Microsoft Azure's Container Service now generally available
Microsoft Azure's Container Service in now available to help companies deploy and manage containers using their choice of software.
Users of the service will be able to move their container workloads to the cloud easily and can still run their operations using open-source tools. The two most popular tools -- Mesosphere’s Data Centre Operating System (DC/OS) and Docker’s Swarm and Compose -- will be both be supported by Azure Container Service and users will be able to continue running their operations using the one they prefer.
Mark Russinovich, Microsoft’s CTO for Azure, sees the support of both platforms as something that sets Azure Container Service apart from its competitors. Companies have already decided which service they prefer and by supporting both it facilitates their move to the cloud.
Microsoft has been working alongside Mesosphere for quite some time. The companies initially began to work together to help DC/OS run on Azure. Microsoft and Mesosphere have also partnered to help bring support for DC/OS to Windows and Hyper-V containers. It was rumored that at some point last year, Microsoft even tried to buy the company.
By using open-source solutions it will be much easier for users to take their workloads and move them on-premise when necessary. They will also be able to move their current on-premise solutions to Azure.
Microsoft has focused on ensuring that its customers are able to use the open-source tools they are familiar with to help them easily transition to the cloud. This is why the company has not included support for Google’s open-source Kubernetes. Azure may eventually support it but there was not enough demand from Microsoft’s customers to prompt the company to include support for it initially.
As more and more companies are moving their workloads to containers, Microsoft’s Azure Container Service will give them the ability to do so using the cloud, without sacrificing support for DC/OS or Swarm and Compose.
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