With all the media buzz circling around Docker and its containerized virtualization technology, perhaps nothing else puts this relatively newcomer on the map quite like this week's announcement from the Redmond giant.  Microsoft announced that it will deliver new container technologies in its upcoming releases of Windows Server.  And they also announced a new partnership being forged between Microsoft and Docker that will bring Windows Server support to Docker tools.

Up until now, Docker containers were themselves "contained" and limited to Linux environments because its underlying technology and features were deeply embedded and required the Linux kernel in order to be implemented - making it all but impossible to simply port it over to a Windows environment.  

But earlier in June, Microsoft announced support for Docker containers with Linux on Azure, which coincided with the 1.0 release of the Docker tools.  This support integrates with the Azure VM agent extensibility model and Azure command-line tools, and makes it easy to deploy the Docker Engine in Azure VMs.  It was that work that provided the ability to create Azure virtual machines with the Docker Engine already installed, and those VMs could then become hosts for Docker containers, providing the standard Docker tools that would offer management of containers on those hosts.

And now we find out, since June, Microsoft has continued to work within the Docker community to make things even easier.

• Microsoft and Docker are integrating the open-source Docker Engine with the next release of Windows Server.  This release of Windows Server will include new container isolation technology, and support running both .NET and other application types (Node.js, Java, C++, etc) within these containers.
• Microsoft will support the Docker client natively on Windows.  Developers and administrators running Windows will be able to use the same standard Docker client and interface to deploy and manage Docker based solutions with both Linux and Windows Server environments.
• Docker for Windows Server container images will be available in the Docker Hub alongside Docker for Linux container images enabling developers and administrators to easily share images.
• Microsoft will integrate Docker Hub with the Microsoft Azure Gallery and Azure Management Portal to easily deploy and run both Linux and Windows Server based Docker images in Microsoft Azure.
• Microsoft will contribute code to Docker’s Open Orchestration APIs.  These APIs provide a portable way to create multi-container Docker applications that can be deployed into any data center or cloud provider environment.
  

"One of the biggest inhibitors for enterprises in implementing Docker was a clear lack of Windows support," explained Bob Quillin, Co-Founder & CEO, StackEngine.  "Now that Docker has aligned itself with Microsoft, enterprises are empowered with the ability to create Docker container applications that could run on Windows Server on-premise or via a virtual machine on Microsoft's Azure cloud.  This opens up Docker to the Windows segment within the VMware market - a market larger than Linux - as well as the entire Windows developer ecosystem.  It's a win-win for the broader developer community and creates increased demand for companies that manage and orchestrate Docker applications in the enterprise realm."

You can find out more about this news from Microsoft here.  And we can probably expect to hear more about this during Microsoft TechEd Europe 2014 next week.