News

WinDocks Comes to the Amazon Cloud

The container technology is a port of the Docker engine to facilitate Windows Server 2012 development.

• By Michael Domingo
• 06/04/2016

Containers continue their march into the datacenter, and into the cloud, with a new entry in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform.

In this case, it also extends Windows Server 2012.

WinDocks, which launched a solution for spinning up Windows Server 2012-based Docker containers in early April, has made its solutions available in the AWS Marketplace.

The eponymously named WinDocks utility is a port of the Docker engine that was developed in association with NetApp and Cisco. WinDocks, in fact, employs NetApp's Flexcone technology for cloning on flexible storage and LUNs to help with container performance. "A containerized application can be provisioned in the cloud, using a private ~1 TB database, in just 45 seconds," notes a company press release. "WinDocks containers are lightweight and a team is supported with identical container environments on a single VM."

The availability of WinDocks in the AWS Marketplace gives Windows developers and SQL Server DBAs the means to do Docker-based development on Windows Server 2012, with .NET, SQL Server, and Windows application containers in the AWS cloud.

WinDocks is available in four flavors:

• WinDocks Community Edition with SQL Server 2012 Express: Can be run on Windows Server 2012-based containers, and allows developers to spin up to five containers for free.
• WinDocks CE with SQL Server 2014 Express: Can be run on Windows Server 2012 R2; free up to five containers.
• WinDocks SQL+ with SQL Server 2012 Standard: Runs on Windows Server 2012 R2; this is a pay-as-you-go subscription, with an option to pay annually.
• WinDocks SQL+ with SQL Server 2014 Standard: Also runs on Windows Server 2012 R2, with pay-as-you-go/annual subscription options.

For more on WinDocks, go here. To get WinDocks in the AWS Marketplace, go to the AWS Marketplace here and search for WinDocks.