Kubernetes is a Google-incubated open source container orchestration system. It has grown in popularity and has been implemented by many providers for managing large container deployments. As well as rolling out support to all customers, Microsoft has also added a couple of new features. Now users can scale clusters up and down more easily. Another new addition gives the ability to manage high-availability setups with multiple masters. In an announcement post, Microsoft points out that Azure Container Service is now the first public cloud platform that provides a service across the three most popular open source orchestrators. “Openness has been pivotal in driving the adoption of containers on Azure,” the company says. “Enterprises and startups alike recognize the momentum around ACS and the benefit it brings to their applications, which includes agile deployment, portability and scalability.” Back in July, Microsoft announced Kubernetes founder Brendan Burns was joining the Azure team. The former Google engineer became development manager for the platform’s Resource Manager. Burns has been an important driver of development of the orchestration within ACS.
Azure Container Service New Features
As well as introducing Kubernetes support, Microsoft also unveiled an update for DC/OS and a preview of Windows Server Containers with Kubernetes. The DC/OS update brings the support up to version 1.8.8. The platform powers containers and big data within ACS.A new orchestration framework called Metronome is also in the update. This allows customers to run scheduled jobs. Extending the Kubernetes theme, the Windows Server Containers preview gives customers on the platform an added choice. Users can use Docker Swarm and Kubernetes within WSC.
