Google's Container Registry is dead, long live Artifact Registry

Pour one out for container registry

The deprecation of container registry. Image: Imagen.

Yesterday, after years of notices and warnings and messages, the OG, Google’s Container Registry has been shutdown/deprecated. From the release notes:

Container Registry is shut down and writing images to Container Registry is unavailable. For more information about the Container Registry shut down and how to migrate to Artifact Registry, see Container Registry deprecation.

It’s been a LONG time coming. I think I first heard about this shutdown about 18 months ago, if not longer. gcr.io was the domain name, and in some cases, it still works for pulling images, so I would imagine Google still probably has some kind of internal use cases for it. After all, enterprise software and services can be really hard to kill.

With that said, there are some important things worth noting.

First, Google have provided a tool to help with the migration: https://cloud.google.com/artifact-registry/docs/transition/auto-migrate-gcr-ar

Second, a few points on pricing:

• AR is more expensive than CR. By about 3 or 4 times as expensive. HOWEVER, CR was not a regional service, it was a multi-region service meaning you could deploy in Asia, US, or Europe.

• So if your services are pulling in gigabyte sized containers, you may now save significantly on inter-continental egress, depending where you are.

• For me in Australia artifacts stored in CR would egress from Asian countries to Australia every time and it was, well, expensive.

Third, AR supports more than just Docker / containers in it’s registry. You can store NPM modules, debian files and so forth.

If you’re somehow still using Container Registry and your app is functioning, you should really consider migrating soon. And by soon, I mean this should be a critical priority for you.

Read more about Artifact Registry here: https://cloud.google.com/artifact-registry/docs

Edit: I asked Gemini to write an obituary for it and this is what it came up with:

A stalwart friend, a trusty hold, Where images found rest, untold. Container Registry, once so grand, Now sleeps in Artifact's guiding hand.

You held our code, a watchful eye, As containers soared across the sky. But time, it marches, swift and bold, And change, it came, a story told.

Artifact Registry, a newer dawn, With features bright, where we've withdrawn. Though you are gone, your spirit lives, In every image, Artifact gives.

So raise a glass, let memory flow, To Container Registry, laid to rest below. Though you are gone, your work remains, A legacy etched in digital veins.

Long may you live, in memory's embrace, Container Registry, in this digital space.