Ever since Satya Nadella assumed the charge of CEO, Microsoft has started changing with the times. On a recent occasion, the company announced that it would add Linux-like container technology to the future version of Windows.
Microsoft is reshaping Windows! It is attempting to come up with a stripped down version of Windows called Windows Server Nano. Primary reason attributed to this move is to shrink the disk footprint by a high percentage (93%) and the number of reboots by 80 percent.
Windows Server Nano
The Server is proposed to work for two kinds of workload; cloud apps built on runtimes such as .NET, Java, Node.js, or Python, and cloud infrastructure, such as hosting Hyper-V virtual machines.
The company will enable support for containers via Docker for management and deployment. Says the Windows Server Blog team,
The operating system has evolved dramatically with the move to the cloud. Many customers today need their OS for the primary purpose of powering born-in-the-cloud applications. Leveraging our years of experience building and running hyper-scale data centers, Microsoft is uniquely positioned to provide a purpose-built OS to power modern apps and containers.
The containers, similar to their counterparts on Linux and other platforms, will provide isolated, resource controlled application environments to be deployed on Windows. This will help Microsoft Windows server Nano consume 93% less space than Windows Server.
Currently, work is under progress to ensure that Nano Server works seamlessly in a DevOps continuous deployment and management workflow.