Windows Server 2016, due out next month, will gain new capabilities thanks to its inclusion of the commercially supported Docker Engine at no additional cost, said Ben Golub, Docker’s CEO, at Microsoft’s Ignite technical conference today. Windows Server 2016 users will also get Docker tech support at no extra cost.
Docker is the best known technology for combining an application and all its dependencies into a single unit that can be moved from one environment to another with no change in its performance. It’s now in production use by banks and other major enterprises, Golub said during a presentation by Jason Zander, corporate VP of Microsoft Azure.
“Having Docker Engine on Windows Server is all about making productivity gains from containers and making them easy to deploy,” Golub said.
The inclusion of Docker was two years in the making, according to a Docker blog post today. “With Docker Engine and containers now available natively on Windows, developers and IT pros can begin the same transformation for Windows-based apps and infrastructure (that’s available for Linux) and start reaping the same benefits: better security, more agility, and improved portability and freedom to move on-prem apps to the cloud,” Docker said.
Golub advised Windows Server users to start slowly with containers. “Just because containers are a disruptive technology doesn’t mean using containers has to be,” he said. “Take a single app and get started.”
