Microsoft had a busy day at the office yesterday, announcing the launch of its very own container technology that’s designed to run on its Windows Server operating system. In addition, it also announced the general availability of its Azure DocumentDB NoSQL database, and a stripped-down version of Windows Server designed only to run containers.

The headline news is Microsoft’s new Windows Server Container, which can be used to package apps and easily move them across different Windows servers. The approach is all too similar to Docker’s model, with containers sharing the same OS, meaning they’re smaller and more responsive than regular VMs. The only real difference is that Windows Server Container runs on Microsoft’s proprietary operating system, rather than Linux – which means apps specifically designed for Windows Server and Microsoft’s .Net framework can be ‘containerized’ at last.

As welll as the Microsoft-branded containers, the Redmond company is also releasing a special contaner for apps that require the utmost security, based on its Hyper-V virtual machine. Called the Hyper-V Container, it’s designed to keep the app’s underlying code isolated while ensuring it can’t impact other containers running alongside it, or the host OS.

The move seems to be a response to recent criticisms of Docker’s security. A number of companies, including CoreOS and Ubuntu, have developed similar secure container technologies to address security concerns. Microsoft said the new technologies will be made available with the release of Windows Server 2016 next year.

Staying on the server side, Microsoft said it’s also planning to offer a stripped-down version of Windows Server specifically for running said containers. The new OS is called Nano Server, and is about 5 percent of the size of the regular Windows Server OS, consisting of only the most essential components – namely, Hyper-V, Clustering, Networking, Storage, .Net and Core CLR.

Last but not least, Microsoft said its cloud-based Azure DocumentDB NoSQL database for storing and serving data in the JSON format is now generally available.

Azure DocumentDB allows Microsoft to compete more closely with cloud rivals Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google, both of whom already offer their own managed NoSQL databases – DynamoDB and Cloud Datastore.

Writing in the Azure blog, Azure DocumentDB’s director of program management John Macintyre described a new open-source tool Microsoft has built to get data into the system.

“[It] imports data from a variety of sources, including JSON files, CSV files, SQL Server, MongoDB and existing DcoumentDB collections. In addition to basic data import operations, the tool supports transforming tabular source data (e.g. SQL Server or CSV files) such that hierarchical relationships (subdocuments) can be created during import, as well as, options for handling date fields,” Macintyre wrote.

Azure DocumentDB is available as a free trial, while detailed pricing information is available here.

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