Chapter 4. Nano, Containers, and Docker Primer

May you live in interesting times - translation from a Chinese proverb

We are in the midst of revolutionary changes in the technology world. Over the last few years, the pace of innovation has been so rapid that anything that is new today becomes old in a few days. Even though the change is fast, there are innovations that rewrite history and change the way we look at providing and consuming computing services. Container technology and Nano Servers are major among these innovations.

In this chapter, we will explore the basic concepts of WindowsContainers and NanoServer, provision them on Azure, look at their differences, and explore the building blocks related to them on the Windows platform. Windows Containers is a new technology introduced with Windows Server 2016. Containers are not a new technology in Linux world; they have been available on the Linux platform for more than a decade and are highly successful. Windows Containers are managed through Docker binaries. Docker tools are used to manage Windows Containers on the Windows platform similar to the way they manage Docker Containers on the Linux platform.