Image federation is where dependent image layers are served from different servers. For example, an ISV builds on a Red Hat base image. The ISV layers are served from cdn.isv.com
and the Red Hat layers are served from cdn.redhat.com
.
The content-addressable v2 image format and registry makes this an ideal time to consider this model.
Many companies require to host their own bits. It's their control point. It's an important legal and provenance issue for them.
A simple example: