We’re proud to announce that Microsoft has once again been recognized as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Container Management, for the third year in a row. We believe this recognition reflects the breadth, innovation, and real-world customer impact of our container portfolio.
From Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Azure Container Apps (ACA) to our hybrid and multi cloud solutions with Azure Arc, Microsoft offers a comprehensive container management solution that meets customers where they are, whether they’re modernizing legacy applications, building cloud-native apps, or scaling the next generation of AI apps and agents.
A comprehensive container portfolio, from cloud to edge
Azure offers a broad set of container management capabilities designed to support both developers and IT operators. AKS is a robust and flexible managed Kubernetes service that runs in Azure and can also extend to on-premises environments through Azure Arc and Azure Local. For teams that want serverless simplicity, Azure offers Azure Container Apps with scale-to-zero, serverless GPUs, and the ability to run sand-boxed code.
This flexible approach, ranging from full control with AKS to ease of use with serverless containers, is tightly integrated with Azure’s broader cloud services, including networking, databases, and AI. It gives teams a unified platform that improves developer experience, enables faster AI innovation, and simplifies operations.
Developer experience: Build and ship faster
Modern application development starts with empowering developers. We’ve focused on improving the developer experience across the entire container lifecycle.
- AKS Automatic (preview) streamlines Kubernetes for developers by provisioning production‑ready, secure, and automatically managed AKS clusters including node provisioning, scaling, upgrades, and CI/CD integration.
- Automated deployments for AKS simplifies application delivery by seamlessly pushing code changes to AKS using GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps.
- Developer tools like the Azure Developer CLI, Visual Studio Code AKS extension, and GitHub Actions make it easier to develop locally, integrate with CI/CD, and deploy to production.
- GitHub Copilot, used by over 20M developers, brings generative AI seamlessly into container workflows, accelerating tasks like writing Kubernetes manifests, Dockerfiles, and CI/CD configs.
We’re also investing in DevSecOps across our services, enabling seamless integration of security, testing, and governance into developer pipelines. Microsoft Defender for Containers, policy-based governance via Azure Policy, and RBAC help teams enforce standards without slowing down innovation.
AI innovation: Building the next wave of AI apps
Containers are the foundation for modern applications, including AI and machine learning workflows. Microsoft has continued to focus on making it easier to run AI workloads in containerized environments.
- AKS supports GPU-optimized containers, enabling customers to train and deploy models in the cloud or at the edge. Integration with Azure Machine Learning helps streamline model lifecycle management.
- Azure Container Apps serverless GPUs allow teams to deploy inferencing workloads efficiently, with scale-to-zero and per-second billing.
- Microsoft is also contributing to open innovation in this space, including through KAITO (Kubernetes AI Toolchain Operator), a CNCF sandbox project that simplifies deploying open-source models on Kubernetes.
- Azure AI Foundry provides easy access to over 11 thousand models, including OpenAI GPT-4o and Meta’s Llama, for building secure, scalable AI apps.
These capabilities help organizations run AI workloads more cost-effectively, securely, and at scale.
Operational simplicity: Kubernetes that just works
Running containers at scale often requires deep operational insight. We’ve delivered several enhancements to help platform and operations teams reduce complexity and improve efficiency.
- Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager enables policy-driven governance and workload orchestration across multiple AKS clusters—including multi-cluster updates—simplifying platform management at enterprise scale.
- With node auto-provisioning, AKS can automatically select and scale the most cost-effective VM sizes to match workload demands, removing guesswork and helping control costs.
- Azure Advisor offers AKS cost recommendations designed to identify cost savings opportunities and provide actionable insights tailored to your cluster configuration.
- Azure Arc streamlines edge and multicloud ops with unified Kubernetes management using GitOps, policy automation, and built-in Azure tools.
Our goal is to make running Kubernetes as frictionless as possible, whether customers are managing a single cluster or a global fleet.
Customers are achieving more with Azure container management
Organizations of all sizes and industries are using Azure to modernize apps, drive AI innovation, and improve operational agility:
- ChatGPT, the fastest-growing app, scales AI workloads globally to 500M weekly users leveraging Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure GPU VMs.
- Telefônica Brasil has reduced call center handling time by 9% while reliably managing over 5.3 million monthly queries with their intelligent I.Ajuda platform, built on AKS.
- The Coca-Cola Company launched an immersive, AI-powered holiday campaign across 43 markets using Azure Container Apps and Azure AI Foundry, engaging over 1 million consumers in just 60 days with sub-millisecond performance.
- Hexagon modernized its SDx platform with AKS, enabling dynamic scaling and zero‑downtime deployments that cut task processing times from days to under an hour, resulting in over 90% faster customer onboarding.
- Delta Dental of California modernized its payment system with a hybrid Azure Kubernetes solution managed via Azure Arc, reducing infrastructure costs and ensuring compliance while handling 1.5 million daily transactions.
These examples underscore how Azure’s container management services are helping businesses move faster, operate more efficiently, and deliver better customer experiences.
Looking ahead
We’re honored to be recognized again as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Container Management, but we’re even more energized by what’s next.
In the coming months, expect continued investments in:
- Simplifying fleet and multi-cluster operations.
- Expanding AKS to smaller footprint edge environments.
- Enhancing AI-powered cloud management experiences.
Our mission remains the same: to make building, operating, and scaling containerized applications easier, more intelligent, and more secure.
Learn more
- Explore Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager, and Azure Container Apps.
- Learn more about building and modernizing AI apps on Azure.
- Dive into the AKS community on YouTube, led by the Azure Kubernetes Service team, for the latest product updates.
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Container Management, By Dennis Smith, Tony Iams, Wataru Katsurashima, Michael Warrilow, Lucas Albuquerque, Stephanie Bauman, 6 August 2025.
*Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request here.
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