Docker has extended its collaboration with Microsoft to simplify code to cloud application development for developers and development teams by more closely integrating with Azure Container Instances (ACI).

The deeper collaboration includes tighter integration with Visual Studio Code (VS Code). It will enable developers to quickly start new language-specific projects (Node.js, Python, .NET Core/C#), leverage new functionality around the Compose Specification and streamline how they switch from local development to a serverless cloud container service while remaining in the Docker CLI user interface or from within VS Code, Docker said.

Together, Docker and Microsoft aim to work on an easy, friction-free developer experience from local VS Code and Docker Desktop development to remote deployment in ACI.

As Scott Johnston, chief executive officer, Docker, puts it, “Extending our strategic relationship with Microsoft will further reduce the complexity of building, sharing and running cloud-native, microservices-based applications for developers. Docker and VS Code are two of the most beloved developer tools and we are proud to bring them together to deliver a better experience for developers building container-based apps for Azure Container Instances.”

Here’s how developers can benefit from this integration between Docker and Microsoft developer technologies:

• Easily log into Azure directly from the Docker CLI
• Trigger an ACI cloud container service environment to be set up automatically with easy to use defaults and no infrastructure overhead
• Switch from a local context to a cloud context to quickly and easily run applications
• Simplifies single container and multi-container application development via the Compose specification allowing a developer to invoke fully Docker compatible commands for the first time natively within a cloud container service
• Provides developer teams the ability to share their work through Docker Hub by sharing their persistent collaborative cloud development environments where they can do remote pair programming and real-time collaborative troubleshooting

Docker customers can expect to see the integration with Azure generally available in the second half of 2020.