with a number of other semiconductor companies including AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Xilinx, and Cavium, which was purchased by Marvell.

The Docker Inc.-Arm deal also comes on the heels of startups Packet and Ampere linking to install Ampere’s Arm-based servers in Packet’s bare metal cloud data centers. Ampere claims its Arm-based chip is significantly more powerful than the AWS Graviton processor.