Microsoft boosts openness of Azure cloud by acquiring container platform Deis

Microsoft has acquired Deis, a company which provides some of the most premium tools that can be utilized for building and managing container based applications. Deis provides a number tools that are essential for building and managing applications on Google's Kubernetes container service. The companies did not disclose the price of the acquisition.

The Redmond based company has purchased Deis from Engine Yard, which had earlier acquired it in 2015.

Containers have been at the forefront of cloud transformation in recent years, and for good reason: Container technologies let organizations more easily build, deploy and move applications to and from the cloud.

From the early days of containers through the rise of Kubernetes, Deis has always been focused on building and contributing open source technologies that make life easy for developers and operators to build and run applications.

“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,” Microsoft’s executive VP for its cloud and enterprise group Scott Guthrie wrote in a blogpost. “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.”

Though, Microsoft already has a container orchestration service of its own in form of Azure, Deis is meant to boost the company’s prowess with regards to the Kubernetes service which is increasingly becoming a standard in the industry.

Deis provides three core open-source tools for managing Kubernetes deployments: Workflow, a platform for developers and operations teams to easily deploy and manage containerized apps; the Kubernetes package manager Helm; and Steward, a Kubernetes-native service broker.

"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," Microsoft noted.

The acquisition will also bring Microsoft a team that is quite keen on open source technology, while also being well versed in the Kubernetes, especially considering the fact that there is a severe dearth of professionals versed in the container orchestration service.