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5 Reasons to Containerize Production Windows Apps on Docker Enterprise

We started working with Microsoft five years ago to containerize Windows Server applications. Today, many of our enterprise customers run Windows containers in production. We’ve seen customers containerize everything from 15 year old Windows .NET 1.1 applications to new ASP.NET applications.


If you haven’t started containerizing Windows applications and running them in production, here are five great reasons to get started:
1. It’s time to retire Windows Server 2008
Extended Support ends in January 2020. Rewriting hundreds of legacy applications to run on Windows Server 2016 or 2019 is a ridiculously expensive and time-consuming headache, so you’ll need to find a better way — and that’s Docker Enterprise.
2. It’s much easier than you think to containerize legacy Windows apps
You can containerize legacy Windows applications with Docker Enterprise without needing to rewrite them. Once containerized, these applications are easier to modernize and extend with new services.
3. Both Swarm and Kubernetes will support Windows nodes
The recently announced Kubernetes 1.14 includes support for Windows nodes. With Docker Enterprise, you will soon be able to use either orchestrator to run Windows nodes.
4. Your Windows apps become fully portable to the cloud
Once you containerize your Windows applications, it’s easy to migrate them to almost any cloud. With Docker Enterprise, applications are fully portable.
5. You’re in good company
Hundreds of enterprises now run Windows container nodes in production. Last fall, we talked about how GE Digital, Jabil and the largest bank in Italy have containerized Windows Server applications. Two of the world’s top ten bio-pharmaceutical companies and one of the largest manufacturers now run production Windows containers on Docker Enterprise.

At DockerCon Barcelona 2018 and DockerCon 2019, we heard from several other customers about how they use Docker Enterprise to containerize Windows applications:
If you’re thinking about containerizing old or new Windows applications, there’s never been a better time to do it.

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