3 Ways Docker Customers Future-Proof Legacy Windows Server Applications

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In 2018, why are we still talking about legacy Windows applications? Why are we holding onto Windows Servers that are a decade old? The simple answer — the applications on those servers still work, and they still serve a business purpose. But they can become a significant liability.

Many of our customers are containerizing legacy Windows 2003 and 2008 applications today with Docker Enterprise, making them portable to new Windows Server platforms and the cloud with no code changes. These three examples — Jabil Circuit, a bank, and GE Digital, showcase the depth of what you can do with Docker Enterprise to modernize legacy Windows applications.

Jabil Modernizes Legacy Windows Apps for Cloud Migration

Jabil, one of world’s most technologically advanced manufacturing solution providers with over 100 sites in 29 countries, has embarked on a digital journey to modernize their technology infrastructure. They have a “cloud-first” strategy that requires modernizing over 100 legacy .NET and Java applications, many of which are running on Windows 2008 and 2012.

They’ve deployed Docker Enterprise and windows containers to successfully migrate the applications from legacy Windows servers to Windows Server 2016 on Microsoft Azure cloud. Now that the first phase is complete, Jabil has expanded the project to modernize additional applications, including factory floor monitoring systems.

You can read more about Jabil’s application modernization journey here.

European Bank Consolidates Windows & Linux VM Footprint

Italy’s largest bank had monolithic Windows and Linux applications they wanted to modernize and maintained two separate data centers as mirrors of each other to achieve high availability. This design required excess, cold standby hardware capacity in each data center.

They identified the first batch of applications to containerize, focusing on Microsoft Windows Server and Linux Java-based stacks. The hybrid management capability in Docker Enterprise was important to the bank to support run a mix of Windows and Linux services. The new design for their PoC with Docker Enterprise lets the bank use the resources in both data centers more efficiently, eliminating waste and delivering cost savings.

The bank estimates that Docker Enterprise allows them to consolidate and run over 2.5 times more applications per physical server with Docker Enterprise than in the previous virtualized environment. This consolidation benefit delivers the cost savings required to move the project forward.

You can read more about the bank’s containerization journey here.

GE Digital Accelerates Industrial IoT Solutions to the Edge

Powered by its Predix Asset Performance Management (APM) platform, GE Digital creates software to manage the entire asset lifecycle—enabling industrial businesses to operate faster, smarter and more efficiently.

Updating its .NET-based software across diverse customer environments with zero downtime meant long development and test cycles. The company needed a standard way to build, test and distribute software securely and quickly to any customer environment on any infrastructure or cloud without disrupting production.

Docker Enterprise lets GE Digital containerize existing Windows and Linux applications and deploy them at the edge without worrying about customer compatibility issues. Now they can begin thinking more broadly about application portability, including taking advantage of the choice and flexibility to run applications across the public and private cloud.

To learn more about GE Digital, watch their DockerCon 2018 session.

What applications will you modernize and transform with Docker Enterprise?

To learn more about Docker Enterprise and how it can help you migrate legacy Windows applications, visit https://www.docker.com/products/windows-containers
Sign up for the Oct 4th webinar: Bringing Modern Security to Legacy Windows Apps with Docker

Read how 3 industry leaders are future-proofing legacy Windows apps w/containerization.
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The post 3 Ways Docker Customers Future-Proof Legacy Windows Server Applications appeared first on Docker Blog.

https://blog.docker.com/2018/09/3-ways-docker-customers-future-proof-legacy-windows-server-applications/