Choosing Between Microsoft’s Many Container Options

• Organizations should consider containers instead of VMs as they migrate applications to the cloud.
• A poor choice could add unnecessary cost and complexity or leave a container deployment unable to grow to meet demand.
• Azure Kubernetes Service is Microsoft’s primary cloud orchestration option, but it can tie an application to the vendor.
• Many other Microsoft options support specific scenarios but are not for general-purpose container hosting.

 

(A more recent version of this report may be found at https://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/members/update/secured/2024/07/choosing-between-microsofts-many-container-options-2024-edition) 

Containers and container orchestration with the now-standard Kubernetes can improve application efficiency and performance but can be complex to deploy and maintain. Microsoft offers a number of environments for container orchestration and hosting, each of which has advantages for specific application scenarios and use cases. This report suggests which technologies are appropriate for which use cases. (See the chart “Summary of Microsoft Container Offerings“.)