Docker, the company behind the open platform for distributed applications, today announced its Ecosystem Technology Partner (ETP) program for logging, an initiative recognizing companies that have demonstrated integration with the Docker platform to provide organizations with a more comprehensive view of their Dockerized distributed applications. This initiative highlights the companies that collect container and/or Docker host-level logging data to provide IT Ops with more insights about their entire Dockerized environment. The first set of partners to demonstrate their expertise in recording and managing log data for Dockerized applications includes Amazon CloudWatch from Amazon Web Services (AWS), elastic.co, Graylog, Rapid7/Logentries, Loggly, Papertrail, Sematext Logsene, Sumo Logic and Treasure Data.

Distributed applications produce many streams of log data which need to be managed in order to provide IT Ops with useful insight into application health and aid in debugging incidents. If an organization is having an issue with an application, often the first course of action is to perform log analysis to determine what action is required. Distributed application architectures are more challenging as there are faster cycles of change with bursts and scale variation with components that are in constant movement. As a result, the requirements for managing distributed applications in production are different and require different strategies for collecting and analyzing container log data. Docker’s ecosystem partners employ different methods to help collect this data from contributing logging drivers directly to the Docker Engine to providing containerized agents, which wire up Docker APIs to external collection systems.

“Log management is a critical component of analyzing the health of distributed applications,” said Nick Stinemates, VP, Business Development & Technical Alliances, Docker. “For operational teams, robust tooling is critical for collecting and correlating the data so that organizations can get an accurate picture of the availability and performance of these applications. Docker’s Ecosystem Technology Partner program ensures that companies are building log management solutions that not only integrate with a Docker environment, but also extend the portability and ease of use benefits of the platform itself.”

Docker’s ETP program recognizes ecosystem partners that have demonstrated integration with the Docker platform. As part of the program, Docker will highlight a capability area within the application lifecycle, validate integration and communicate the availability of the partner’s solution to the community and the market. The goal of the program is to ensure that organizations offering logging tools have been working with Docker to ensure the highest degree of availability and performance of distributed applications. Partners included in this program have proven integration with the Docker platform and have demonstrated that their solution is able to record logging data for Dockerized applications.

Future program initiatives will focus on other capability areas in the application lifecycle including security, networking and storage. To learn more about participating in Docker’s Ecosystem Technology Program, contact us at partners@docker.com.