Windows SQL Server Containers
Data environments for DevOps, Continuous Integration, and geographically distributed teams.
Windocks is known for unique Windows SQL Server containers.
SQL Server containers are created and delivered in seconds and are identical to a conventionally installed instance, ensuring compatibility with Active Directory, and all other software and infrastructure. Over the past 10 years enterprises including Novartis, American Family Insurance, and many more have come to prefer containers for dev/test and lower level environments. Up to 50 or more containers run on a single VM, allowing for simplified infrastructure, and reduced support and maintenance.
SQL Server containers combined with database cloning delivers complete dev/test environments on demand, and are ideal for database DevOps and Continuous Integration.
- All releases of SQL Server 2008 onward
- Database engine, Integration, Analysis, Agent, and Reporting
- Compatible with Active Directory and all other infrastructure
- Scales to 50 or more containers on a VM
Geographically distributed teams
The pandemic surfaced the need for support for remote workers and teams. Containers have proven themselves with Active Directory or cloud based authentication, for remote access to isolated containers
Writable snapshots and point-in-time environments
Windocks SQL Server containers are also unique in supporting writable snapshots. A developer, for example, completed work on a production bug and needs to share the environment for further testing. The environment is simply saved or snapshotted, creating a new image that is cloned and shared with the team.
Windocks SQL Server cloning also supports delivery of near real-time production environments, or point in time environments, using transaction log backups. Improve your customer experience with improved production debug and support, with production environments available on demand.
Linux Database Containers
Windocks supports Oracle, Postgre, MySQL, and other Linux environments. Oracle support scales to databases of 50 TB or more with production stand by instances, with near real-time and timeline based environments.
Safe, compliant, business-ready data
Windocks containers are always paired with database cloning, and synthetic data based data masking. The result are images and delivered environments with built-in data compliance and privacy.
Windocks also provides comprehensive audit logs, simplifying annual audit support.
Concepts in stateless applications and microservices
Containers - Containers are isolated lightweight processes running applications or microservices on different ports on a single machine. Containers are delivered from images which are built with all the software and information needed to deliver the containers.
Kubernetes - Kubernetes is a container orchestration system that runs multiple containers from multiple images in a cluster of machines.
Containers are used in dev, test, staging, production environments to run applications or services. An image is built, containers from that image are delivered into dev, test environments and as the containers pass tests in these environments, the build is promoted to staging and then production.
There is widespread use of containers for running stateless applications and microservices. Technologies such as docker enable delivery of containers with the application or microservice from images. For example, you can build an image of a .Net application using a dockerfile by specifying the version of .Net you use, the files that are needed to build the application/service, and the dotnet command to run. Once the image is built with docker, you can create containers, each running that service. Docker takes care of instrumenting all the dependencies, the files and starting the service in each container.
