Google announced the beta release of Google Container Engine and the general availability of Google Container Registry.

Container Engine enables you to run Docker containers on Google Cloud Platform, powered by Kubernetes. Container Engine schedules containers based on the needs you’ve declared on a cluster of virtual machines.

“While containers make packaging apps easier, DevOps and IT administrators need better tools to unlock the promise of containerization,” says Google in a blog post. “Container Engine makes it easy for you to set up a container cluster and manage your application. Simply define your containers’ needs, such as CPU and memory requirements, and Container Engine schedules your containers into your cluster and manages them automatically. Also, because it’s built on Kubernetes, the open source container orchestration system, you can move workloads or take advantage of multiple cloud providers.”

You can create a container cluster that supports the v1 Release Candidate of Kubernetes, which was also just released. Container Engine manages the uptime of Kubernetes, and manages updates to the underlying Kubernetes system. You can choose when to accept the update, and can run a single command to have your container cluster updated to the latest version.

Those using Google Cloud VPN to connect their datacenter to Google can reserve an IP address range for their container cluster so cluster IPs can coexist with private network IPs. You can also enable Google Cloud Logging.

During the beta, there is no additional charge for Container Engine beyond the Google Cloud Platform resources you’re already using. Once it becomes generally available, there will be two pricing levels: $0.15 per hour for standard clusters and no charge for basic clusters with the ability to upgrade to standard. Google notes it may start charging for basic in the future. You can get a more detailed look at pricing here.

“Google Container Registry helps make it easy for you to store your container images in a private and encrypted registry, built on Cloud Platform,” Google says. “Pricing for storing images in Container Registry is simple: you only pay Google Cloud Storage costs. Pushing images is free, and pulling Docker images within a Google Cloud Platform region is free (Cloud Storage egress cost when outside of a region).”

In other Google Cloud Platform news, Google has added Logentries integration.

Image via YouTube