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Consistently faster Docker Builds

Most current deployment solutions involve deploying a "Docker image" (or simply container image). Container images include your software, and any operating system and library dependencies it may require.

Container images are used not only for production, but also during testing.

Because container images may be deployed to environments with different architectures, teams often build multi-platform images that support AMD64 and ARM64.

Container image builds rely on "layer caching" to minimize total build times (as well as reduce the amount of data that needs to be pulled into an environment). Layer caching can be used effectively to enable "incremental building", where-in the set of artifacts that actual require re-building, across changes, is reduced.

Solutions in the market

Numerous teams find themselves relying on Docker build running inside their CI environments, such as GitHub Actions. While this setup is relatively simple to get started with, it poses several limitations:

  • The build capacity is confined to the 'runner' where the workflow is running, defaulting to only two cores and 8GB of RAM in GitHub.
  • The inability to reuse runners means that achieving incremental builds demands careful cache importing and exporting across invocations, adding time and cost to the builds.

You can also find remote builders provided by GCP (Cloud build) or AWS (CodeBuild), but they are expensive and harder to use from your CI workflow.

So, why choose Namespace Remote Builders over others?

Designed as an drop-in replacement for docker build, Namespace Remote Builders bring to the table:

1
More capacity out of the box, starting at 8 vCPU / 16GB RAM, with higher performance per core. Leads to faster "cold" builds (i.e. not cached).

2
Our pricing model is transparent and predictable. It's not tied to usage. Whether you need 1000 build minutes or 10,000, your cost remains unchanged.

3
Built-in AMD64 and ARM64 native building.

4
Out-of-the-box support for incremental build caching, with zero configuration.

5
Full compatibility with docker build: You configure your workstation or CI's docker to use our remote builders using a single command, and can continue using docker build as usual.

Get started today

Login to Namespace and start building today. You can get started for free.