Recent Docker releases have improved support for persistent volume management. With Docker 1.8, the Volume Plugin infrastructure moves from experimental to mainstream.

Volume Plugins allow Docker to orchestrate create, remove, mount and unmount operations for data volumes using third party storage providers. The managed data volumes are made available for use by containers. In essence, the architectural support in Docker 1.8 provides an API that enables plugins to do the dirty work.

Timed for release with Docker 1.8, we are pleased to announce the Blockbridge Volume Plugin for Docker. We are particularly excited about this because it provides a native integration path for our Storage as a Container (STaaC) technologies. STaaC is collection of automated persistent storage primitives designed for the special needs of containerized applications. STaaC brings encryption, secure deletion, snapshots, quality of service, zero-copy mobility, infrastructure awareness and multi-tenancy to the container datacenter.

So, are we there yet? While Docker 1.8 brings love to persistent volumes, more work lies ahead. We expect Docker 1.9 to provide better volume management including the ability to create volumes independently from containers. In addition, expect to see improved configuration options for volumes and a more robust API.

UPDATE: check out a video demonstration of our Docker Volume Plugin!