dotCloud dotGone: Ex-Docker PaaS passes away amid bankruptcy

Platform-as-a-service upstart dotCloud will shut down next month after its parent Cloud Control filed for bankruptcy.

Just a few hours ago, an email was sent to dotCloud users warning them that the service will end on February 29, along with a link to instructions on how to migrate their data.

For those wondering if the message was legit – it is. "Yes, this is unfortunately correct," Cloud Control CEO Philipp Strube told The Register as we went to press.

dotCloud was bought by Cloud Control in 2014 from Docker, which wanted to focus on its containerization business. Docker began life as an internal open-source project at dotCloud – an early PaaS provider that changed its name to Docker, pivoted to developing Linux containers, and ejected its app-hosting cloud.

The email sent out today to dotCloud subscribers, and seen by The Register, was written by Strube. It reads as follows:

Unfortunately I have to inform you, that cloudControl our German parent company has filed for bankruptcy.

Due to this, dotCloud will be shutdown on February 29, 2016. To avoid service disruption of your apps hosted on dotCloud or prevent data loss, you are required to migrate your applications. To keep the migration effort for you as low as possible, we recommend migrating to Heroku.

We are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience this migration causes. Nevertheless we would like to thank you for your trust in dotCloud. Unfortunately we haven't been able to revive dotCloud into a sustainable business and have had to make the decision to shutdown.

dotCloud is based in Palo Alto, California, while Cloud Control hails from Berlin, Germany. The latter was forced to file for bankruptcy this week after one of its main customers "drastically" reduced its business with the cloud biz. dotCloud was only a minor contributor to Cloud Control's sales, we're told.

"Basically we had to file for bankruptcy," Strube told El Reg. "And while we are still working with the court-assigned lawyer to find a solution to continue operations for our European brand, the DotCloud business was unfortunately not sizable enough to be saved.

"The number of paying customers affected by the shutdown is very small. We therefore will have enough time and resources to assist them with the migration even though the ~30 days advance notice is not optimal. Additionally, the compatibility to Heroku also will make migrations very easy for customers." ®

PS: Backup service JungleDisk was cut loose from hosting biz Rackspace this week.