Microsoft is building out its capabilities for the popular open-source container orchestration platform Kubernetes with the acquisition of Deis. Here are the details from a blog post by Microsoft EVP Scott Guthrie:
Container technologies let organizations more easily build, deploy and move applications to and from the cloud. With this increase in agility and portability, containers are helping to make applications the new currency in the cloud. At Microsoft, we’ve seen explosive growth in both interest and deployment of containerized workloads on Azure, and we’re committed to ensuring Azure is the best place to run them.
To support this vision, we’re pleased to announce that Microsoft has signed an agreement to acquire Deis – a company that has been at the center of the container transformation. Deis gives developers the means to vastly improve application agility, efficiency and reliability through their Kubernetes container management technologies.
We expect Deis’ technology to make it even easier for customers to work with our existing container portfolio including Linux and Windows Server Containers, Hyper-V Containers and Azure Container Service, no matter what tools they choose to use.
The Deis team will join Microsoft and its technology will remain open source, Deis CTO Gabriel Monroy said in a separate post:
Over the years, we have worked hard to be open, reliable, and dependable open source maintainers. From our new home at Microsoft you should expect nothing less. We will continue our contributions to Workflow, Helm, and Steward and look forward to maintaining our deep engagement with the Kubernetes community.
Kubernetes originated from Google, which donated the project to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation in 2016. It has thrived as an open-source project, moving toward becoming the industry standard for container orchestration. Microsoft's move to acquire Deis comes just a couple of months after Kubernetes became generally available on Azure Container Service (which also supports the Docker Swarm and DC/OS orchestration tools).
Buying Deis is a good move by Microsoft, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "It's no longer enough to just support Kubernetes. It's also important to provide the best Kubernetes experience. Deis is bringing those tools and the experience to develop more.
"I'd expect Deis to remain open source, but Microsoft will have to walk the balance between differentiation and open source contribution," Mueller adds.
Deis had been acquired by PaaS vendor Engine Yard in 2015. That connection wasn't mentioned in Microsoft's announcement, nor the purchase price revealed.
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