Embracing container orchestration has many implications for an enterprises’ technology stack. An image registry becomes a critical component of the deployment pipeline. Red Hat Quay is a mature enterprise-centric container image registry which has a rich history of meeting the needs of cloud native technologists.
When Red Hat acquired CoreOS earlier this year, we were looking to amplify our leadership in enterprise container-based solutions. CoreOS at the time had two primary products, Tectonic and Quay. Quay was added directly into Red Hat’s portfolio of products and renamed Red Hat Quay.
In 2013 Quay was the first enterprise hosted registry. Offering innovative capabilities such as image rollback and zero-downtime garbage collection, it gained traction for its excellent developer experience and highly responsive support. Quay was acquired in 2014 by CoreOS to bolster its mission to secure the internet through automated operations. Shortly after the CoreOS acquisition, the on-premise offering of Quay was released.
Quay Enterprise was the first on-premise registry, delivering highly available geographically replicated deployments. Baked into Quay Enterprise were integrations with multiple authentication and authorization systems, permitting fine grained access control of repositories. Additional critical security features, such as team and organization mapping, CLI password encryption, and meticulous event logging set Quay apart from other registries. Clair, a leading open source container image vulnerability scanner was developed and optimized for Quay Enterprise. This feature-set led Quay Enterprise to be adopted by organizations like Qualcomm, NASA, and Autodesk.
In January 2018, CoreOS was acquired by Red Hat, and Quay joined the Red Hat portfolio of products. With the acquisition came a wealth of additional resources for the development and support of Quay. Quay Enterprise has become Red Hat Quay, and is available in tandem with Red Hat OpenShift. In upcoming releases, the two will have increasingly tighter integrations, so it is an ideal choice for prospective and current OpenShift customers. OpenShift is currently packaged with a basic image registry. By adding Red Hat Quay to their deployments, OpenShift customers can take advantage of advanced capabilities such as geographic replication, image rollback, and event logging.
Comparison of Red Hat Registries
September 2018
Default OpenShift Registry | Red Hat Quay | Quay.io (hosted) | |
Hosted | X, OpenShift Online & Dedicated | X | |
Basic Registry Features (Push/Pull/Sync/Prune) | X | X | X |
Role-Based Access Control | X | X | X |
Vulnerability Scanning | X, only for images with Red Hat Enterprise Linux | X | X |
Build triggers | X | X | X |
High availability | X, OpenShift Dedicated | X | X |
Image rollback | X | X | |
Activity logging | X | X | |
Robot accounts | X | X | |
Automatic layer squashing | X | X | |
Geographic Replication | X | Data replication via global cdn | |
Torrent Distribution | X | X | |
Multiple authentication providers supported (LDAP, OAuth/OIDC, Keystone, etc.) |
X | ||
Prometheus support | X |
Organizations like Cisco have seen the benefits of using Quay and OpenShift together. Check out their talk at the 2018 OpenShift Commons Gathering about their experience using Red Hat Quay and OpenShift.
Red Hat Quay can be used separately or in conjunction with OpenShift. It is compatible with any container environments or orchestration platforms. Quay.io will continue to be available as a hosted offering, meeting the needs of smaller teams and those who do not need a registry behind their own firewall.
For more information, download the Quay datasheet.
About the author
Browse by channel
Automation
The latest on IT automation that spans tech, teams, and environments
Artificial intelligence
Explore the platforms and partners building a faster path for AI
Open hybrid cloud
Explore how we build a more flexible future with hybrid cloud
Security
Explore how we reduce risks across environments and technologies
Edge computing
Updates on the solutions that simplify infrastructure at the edge
Infrastructure
Stay up to date on the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform
Applications
The latest on our solutions to the toughest application challenges
Original shows
Entertaining stories from the makers and leaders in enterprise tech
Products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Red Hat OpenShift
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
- Cloud services
- See all products
Tools
- Training and certification
- My account
- Developer resources
- Customer support
- Red Hat value calculator
- Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog
- Find a partner
Try, buy, & sell
Communicate
About Red Hat
We’re the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source solutions—including Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes. We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.
Select a language
Red Hat legal and privacy links
- About Red Hat
- Jobs
- Events
- Locations
- Contact Red Hat
- Red Hat Blog
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Cool Stuff Store
- Red Hat Summit