DH2i Adds Docker Support to App Portability Platform for Windows and Linux
DH2i is now leveraging Docker containers to make workloads on Windows and Linux hosts more portable.
Here are the details and why they’re significant.
Moving a workload from one host server to another can be difficult.
You have to ensure that the new environment is configured properly, that it is secure and more.
DH2i’s product is designed to solve that problem by encapsulating applications and databases inside a portable environment that can run on any server.
Adding Docker Support
This week, DH2i announced new support for workloads running inside Docker containers.
The functionality of DH2i’s traditional platform is still there.
The company continues to support applications and databases that run directly on bare-metal servers or virtual machines and need to be moved from one host to another.
With the addition of Docker support, however, DH2i customers can now run applications and databases inside containers as well and move them between host environments using the company’s platform.
Because DH2i doesn’t rely on hypervisors or virtual machines to move workloads, Docker containers still retain high performance and low overhead when used with the company’s solution.
Why Docker?
Don Boxley, Co-Founder and CEO at DH2i, said in an interview that the company added Docker support because its customers are increasingly likely to be running workloads inside Docker.
“Lots of people are using Docker, and it was easy for us to adopt into our model,” he said.
Asked whether DH2i sees itself as a competitor with Kubernetes or other container orchestration platforms, which also help organizations move Docker containers between different hosts, Boxley said that his company hopes to partner with Kubernetes rather than compete with it.
“Our goal is to partner with these companies and to add value to their ecosystems,” he said.
He noted that Kubernetes and other container orchestrators focus mostly on stateless containers (meaning those that don’t require permanent data storage), whereas DH2i’s business centers around stateful application containers.
How DH2i Uses Docker
Notably, DH2i is taking advantage of native support for Docker on both Windows and Linux.
This is significant because, to date, few companies besides Microsoft have created products that run Docker natively on Windows.
The only big caveat with Docker workloads is that a Docker container created to run on Linux cannot be moved to a Windows server, or vice versa.
This is due to limitations in Docker itself, rather than the DH2i platform.
Boxley explained that users could leverage the DH2i platform to move containerized workloads from a Linux to Windows host by starting a new instance of the application or database when the workload moved.
They just can’t perform live migration of the workload.