Introducing

Figure 3-1: Diagram showing the three pillars for an application platform
First, you can secure the fabric to protect virtual machines (VMs) and enhance existing apps
immediately with Windows Server 2016, by taking advantage of enhanced security and management
features in the fabric. For example, you can use shielded VMs to help secure your critical applications
to run only on trusted fabrics. You can limit administrator access to specific tasks by using Just
Enough Administration (JEA) and specific time limits with Just-in-Time (JIT) administration.
More info For more detail about shielded VMs, JEA, and JIT administration, read the discussion in
Chapter 4.
Second, you can containerize existing apps and move your traditional applications into a modern
DevOps environment with little or no code changes. You can gain benefits such as consistency across
development, test, and production by using the same tooling, which facilitates rapid deployments,
continuous integration, and continuous delivery, all with better security. You can use containers to
gain control and consistency by enabling apps that you can deploy on-premises, to any cloud, or in a
hybrid architecture across clouds. For an additional layer of isolation, you can deploy your app in a
Hyper-V Container, which packages the same container image in a Hyper-V Container, which uses the
hypervisor to provide an additional level of isolation.
Third, you can build cloud-native and hybrid apps. Windows Server 2016 is suited to Agile methods
for building cloud-native applications with microservices architectures. With Nano Server’s
deployment model, you can build offline customized operating system (OS) images highly optimized
for your application, providing a fast-booting, tiny OS that achieves higher density while exposing a
reduced attack surface.
Microsoft wants you to create your best app, whether it’s written by using the Microsoft .Net
Framework or open-source frameworks such as .Net Core and Node.JS. Using proven Microsoft Azure
Service Fabric technology along with Windows Server 2016, you can build always-on, scalable, and
distributed applications and run them in Azure, on-premises, or in a hybrid environment. You can
combine the benefits of containers with Nano Server, Service Fabric, and the proven Windows Server
platform to achieve business agility with cloud apps.
Ultimately, the choice will depend on each customer’s needs and the application being developed, but
Windows Server 2016 offers multiple options with which you can move forward into a cloud-ready
infrastructure with minimal investment.
Microservices
When it came to applications built for the web, we generally moved away from traditional n-tier
architectures toward Services-Oriented Architecture (SOA). This was no easy task and put a lot of
customers off rewriting their applications. SOA breaks down an application into components, which
communicate with one another via some communication protocol.
It could be said that SOA is the forefather of microservices, given that microservices breaks down even
further to smaller components that each live and run as an individual process and communicate with
one another in a language-agnostic fashion.
88 CHAPTER 3 | Application platform