Microsoft Offers Ubuntu Image with Docker Engine in Azure Marketplace

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (seen here) made big headlines late last year when he sang the praises of open source and Linux. Reversing what was long perceived to be a hostile stance for open source, Nadella said that he "loves Linux" and also claimed that 20 percent of Microsoft's Azure cloud is already Linux-based. Furthermore, Microsoft seems to remain committed to providing support for popular Linux distributions in its public cloud offerings.

Now, the company has announced Azure Marketplace's first Docker image: Docker on Ubuntu Server by Canonical and Microsoft Open Tech.

In June, Microsoft Azure delivered support for Docker containers on Linux VMs, opening the door for the ecosystem of Dockerized Linux applications to run within Azure.  Microsoft has had to recognize that its customers are running a mix of Windows Server and Linux workloads with Azure.

Then, In October, Microsoft outlined many enhancements to the Azure platform. Among those announcements, Microsoft said that Azure is embracing Docker as a core part of application and infrastructure investments going forward.  Now, the company has a fully integrated Docker engine on an Ubuntu image, available in the Azure Marketplace.

According to a related post:

"Users can now easily select a Docker gallery item and provision an Azure Ubuntu VM with the latest Docker engine immediately ready to use. Just give your credentials and SSH to the VM. Previously, Azure customers could do this by installing the Docker Azure extension to a running Linux VM. Today, we make it even easier to get started on Docker. Users will continue to have the flexibility to use our extension model to inject a Docker engine into all supported Linux VMs – details here."

"This is just the first of many additional integrations of the Docker ecosystem into Microsoft Azure, directly through the Azure Management portal and Azure Gallery."

To learn more about how to deploy and use Microsoft's new solution, check this post from Khalid Mouss. According to Mouss:

"The new capability we are launching today makes getting started and running with a Docker engine on Azure Virtual Machines even easier, another step on our commitment to the Microsoft – Docker partnership we announced last October and sets the stage for additional integration of Docker ecosystem including Docker Hub with Microsoft Azure Marketplace."