In the fall of 2014 Microsoft and Docker unveiled a new partnership—a commitment to work together to bring native support for Docker containers to the next major release of Windows Server. Earlier this week the two talked about the progress made so far and gave some clues to what customers should expect once the next Windows Server hits the street sometime in 2016.
Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure, was in San Francisco this week at Docker headquarters meeting with his counterpart, Docker founder and CTO Solomon Hykes. The two met to talk about how their collaboration is progressing to bring Docker containers to Windows Server. The two didn’t share many specifics, but did say that the effort so far is achieving established goals and is proceeding according to the schedule they’ve laid out.
What is that schedule? We don’t really know. All Russinovich or Microsoft will commit to officially at this point is 2016. Whenever it arrives, though, it will represent a significant step forward in creating a platform-agnostic environment for developers. Windows developers will be able to integrate Docker containers natively with Windows Server, Visual Studio, and .NET applications.
The CTOs clarified that Docker support in Windows Server won’t allow Linux applications to run on a Windows operating system. Likewise, Windows applications in Docker containers won’t run on Linux. The value of the partnership and the integration of Docker support in Windows server is that developers will be able to leverage the same tools and common platforms for deploying, running, and managing the Docker container environment.
Microsoft Azure already added support for running Docker containers on Linux servers within the cloud platform. Once the new Windows Server hits, organizations will be able to run Docker containers on Linux or Windows and manage it all through Azure. It also enables developers to create application services running on opposing platforms and run it as part of a distributed application spanning both Windows and Linux.
The advantage from a Windows developer point of view is the ability to use the tools they’re familiar with. Developers will be able to use Visual Studio and .NET along with the built-in collaboration and workflow tools, as well as debugging and source-code control. It allows organizations to employ existing development practices and tools for creating and deploying Docker containers.
From a DevOps perspective the integration of Docker containers natively with Windows Server will enable better automation and continuity. DevOps and containers result in frequent changes to the app code and the underlying infrastructure, which is a bit of a culture shock for both traditional developers and traditional IT admins. Straddling the line between the two worlds by incorporating Docker containers and DevOps tools with the familiar Microsoft development platforms organizations are comfortable with takes some of the pain out of that cultural evolution.
Ultimately, the partnership between Docker and Microsoft will lay the foundation for completely platform-agnostic development. The app containers themselves may still require a specific OS to run, but at an organizational level the environment and infrastructure can be viewed and maintained as a holistic whole.
