We’re excited to share that Microsoft has been named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Container Management.* This is the second year in a row that Microsoft has been named a Leader in this Gartner® Magic Quadrant™, and we believe this recognition reflects the ongoing investment Microsoft has made to support running a broad range of containerized workloads at scale. We want to make Azure the best cloud to run containers, Kubernetes, and support adaptive cloud use cases like hybrid and edge. 

Gartner® recognition of Microsoft as a Leader in this Magic Quadrant™, we feel, highlights the extensive features of our container services, including Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Azure Container Apps. AKS provides a robust platform for deploying, managing, and orchestrating containerized applications with customization and flexibility. Azure Container Apps is a fully managed, serverless container service that offers a developer centric experience. All of Azure Container Services have strong integration with the Azure and Microsoft ecosystem, including developer tools, databases, and AI services. Azure’s application platform delivers the most comprehensive set of capabilities for building intelligent apps, underpinned by robust security and governance. 

A better container management experience

We want to offer the most secure, reliable, and productive container management experience for our customers. This year, we’ve continued to deliver new features to make this experience a reality.

• AKS Automatic (preview) automates AKS cluster setup and management to provide the easiest managed Kubernetes experience for developers, DevOps, and platform engineers.
• Deployment safeguards for AKS (preview) can enforce best practices and policies on Kubernetes clusters—improving security and reliability. 
• Kubernetes AI toolchain operator (KAITO) add-on for AKS (preview) makes it easier to run open-source large language models (LLMs) on Kubernetes by optimizing resource utilization and automating configuration.
• Dynamic sessions in Azure Container Apps (preview) provides fast access to secure, sandboxed environments that are ideal for running code or applications that require strong isolation from other workloads.

Learn more about the latest announcements for AKS and Azure Container Apps from Microsoft Build 2024.

Building solutions with our customers

Our continuing innovation is in service to our customers. We’re thrilled to see how customers are using Azure Container Services to build transformational solutions for their businesses. Below are just a few recent examples:

• Victoria’s Secret & Co. has reached 99.99% availability and increased its deployments and releases from nine per year to roughly 3,300 annually with AKS.
• Sapiens has increased its ability to innovate with AI and reduced development time by adopting AKS and Azure-managed databases. 
• Finastra has achieved more frequent product updates and better performance by migrating from on-premises systems to Windows containers on AKS. 
• Fujitsu’s DXP Cloud, an in-house cloud platform, surfaces Azure capabilities to its users, including Azure Container Apps, to improve developer productivity. 

Innovate with Microsoft

We’re honored to be a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Container Management. We look forward to making our services even better and continuing to help customers to innovate with Azure.

• Explore Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure Container Apps solutions.
• Learn more about building and modernizing intelligent apps on Azure.
• Dive into the AKS community on YouTube, led by the Azure Kubernetes Service team, for the latest product updates.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Container Management, By Dennis Smith, Tony Iams, Michael Warrilow, Wataru Katsurashima, Lucas Albuquerque, 9 September 2024.

*Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.  

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request here. 

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

The post Microsoft named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Container Management appeared first on Microsoft Azure Blog.