Microsoft Announces Support For Docker Containers

Microsoft Corp., held a big cloud press event yesterday where it announced the Azure Marketplace together with a new family of Azure products it hopes will convince customers of its ability to run hyperscale, enterprise-grade and hybrid cloud computing environments.

The Azure Marketplace will serve as a one-stop-shop for offerings from Microsoft’s cloud partners. Users will be able to choose what they need from the marketplace then spin up an app in just a few clicks, using Azure’s cloud resources.

Vendors will be able to create templates for each application that dictate the resources to be provisioned when a new instance is launched. Partners can use a variety of models to monetize their apps, including per-hour charges or a one-time fee. Microsoft says partners will need to go through an on-boarding process first, but it is committed to expanding the number of offerings in its marketplace.

One of the most compelling new products is an Azure appliance built in partnership with Dell Inc. that customers can deploy on premise. Called the Cloud Platform System, it provides a pre-assembled rack of servers running Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2 and Windows Azure Pack. Microsoft Executive Vice President of Cloud and Enterprise Scott Guthrie said the appliance will run the same APIs, services and hypervisor as Azure, and can connect easily to the Azure public cloud.

Also noteworthy are a couple of new server types. The new G instances have been built to handle Big Data workloads. They pack 32 cores, 450 gigabytes of RAM and 6.5 terabytes of storage. There’s also a new storage offering that can support up to 32 terabytes per virtual machine.

Finally, Microsoft has added support for CoreOS, the lightweight operating system that’s designed especially for Linux containers. This comes just a week after threw its weight behind Docker in a landmark that will bring the most buzzed-about technology in recent memory to Windows.

These are big moves from Microsoft as it bids to keep expanding its cloud business. The company claims it’s adding over 10,000 new customers every week, and it’s clearly hungry for more.

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