Co-op Cloud aims to make hosting free software applications simple for small providers. It uses the latest container technologies and innovations and configurations are shared into [the commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons) for the benefit of all. The project is intended for small service providers such as tech co-operatives who are looking to standardise around an open, transparent and scalable infrastructure.
The project was started by workers at [Autonomic](https://autonomic.zone/) which is a [workers co-operative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative) providing technologies and infrastructure to empower users to make a positive impact on the world. We use Co-op Cloud in production amongst other systems.
up-and-running in the ecosystem as they don't necessarily meet our needs as a small tech co-op. However, the Co-op Cloud isn't meant to be a replacement for these others projects. Here is a short overview of the pros/cons we see and how that relates to our goals here.
We use containers because so many libre software communities choose to use them! They are already writing and using Docker files and Docker-compose definitions for their development and production environments. We can directly re-use this good work for packaging and contribute back by helping maintain their in-repository files. We meet them where they are at and do not create a new packaging format or duplicate effort. Co-op cloud proposes the idea of more direct coordination between distribution methods (app packagers) and production methods (developers).
We are more focused on the [compose specification](https://compose-spec.io/) as a useful open standard for specifying libre software app deployments than the [Docker compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/) tool itself. Compose files seem to be the most accessible format for describing apps and this can be seen in the existence of tools like [Kompose](https://kompose.io/) where the compose format is used as the day-to-day developer workflow format which is then translated into more complicated formats. Docker compose is simply the de-facto community standard tooling that is being used to read and execute compose files today and we're making use of it. We are happy to see the compose specification emerging as a new open standard because that means we don't have to rely on Docker Inc. in the future - there will be more community tools available.
While many have noted that "swarm is dead" it is in fact [not dead](https://www.mirantis.com/blog/mirantis-will-continue-to-support-and-develop-docker-swarm/). As detailed in the [architecture overview page](/overview/#container-orchestrator), swarm offers an approriate feature set which allows us to support zero-down time upgrades, seamless application rollbacks, automatic deploy failure handling, scaling, hybrid cloud setups and maintain a decentralised design. While the industry is bordering on a [k8s](https://kubernetes.io/) obsession and the need to [scale down](https://microk8s.io/) a tool that was fundamentally built for massive scale, we are going with swarm because it is the tool most suitable for [small technology](https://small-tech.org/). We hope to see a container orchestrator tool that is not directly linked to a for-profit company emerge soon but for now, this is what we have.
