Microsoft’s Azure Container Service (ACS) is now Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS)

At the Build 2018, Microsoft announced that its Azure Container Service (ACS), its managed Kubernetes service is now Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), which is currently in preview and will soon be generally available. AKS is also a part of the Kubernetes Conformance Program, which is a certification program run by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

The Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) adds automated support for upgrades and scaling capabilities. It also includes self-healing aspects that aims to make spinning up containers on Kubernetes easier for developers.

Developers now have added advantages with AKS, which include:

A DevOps Project support for AKS : Now, with a few clicks developers can create a new AKS cluster, containerize their applications, deploy with a VSTS CI/CD pipeline, and view integrated App Insights telemetry with the DevOps project.

New Azure Portal experience for AKS : This includes AKS create and browse experiences inside the Azure Portal, which makes it easier for cluster operators to configure and manage Kubernetes.

Some features of AKS

Custom VNET with Azure CNI : AKS now supports deploying Kubernetes nodes into custom VNETs using Azure CNI, with configurable IP ranges for Kubernetes networking components.

Integration with Azure Monitor : AKS is now integrated directly into Azure Monitor for control plane telemetry, log aggregation, and container health monitoring. This provides operational visibility into one’s Kubernetes environment directly from the Azure portal.

HTTP application routing : AKS also supports exposing public applications natively, using an Azure-integrated Kubernetes ingress controller. With this, customers can access their applications without having to configure DNS records and nameservers.

Microsoft has also introduces a new Dev Spaces capability. With the AKS and the Dev Spaces, all a new developer needs is their IDE and the Azure CLI. The developers can simply create a new Dev Space inside AKS and can begin working on any component of their microservice environment safely, without impeding production traffic flows. Dev Spaces for AKS makes developing against a complex microservices environment simple. It is now available in private preview.

To know more about the AKS in detail, visit Microsoft Azure Blog.

Here is a quick recap of what happened at Day 1 of the Microsoft Build Conference 2018, if you are interested.