Understanding ACI
As we all know, containers are quickly becoming the go-to way to build cloud-native applications. With this fast innovation, we need a way to run containers in the cloud quickly and with no steep learning curve. This is where ACI comes into play. It is the fastest and simplest way to run both Linux and Windows containers in Azure. ACI even guarantees that your container is as isolated as it would be running in a VM. Unlike running a container in a VM, with ACI, you don’t have to manage any underlying operating system, hardware, or patching that comes with running servers.
As mentioned in this chapter’s introduction, ACI has numerous integrations with Microsoft Azure, but it has another trick up its sleeve: it can also be integrated with the Docker CLI. This is perfect for developers whose machines might not be up to the task of running multiple containers. By setting the Docker context to ACI via the command line, you automatically create an ACI when...
