Six Trends Shaping the Data Center in 2015
Containers may be all the rage in Linux environments these days, but when it comes to Windows, most IT organizations are still waiting for Microsoft to add support for Docker containers in a future release of Windows Server 2012.
Rather than wait for that event to occur, DH2i announced this week that it is adding support for a form of containers to the clustering software it developed for Windows server environments.
DH2i CEO Don Boxley says DxEnterprise container management software enables IT organizations to more easily decouple application instances running on Windows Server by isolating them into containers. The end result is a clustering environment that is much simpler to manage, says Boxley. Each virtual host consists of a logical computer name, associated IP addresses, host management metadata and portable native NTFS disk resources, all of which together make it a lot easier to move application stacks around the cluster as needed.
While Microsoft will eventually add support for Docker containers to its Windows clustering software, Boxley says DH2i has been gaining traction because it provides a much simpler way to manage Windows clusters.
As far as many Windows environments are concerned, compatibility with the same containers used on Linux environments is not a prerequisite. But many IT organizations would certainly take advantage of a container architecture to simplify the management of their overall Windows server environment sooner rather than later.
