Microsoft is swiftly but strategically contributing to open-source projects to strengthen its position in the cloud market. Recently, the cloud juggernaut announced two new game-changing decisions – introduction of Azure Container Instances (ACI) to drive innovation in the container space and joining Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) that’s hosted by The Linux Foundation as a platinum member, as a part of Microsoft’s continued engagement with the education and open-source community at large.
The new Azure service will provide users to instantly access containers allowing them to build applications quickly, without requiring any Virtual Machine infrastructure management. ACI is a unique, easy and fast service in the cloud as the container will start within seconds and will be billed for usage in seconds.
It will let the user applications perfectly fit on the infrastructure with versatile sizing capabilities. Users will be able to easily keep track of individual containers with role-based access and billing tags.
The Container Instances for Linux have been made available in the public preview but support for Windows containers will be available in coming weeks. It can be deployed either from a template or from Azure Command Line Interface (CLI).
Users can also deploy it from a public repository like Docker Hub or even pull from their private repository with the help of Azure Container Registry. The deployed containers will be separated from others through virtualization techniques.
Microsoft’s another move to join the entity that supports open source Kubernetes container orchestration project, will further strengthen its Azure containerization platform.
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Kubernetes was originally developed under Google. It was made open-source in 2015 when it came under CNCF. Now, it stands as a major technology that helps developers run their container applications anywhere.
Microsoft also mentioned in a blog that ACI tool is not an orchestration product, but it will work with such products (orchestration) to control container deployments. The company is also launching an ACI connector for Kubernetes, which will help link the two services.
Credit: Microsoft
By associating with Kubernetes, Microsoft aims to support the key technology trusted by many customers to help them built what they want.
Microsoft is trying to keep Azure relevant with all the latest technology trends and user demands. This announcement is another step towards this direction.
