Kubernetes, an open-source container manager designed by Google in 2014 and then donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, is now at version 1.4, and Microsoft has made it part of its Azure Container Service.
The inclusion advances Microsoft in the movement toward containerized software, a hot trend in software development that improves on the efficiency of virtualization. Containers are intended to run on any hardware, on any cloud, and in any environment without modification.
Corey Sanders, Azure’s director of compute, announced the preview release of Kubernetes 1.4 on Azure Container Service this morning, as a prelude to CloudNativeCon + KubeCon, a conference devoted to cloud-native, open-source technology that’s convening in Seattle Tuesday. It’s sponsored by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, which promotes collaboration on open-source container-related projects.
Kubernetes 1.4 as part of the Azure Container Service, rather than just as supported on the Azure infrastructure, means “deeper and native support” for Kubernetes, giving customers “three fully open-source (container-administration offerings): DC/OS, Docker Swarm and Kubernetes,” Sanders wrote. Brendan Burns, one of Kubernetes’ originators, explained in a blog post that the integration “means that with a few clicks in the Azure portal, or by running a single command in the new Python-based Azure command-line tool, you will be able to create a fully functional Kubernetes cluster that is integrated with the rest of your Azure resources.”
Version 1.4 of Kubernetes adds support for native Microsoft networking, load balancing and disk integration, Burns wrote.
Microsoft also announced Azure Container Registry, a private repository slated to become available in preview Nov. 14. The registry allows storing Docker-formatted images and is compatible with the open-source Docker Registry version 2, permitting the use of the same tools in both products.
