Rancher Labs announced the general availability of RancherOS, a simplified Linux distribution built from containers, for containers. RancherOS eliminates any unnecessary libraries and services, resulting in a footprint three times smaller than that of other container operating systems. The simplified container environment reduces container boot time, increases efficiency and improves security by reducing the number of components that can be exploited.

"At BRCloud Services, we strive to deliver the best solutions to address our customers' needs," said Helvio Lima, CEO at BRCloud Services. "RancherOS epitomizes what modern infrastructure should look like. We're thrilled to integrate the container operating system into our portfolio."

RancherOS makes it simple to run containers at scale in development, test and production. By containerizing system services and leveraging Docker for management, the operating system provides an incredibly reliable and simple to manage container-ready environment. System services are defined by Docker Compose and automatically configured using cloud-init, reducing administrative burden. Unneeded libraries and services are eliminated, significantly reducing the OS footprint and minimizing the hassle of updating, patching and maintaining a container host operating system. Containers running on RancherOS boot in seconds, making the operating system ideal for running microservices or auto-scaling. Teams can use the Rancher container management platform to easily manage RancherOS at large scale in production.

Key features of RancherOS include:

• Minimalist OS: Eliminates the need for unnecessary libraries and services
• Automatic configuration: Simplifies OS configuration by using cloud-init to parse the cloud-config files from multiple data sources
• Simple setup: Runs services inside containers orchestrated using Docker Compose service files, making setup as simple as running a Docker container
• Reduced footprint: Decreases resource requirements with a footprint three times smaller than that of other container operating systems in the market
• Extensive platform support: Supports Amazon EC2, bare metal, Digital Ocean, Docker Machine, GCE, KVM, OpenStack, Packet, Vagrant, VMware (experimental) and VirtualBox

"RancherOS is a minimalist Linux distribution that is perfect for running Docker containers," said Sheng Liang, co-founder and CEO of Rancher Labs. "By running Docker directly on top of the kernel and delivering Linux services as containers, RancherOS delivers just what you need to build a containerized application environment."

For additional information on Rancher software and to learn more about Rancher Labs and the company's open source products, please visit www.rancher.com.