Dive Brief:

• Docker announced Monday that its containers now run natively on Windows Server 2016.
• The change means developers will more easily be able to move on-prem apps to the cloud, according to a Docker announcement. 
• "As Linux and Windows apps and servers are dockerized, developers and IT-pros can bridge the operating system divide with shared Docker terminology and interfaces for managing and evolving complex microservices deployments both on-prem and in the cloud," wrote Docker product manager Michael Friis.

Dive Insight:

Docker running containers on Windows is the result of a two-year collaboration with Microsoft, Friis said. 

Containers allow developers and IT teams to deploy apps at scale faster and more efficiently. Until recently, containers were used primarily for cloud-native app development, but last fall, Dave Bartoletti, a principal analyst with Forrester, predicted enterprise adoption in the data center was on the rise, and that prediction appears to be coming true.

A recent survey from Lightbend found that more enterprises are looking to adopt container technology. Of the 2,151 Java Virtual Machine developers surveyed, 22% reported they were already testing containers for production deployment. Half of the respondents said they were either experimenting with or at least evaluating the technology.