What is a container registry?

Anyone who creates and offers container images usually also needs a sensible way of managing and distributing these images. A container registry fulfills this and many other purposes around container images.

A container registry means a whole collection of tools that facilitate the administration, storage and distribution of container images . They are offered as a cloud-based solution from a third party or as an on-premises solution for your own servers.

The tools are available for different types of containers. Container registries for managing Docker .Images are particularly widespread , as Docker is a very popular platform. Depending on the provider, other formats are also supported, e.g. B. OCI Images.

Uncomplicated distribution of the container images

A great advantage of container images is that they make the provision of software much easier compared to conventional installation . A container registry makes it easy to distribute the images to a wide variety of people on a global level. Cloud-based services in particular promise high availability of the registry so that the images are available at any time and from anywhere.

Many container registries also offer tools that can be used to automate processes such as creating new images after a change. In this way, users automatically receive the latest status of the images at any time when they access the container registry.

Third party integration

Part of many container registries is the connection and integration of services that are related to the further processing of container images. For example, many platforms offer integration with Kubernetes , a system for the automated provision and scaling of container applications .

Safe access

Services for container registries offer the option of providing the images exclusively in a private network. This means that only those persons and services have access to the container images who have the appropriate authorization.

Depending on the provider, this includes the integration of various roles. For example, certain people only have access to a few selected images, while others have full access to all images in the registry. The alternative to the private container registry would be a public registry to which any participant has access.

Integrated protection against security vulnerabilities

Many service providers who offer a container registry make it possible to scan the containers for security-related problems (e.g. malware). In this way, it can be ensured from the start that the provided container images do not have any serious security gaps.