Microsoft recently highlighted its Azure datacenter support for open source software and announced that Linux images are now present in Azure Marketplace. Microsoft also announced regarding the Azure Container Service preview which is based on joint efforts between open source companies like Docker and Mesosphere. This can be obtained now primarily for testing.
Microsoft brought about this service primarily as a way of provisioning “clusters of Azure Virtual Machines onto which containerised applications can be deployed, orchestrated and managed.”
Further, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Support Images for Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 6.7 and 7.2 can now be downloaded. Moreover, the marketplace is a repository for software which can run on virtual machines in Azure datacenters. One can find the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux images in all Azure service regions excluding China.
Microsoft had earlier joined hands with Red Hat on Hyper-V hypervisor integration. However, recently it has formed a deeper partnership with Red Hat by becoming a part of the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider Program. Team members from Red Hat have relocated to Microsoft’s Redmond campus for assuring better integrated products. Red Hat, in turn is utilising open source Microsoft .NET technology in its OpenShift cloud platform and Atomic Host container solution.
Their association has extended even to support that is offered by these organisations to other companies. As per Corey Sanders, Microsoft’s director of program management for Azure, “We offer the best enterprise-grade support of the public cloud, by offering a fully integrated support experience with co-located Red Hat and Microsoft support engineers sitting side-by-side to help you when you need it.”
He further stressed that by purchasing Red Hat subscriptions via the Azure Marketplace, the customers can gain direct access to Red Hat’s customer portal.
