Artifactory serves as a comprehensive Docker registry, allowing users to store and manage Docker images while integrating seamlessly with CI pipelines and supporting various authentication methods. It offers features such as high availability, scalable storage, and automatic updates to align with the latest Docker versions and APIs. Artifactory simplifies Docker registry cleanup by automatically limiting tags and cleaning unreferenced layers, ensuring efficient management without downtime. It enhances build reproducibility and traceability through detailed build information and integration with Jenkins, and offers deep image analysis with JFrog Xray, identifying vulnerabilities within Docker images. Artifactory also allows control over image downloads, ensuring compliance with security and OSS license policies, and provides multiple authentication options, including API keys, to mitigate reliance on external providers.