ASP.NET vNEXT, Docker, and the Future of Application Development and Deployment

It's been an impressive year so far in the realms of software development and deployment, especially with

• ASP.NET vNEXT enabling per-application bundling of not only the .NET runtime but even the CLR needed for your app
• Docker standardizing the software delivery process by use of Linux containers (runs on Windows in a VM), (here's A Docker ‘Hello World' With Mono)
• and now Microsoft announcing native Docker Support for Windows Server

Now, it took me a while to understand that we're witnesses of nothing less than a revolution in software development.

The Vision: Build Your App Anywhere, Bundle It, and Run It Anywhere (Else)

The clouds have been with us for a couple of years now and have started to provide real benefit beyond "moving your stuff to somewhere else". What's emerging now, with Docker and also the new ASP.NET runtime bundling, is something completely new: Application Containers. They don't have either specific OS requirements – Docker will be supported natively on Windows Server soon, ASP.NET runs on Linux today – nor need they a specific technology stack installed on the target machine (as with PaaS) because they bring all of the necessary runtime along. But they're also not large VMs bundled with your application, which carry a significant maintenance overhead (when using IaaS). Virtualized application containers are the sweet spot between IaaS and PaaS. Go ahead and read that post – it's eye-opening.