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When comes to Application Modernisation, we can’t argue that Containers are leading the way.  With Containers you can wrap up an application into its own isolated box meaning that app will have no knowledge of any other applications or processes that exist outside of its box.

With Containers, you can wrap up a monolithic application or create a more modern approach: a microservice-based architecture, in which the application is built on a collection of services that can be developed, tested, deployed, and versioned independently, which is perfect for mission-critical application scenarios.

Monolithic deployment versus the microservices approach. Image Source: Microsoft Docs (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/microservices-architecture/architect-microservice-container-applications/microservices-architecture)

If you own the app source code and are on a optimisation path, I would recommend the microservices approach, which allows agile changes and rapid iteration allowing you to change specific areas of complex, large, and scalable applications. But if do not have the source code or breaking the application code in to small pieces it is not feasible, you still can look at Containers as away to modernize the app. Either way, you also need to consider: Automation, Management, High-Availability, Networking, Scalability, Upgrades and Monitoring requirements.

Automating and Managing Containers:

The task of automating and managing a large number of containers and how they interact is known as orchestration. Azure offers two container orchestrators: Azure Container Service (AKS) and Service Fabric.

Azure Container Service (AKS) makes it simple to create, configure, and manage a cluster of virtual machines that are preconfigured to run containerized applications. This enables you to maintaining application portability through Kubernetes and the Docker image format.

Azure Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that makes it easy to package, deploy, and manage scalable and reliable microservices and containers. Service Fabric addresses the significant challenges in developing and managing cloud native applications.  Service Fabric reresents the next-generation platform for building and managing these enterprise-class, tier-1, cloud-scale applications running in containers.

Modernize existing .NET applications with Azure cloud and Windows Containers Guide/eBook

Microsoft released a guide to help learn how you could move your existing .NET Framework server-applications directly to the cloud by modernizing specific areas, without re-architecting or recoding entire applications. You can download this eBook in multiple formats, too:

.PDF format: https://aka.ms/liftandshiftwithcontainersebook
.MOBI (Kindle) format: https://aka.ms/liftandshiftwithcontainersebookmobi
.EPUB (eReader) format: https://aka.ms/liftandshiftwithcontainersebookepub

For more detailed Information on Containers and Microservices, check out :

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/about/
• https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2017/08/02/microservices-and-docker-containers-architecture-patterns-and-development-guidance/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/microservices-architecture/architect-microservice-container-applications/microservices-architecture
• https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2017/11/01/modernize-existing-net-apps-with-windows-containers-and-azure/