In a move that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, Microsoft Corp. will port its Windows Server containers and SQL Server 2017 database management system to Red Hat Inc. Linux-based platforms.

The announcement, which is being made at this week’s Microsoft Ignite conference in Orlando, strengthens a partnership between the onetime foes that has been growing over the past two years. Previous steps had Microsoft make Red Hat Enterprise Linux available on its Azure public cloud while Red Hat added support for Windows Server Containers to its OpenShift container management platform.

“All these choices help to open up new possibilities for data centers running both Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux stacks,” Jim Totton, vice president and general manager of the Platforms Business Unit at Red Hat, wrote in a blog post titled “Data peas and Linux carrots,” which will be made public today.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or RHEL, will be a reference platform for SQL Server 2017, which has been fully tested for performance, security and reliability. Benchmarks performed by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. found that SQL Server 2017 actually ran faster on Linux than on Windows, with a lower overall cost of ownership.

“Under Satya Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft has become much more sensitive to larger software ecosystems and how it can profit by complementing its customers’ related efforts,” said Charles King, president and principal analyst at Pund-IT Inc. “Microsoft also seems to have awoken to the fact that the market is losing interest in homogeneous, single-vendor platforms and solutions.”

SQL Server 2017 on RHEL will provide a consistent database experience across the hybrid cloud including on-premises as well as on Red Hat Certified Cloud from service providers and Azure. SQL Server 2017 will run in a Linux container, enabling developers to more easily configure database instances and store them in libraries. SQL Server 2017 will also be eligible for full lifecycle support for customers with mixed Microsoft and Red Hat environments through a collaboration between the two companies.

Microsoft’s opposition to Linux, which former Chief Executive Steve Ballmer once called “a cancer,” has been softening over the last couple of years beginning with its announcement of limited support for Linux on Azure in 2015. Microsoft began offering Linux certifications on Azure in late 2015 and joined the Linux Foundation last November.

Both Microsoft SQL Server 2017 for RHEL and RHEL itself will also be available in the Azure Marketplace.

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