The short story is that Microsoft and Docker have penned a partnership that will see developers able to create Windows Server Docker containers. The long story has lots of context to it.

Let’s dive into how this works. Docker, a popular tool among developers, allows you to create containers that run specific applications in isolated environments.

Microsoft is building new container technologies into the next Windows Server release, enabling Dockerized applications to run on Windows Server on-premises or on Azure.

Azure will also support Docker’s open orchestration APIs, so that developers will be able to create a multi-container Dockerized application.

With LinuxKit, Docker has both a toolkit for creating lightweight Linux containers and a tiny Linux container for operating systems, such as macOS and Windows, which don't have built-in Linux.

With this release, Microsoft is not positioning Windows Server Containers as an outright competitor to the Docker container, but rather as a complementary technology.

Learn how to use Portainer to create a volume for Docker containers with this brief tutorial from Jack Wallen.

Learn the key differences between Docker Desktop and Docker Engine to optimize containerization, DevOps workflows, and development setups.