Azure Cognitive Services can run already on any Kubernetes cluster, Expanding the Azure Stack portfolio to run hybrid applications across the cloud, datacenters, and the edge, Azure Stack Hub Services are ‘potentially’ being containerized, Azure IoT Hub already can run on any Kubernetes cluster, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is GA on Azure Stack Hub, Managed Azure SQL Instance and Azure Database for PostgreSQL Hyperscale can run on any Kubernetes cluster using Azure Arc, Kubernetes support for Azure Stack Edge has been announced, Kubernetes support for Azure Stack HCI has been announced, Azure App Services will run on any Kubernetes cluster, Azure Event Hub will run on any Kubernetes cluster. The win was that we could utilize hardware better by placing multiple virtual machines (VM’s) on the same hardware. Last year, the Windows Server Software Defined (WSSD) program was already renamed to Azure Stack HCI in conjunction with Windows Server 2019. And notice that when Azure Stack has this features added in the future I would withdraw and reconsider my conclusion. We could use the ‘Service Provider Foundation‘ which is a role installed as webservice that is hooked into your environment and provides an API layer for SCVMM. In summary, when it comes to AWS Outposts vs. Azure Stack or standard hyper-convergence, all three platforms have their merits, without any one being clearly superior to the others. Native VPN gateways in Azure stack has the limitation it can only have 1 S2S tunnel from 1 source address to the same (1) destination address (This is true with the current Azure Stack VPN Gateway design) and Virtual Network (VNET) peering between 2 stamps is not possible. A couple of months ago the Azure team announced a new member of the Azure Stack family called Azure Stack HCI solutions. Azure has long been about abstraction from physical infrastructure. When cloud came along we got Infrastructure as a Service. The last few years have been interesting, especially for a Microsoft infrastructure-oriented guy like me. possibly. Azure Stack Edge- Accelerate machine learning workloads and run cont… Next, the tenant admin then needs to connect those 2 subscriptions in order to achieve high availability between the 2 stamps. The cost of Azure Stack HCI is a combination of the server operating system and the HCI hardware. 2. In the meanwhile I’m active on Twitter, blogs, Github, forums, write tools and speak about all that cool stuff. With Azure Stack you are cloudadmin, but not domain admin, in Azure Stack HCI you are the domain admin of the platform but don’t have the Azure Portal like in Azure Stack. You buy it, build it, maintain it, consume it. Unlike first-generation HCI systems, Azure Stack HCI will provide scalability for both compute and storage. Who knows. We’ve seen the change from just providing virtual machines and storage to the DevOps world and providing platforms in real-time instead of delivering when asked. This could make it a viable replacement for traditional HCI platforms. If we keep using Database-as-a-Service as example and zoom in what Azure Stack Hub manages, it’s only the ARM layer. 3. Conversely, you're responsible for on-premises hardware management with Anthos and two Azure Stack variants -- Azure Stack Hub and Azure Stack HCI. I specialize in Microsoft technologies and focus on Azure Stack HCI, Storage Spaces Direct, Azure Stack Hub, Hyper-V and Microsoft Azure. The tech, which debuted in 2017, effectively allows customers to kick the normally cloud-based Azure into an on-premises data centre. "Azure Stack HCI is the evolution of Windows Server Software-Defined (WSSD) solutions previously available from our hardware partners. The one thing that is missing in the announcements is the ability to manage core infrastructure roles such as compute, network, storage using Azure Arc. Azure Stack [Hub] delivers that consistent experience with Microsoft Azure, providing Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, Azure REST APIs, and client SDKs to your on-premises environment, where the local instance of Azure Resource Manager (ARM) makes the awesomeness sauce. I always keep repeating “Cloud is not a place, it is a model”. Let it sink in for a second.. You can set Azure Tags, Azure Policies, RBAC policies on VMs that run on Azure Stack HCI. I have introduced Azure Stack HCI in the diagram above, in conjunction with the Azure Arc Agent. In my blog Azure Stack’s role in the “Azure: The worlds computer” I mention on the future of Azure Stack and the pitfall. Also the release notes of the 1905 update of Azure Stack show the following: I think a lot of effort is going into the rearchitecting of services to containers, as not much new functionality has been released the past months and also the IoT Hub and Event Hub services have been in preview for some time but have still not been released. 1. Azure Stack HCI is part of the Azure and Azure Stack family, using the same software-defined compute, storage, and networking software as Azure Stack Hub. It’s like a blanket over the on-premises infrastructure enabling everything Azure Resource Manager has to offer.. a much needed blanket for sure. This week Microsoft announced that "Azure in a box" would be getting hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) capabilities with its new Azure Stack HCI solutions.. HCI is typically described as a Windows Server capability, which first appeared with Windows Server 2016.Organizations can use it to run storage, compute and networking operations on a single server in a cluster. Yes folks, System Center might look dead to you, but development is still going and 2019 is just GA’ed. “Azure Stackはクラウドとはいえオンプ レミスにあるのだから自分たちで自由 に基盤をカスタマイズできますよね？” できません。 Azure- Use public cloud services for on-demand, self-service computing resources to migrate and modernize existing apps and to build new cloud-native apps. I still love the Netflix Simian Army story about how they assume failure in their deployment all the time. ThinkAgile MX will offer consumption-based, pay-as-you-go pricing of Azue Stack HCI and Azure Stack Hub. I got asked a lot about how this opinion is formed. At Ignite, the entire Azure Stack team is delighted to host all the partners, service providers, ISVs, and enterprise customers. These Resource Providers talk to the controllers which will execute the operation on the infrastructure, for example to provision a database. The fee is usually a bit higher then when you would ran it your own, as ‘as a service’ also means that the parts driving the service you are consuming, is maintained by the vendor you consume it from. Related: The Real Value of Azure Stack Both Azure Stack and Azure Stack HCI are built on top of server systems from a range of partners. around IaaS makes Azure an good fit to run VM’s in public cloud. With Azure Stack Edge, an appliance that can be deployed in private data centers or edge locations, the hardware is managed by Microsoft just like any other cloud-based service. These services improve the cluster with facets such as cloud-based monitoring, Site Recovery, and VM backups. That said, when you do have cloud native apps that needs to run on IaaS, most likely the redundancy is achieved in the app space. It connects to infrastructure in your own data center or another cloud, whether that’s bare metal, VMs or Kubernetes back to the Azure management infrastructure. Are we only going to be able to deploy and manage Azure Services from Azure to a Kubernetes cluster running on Azure Stack HCI? You are a full admin on the platform and can do all the fancy stuff that an (enterprise) IT department requires in order to operate their business. Then when have to setup a ‘Database Hosting Server’, which is just SQL or MySQL Server running inside a virtual machine, and add it through ARM using the SQL endpoint. Combined with Express Route, a low latency high bandwidth connection, the enterprise scales well to public cloud. The messaging on Azure Stack Hub seems to be more focused on disconnected scenario’s lately: Source: Expanding the Azure Stack portfolio to run hybrid applications across the cloud, datacenters, and the edge. If the last option applies, Azure Backup, and Azure Site Recovery (ASR) wont be an option in most cases as Backup & DR solution. Azure Arc is a brand new way to make use of all management capabilities that Azure has to offer in terms of governance, policies, security. Networking and SDN coexisting side-by-side. Azure Stack [Hub] is delivered as turn-key appliance, meaning you cannot, and should not, manage the hardware or hosts like you normally would in a Hyper-V environment. Next subject is Backup and Disaster Recovery (DR). In the introduction I stated that the key-benefits of Azure Stack Hub from workload perspective are the PaaS services like App Services, Database-as-a-Service, IoT Hub and EventHub, but also IaaS is quickly overlooked but still important. You consume a cloud that is consistent with Azure. Azure Arc can manage that infrastructure. You choose a size and roll it into your datacenter. First, what is ‘as a Service’? Azure Stack HCI is a hyper-converged Windows Server 2019 cluster that uses validated hardware to run virtualized workloads on-premises, optionally … Your email address will not be published. It also comes with its own Resource Providers. I have introduced Azure Stack HCI in the diagram above, in conjunction with the Azure Arc Agent. AKS on Azure Stack HCI significantly simplifies the experience to deploy a Kubernetes host and cluster on-premises. Its the same thing that Azure, just in the last few years is mature enough to serve large enterprise IT with all the governance and security features they have added. Leverage Cisco UCS proven operational advantages: 40% faster infrastructure deployment and 38% reduction in ongoing management costs as compared to other Azure Stack Hub systems. Azure Stack HCI is the new name for the Windows Server Software Defined (WSSD) program, that is a certification program where hardware vendors can certify hardware to run in a optimal configuration Hyper-V and Storage Spaces Direct. Latency, data sovereignty? Now all HCI solutions include what is required for software-defined networking (SDN). So to run mission critical workload (in a monolithic app world) redundancy needs to be achieved in the infrastructure. The hardware and on top of it hyper converged compute, storage and networking is the same layer as Azure Stack is running. Some of those partners provide hardware for both. Azure Stack is one cloudy area where Microsoft enjoys a lead over its arch cloud rival, Amazon. In this development orientated world there is no time for waiting on an IT professional to create a resource for you. I have been looking at all 3 of this solutions and considering Azure Stack Hub and AWS outposts. Not only are we getting REST APIs but also all the security and governance features that Azure Resource Manager includes. Below is a quick summary of the different solutions. The feature to add multiple scale units (aka failover clusters) is on the roadmap. For the enterprise use case I see the same reasons that Azure Stack IaaS is not mature enough yet and Azure Stack HCI might be a better fit. Are you thinking I am going nuts? Nothing compared to the capabilities of ARM, in terms of workload and the consistent experience from a developer perspective with Microsoft Azure. Azure Stack Hub vs HCI vs Edge Azure Stack provides great capabilities to extend your own private or Hybrid data center needs by bringing Azure service experiences to the table. Because… it is important to smile. Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI with R740xd, R740xd2, R640, and R440 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes. It is brought into the Azure Stack family because Microsoft has started to offer new options to connect seamlessly with Azure for infrastructure management services. Supported services (and its my personal one). Azure Stack User Defined Routes: 0.0.0.0/0 and your firewall appliance, Windows Server Software Defined (WSSD) program, Azure Stack’s role in the “Azure: The worlds computer”. We already can manage VMs through Azure Arc, You really thinking we are not going to be able to deploy VMs from Azure to Azure Stack HCI? Or, rather, "extend" Azure on-site. Check out the Azure Stack HCI Catalog to find solutions from your preferred hardware vendor and get started today. If we have traditional enterprise IT, all services like high availability, backup, monitoring, update management, automation etc. And still you can have your local tools to manage that infrastructure yourself if you’d like. In order to achieve this, multiple stamps needs to be deployed. Any infrastructure that can run ‘Azure Services’ in conjunction with Azure Arc can have the same standards as Azure Stack Hub on governance, data sovereignty, application modernization capabilities and so on. Azure Stack HCI includes Lifecycle Management with cluster aware updates to keep your data safe while making the update process simple, safe and minimize disruptions in your hybrid datacenter. Also features such as Azure Extended Network and all the hybrid services Azure is already offering is helping to pave the way. I specialize in Microsoft technologies and focus on Azure Stack HCI, Storage Spaces Direct, Azure Stack Hub, Hyper-V and Microsoft Azure. Lots of reasons to avoid going down the backdoor Hyper-V route (aka Azure on prem) mostly because managing and working with Hyper-V is a miserable trip which ends by reminding you exactly what it must have felt like to be a Windows Sys admin in 2002 while desprately trying to figure out what some nonsensical icon in a GUI actually means.....but vSAN isn't exactly "better". The security and governance layer that ARM introduces is unmatched by any other on-premises solution. I liked the way you put all of this together to look into the crystal ball. You still set up the Resource Provider yourself, setup your SQL infrastructure yourself, manage the Active Directory domain they are a member of yourself and all the maintenance as well such as Windows Updates, product updates etc. No matter where your infrastructure runs. Azure Stack HCI is now a solid addition to the Azure Stack package. You can actually download the software and run it anywhere, but you don’t have a management control pane such as ARM to manage it unless you have Azure Stack Hub running. Also Azure Data Box is being renamed to match the Azure Stack family and is now known as ‘Azure Stack Edge’. Azure Stack Hub is the only solution that can run ‘Azure Services’ completely disconnected. Would love to hear your opinion. Would love to hear your opinion.”, You are nuts, but that has nothing to do with the fact that you have the right vision. Well, the best we have with a traditional Hyper-V environment is System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) where you can deploy virtual machine workloads. Last week the System Center team released a survey on self-service needs, this was one of their questions: I touched a lot of topics this blog, the main direction I’m pointing at is that Microsoft is making infrastructure irrelevant from a cloud consumer perspective. Now that we know how Azure Stack Hub manages the PaaS infrastructure and also know that Arc is leveraging the ARM layer and extends the functionality of ARM to any location, we can connect it to Azure Stack HCI. If you made it all the way here, thank you! In order to understand the purpose of both platforms it comes down to understanding the real difference between IaaS vs virtualization. Azure Stack HCI is a hyper-converged Windows Server 2019 cluster that uses validated hardware to run virtualized workloads on-premises. The cloud was of course the biggest competition for the IT professional, as developers and other departments within the company could consume cloud services very easily, without the IT professional, and create the needed infrastructure themselves. Azure Stack HCI relies on four fundamental components: Hyper-V, Storage Spaces Direct and software-defined networking (SDN) -- specifically, the ones available in Windows Server 2019 Datacenter edition -- and the free management tool Windows Admin Center. Is the role of Azure Stack Hub changing because of this? ThinkAgile VX and VMware. Azure Stack Edge gets the ability to run services on Kubernetes, virtual machines and high availability support. Your email address will not be published. Azure Stack HCI. Azure Stack is delivered today as a single failover cluster. Azure Stack HCI version 20H2 – Part of the Azure Stack portfolio. Azure Stack HCI is a hyper-converged Windows Server 2019 cluster that uses validated hardware to run virtualized workloads on-premises. If we look further into how the Database-as-a-Service in Azure Stack Hub works, we first have to download the Resource Provider software and install it on a virtual machine, after that register the RP in ARM so that ARM and thus the Azure Stack Hub environment is aware of it. Azure Stack is not a product name anymore but a family name where ‘Azure Stack’ the product is renamed to ‘Azure Stack Hub’. Deploy Microsoft Azure Stack Hub on the system designed for cloud: purpose-built for rapid user scalability and remote system deployments. It’s a bit technical now but I conclude the following. Azure Stack HCI is a good fit to answer the virtualization side. But you’ll need internet accessibility for it so it does not work in disconnected scenario’s. And yes, you can run IaaS on Azure Stack. Another difference between Azure Stack on-site or Azure in the cloud and Azure Stack HCI is the medium of consumption. ... Azure Stack vs Azure Stack HCI… March 26 Microsoft announced they added a new member to the Azure Stack family. If we look at public Azure today, I think we can conclude that Azure is an Enterprise ready IaaS platform. If you take the pieces of the puzzle and put them together you can see the picture of Hybrid Cloud in a Microsoft world forming, but not all pieces are there yet.. In time, it may turn out to be a competitor against traditional HCI. Azure Arc is the name of the ‘shell’ that combines the management experiences, ARM and the specific Resource Providers made for Hybrid environments. “Azure Stack HCIのHWにAzure Stack が導入できるんですよね？” できません。 Azure Stack HCIに導入できるのは Windows Serverです。 17. Microsoft manages the software, the vendor the hardware. Initially based on Windows Server 2019, Azure Stack HCI is now delivered as an Azure service with a subscription-based … The Azure Stack HCI catalog pagelists fifteen OEM partners selling "certified" solutions. Azure Stack provides customers choice and flexibility based on their solution needs from consistent hybrid cloud on-premises with Azure Stack Hub that can be connected or disconnected from public cloud, to high-performance virtualization on-premises with Azure Stack HCI or an Azure managed appliance that provides intelligent compute and AI at the edge with Azure Stack Edge. Supermicro Solutions for Azure Stack HCI are perfect hyperconverged solutions for enterprises who plan to update aging servers, consolidate server infrastructure, or run virtual machines on-premises while gaining the benefits of easy access to Azure Hybrid services such as VM backup, cloud-based monitoring, site recovery, etc. In other words, ARM is talking through different layers with SQL and can provision stuff such as databases and accounts. With Azure Stack you are cloudadmin, but not domain admin, in Azure Stack HCI you are the domain admin of the platform but don’t have the Azure Portal like in Azure Stack. Some of you might got confused with the news Microsoft released Azure Stack HCI. The Azure Stack portfolio ranges from Azure Stack Hub, which is an extension of Azure, bringing the agility and innovation of cloud computing to your on-premises environment, to Azure Stack Edge, which brings Azure compute for AI and machine learning at the edge. Azure Stack HCI is a virtualization platform, with all the goodness it comes with it. Here comes into play that the ability to scale up and down when the demand is right, and if managed correctly, huge cost savings can be achieved. ASR from 1 Azure Stack stamp to another stamp is not possible today. Many customers are already using AKS to modernize their apps. Azure Arc is paving the way for environments other than Azure Stack Hub and Azure itself to make use of Azure Resource Manager. At last Ignite (2019) Microsoft introduced rebranding and extensions to this Azure Stack experience as following. When taking a closer look at Azure Arc and the inner workings we can see that Azure Resource Manager (ARM) has specific Resource Providers (RPs) for Arc included and they talk to the Arc agents running wherever. The cloud transformation is a journey and change is the only constant you’ll get! Microsoft is rolling out a preview of Azure Stack HCI v2, which will enable users to run the service on their own servers and include built-in integration with Azure Arc, among other new features. At Ignite 2019, Microsoft is announcing new branding and a new strategy meant to make Azure … Infrastructure as a Service is where you consume infrastructure (Compute, storage, networking) and pay for it as long as you use it. Learn more about Azure Stack Hub at What is Azure Stack Hub. With Azure Stack HCI, in my personal opinion the pitfall part is well served here. For our Azure Stack HCI customers, we are bringing the familiar AKS experience with AKS on Azure Stack HCI. Really Really? Hopefully using API’s and application templates such as ARM templates. So the border to have IaaS really comes down to how flexible you are in the design of the application that you would like to run it on Azure Stack. If this is something you or your company doesn’t want to do, Azure Stack HCI is not for you and you should take a look at Azure Stack Hub or a Service Provider that hosts the infrastructure for you. The hardware and on top of it hyper converged compute, storage and networking is the same layer as Azure Stack is running. Also as earlier mentioned in my blog Azure Stack’s role in the “Azure: The worlds computer” I believe the cause for Azure Stack is more on the PaaS and Intelligent Edge side and fully disconnected scenarios. Virtualization goes way back where we took a physical server and ran it virtualized on dedicated hardware. This is where it gets interesting from an Azure Stack HCI perspective. Azure Stack as we know it since it shipped in 2017, is an appliance you can buy from a hardware vendor including support. Kubernetes support for Azure Stack HCI has been announced . Automatically initialize variables in Azure Functions, Storage Spaces Direct in Azure – Performance. Azure Stack Hub brings Azure Resource Manager and Resource Providers to your datacenter. Why customer choose Azure Stack over Azure? Lenovo did not say when it would be available. Azure Stack [Hub] vs Azure Stack HCI in simple terms Azure Stack HCI is basically a rebranding of Windows Server 2019 configured on a minimum of two systems running Storage Spaces Direct … *Plot twist* Microsoft could position Azure Stack Edge next to Azure Stack HCI eventually, they can do the same: Run infrastructure. Available for purchase right now, there are over 75 Azure Stack HCI solutions from over 15 partners. As stated in the introduction, Microsoft on-premises infrastructure never had a real management service that provided REST APIs and this is where Azure Arc steps in. Cisco and Microsoft have partnered to deliver a solution that accelerates access to data, provides comprehensive data management tools, and is powered by the latest second-generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors to … That all just comes down with the current limitations we face on Azure Stack today as an IaaS platform. My Future predictions: Azure App Services will run on any Kubernetes cluster; Azure Event Hub will run on any Kubernetes cluster . Deploying Kubernetes on-premises is complex. Look no further than Cisco UCS to run Azure Stack HCI. In my experience, a single failover cluster can fail. Right now Azure Arc focusses on the top layer services which run on any infrastructure (because of Kubernetes). In diesem Video findet ihr eine perfekte Erklärung von Cosmos Darwin zu Azure Stack Edge, Azure Stack Hub und Azure Stack HCI. This way you can, for example, configure Role-based Access Control (RBAC) through Azure for VMs that are running on your Hyper-V environment in your basement and tag it as ‘Test server’ using Azure Tags. The big plus is of course the ability to operate disconnected. At Microsoft Ignite 2019 there were a lot of announcements in terms of Azure Stack, especially the rebranding stood out. The other solution could be to route all traffic from stamp 1 back to on premises and then back to stamp 2. They clearly see the opportunity of enabling developers to make use of VMware environments, either running on-premises or hosted by AWS and Azure. With Azure Stack Fiji, Microsoft too aims to offer low-latency capacity fully managed through the Azure fabric — most likely via Azure Arc — while providing access to the hardware infrastructure that Microsoft itself uses to run Azure. In the meanwhile, VMware is bringing an “Azure Resource Manager like” solution called ‘Project Pacific‘ to on-premises based on Kubernetes using Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs). Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) vs Virtualization Azure Arc is bringing a key benefit of Azure Stack Hub to any location, Azure Resource Manager. They are just VMs that you deploy using ARM templates and then point ARM to the endpoint provided. The Azure Stack family now consists of three members, Azure Stack Hub, formerly known as Azure Stack, Azure Stack HCI, and Azure Stack Edge (formerly known as Azure Databox Edge). So these are some of the constrains we see on networking part. This offers customers new capabilities, form factors, and solutions in the Azure Stack portfolio, to ensure that the customer has the right solutions for their edge infrastructure. It seems like all things happening the last year and the announcements on Ignite 2019 are part of a bigger story. HPE Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI offer a choice of ready-to-go validated solution configurations, based on specific HPE ProLiant Servers and components which are tested, optimized, and validated with Windows Server Datacenter’s Storage Spaces Direct to deliver reliable solid performance and high availability for HCI. Microsoft's Hybrid 2.0 strategy: Azure Arc, Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack Edge explained. Azure Stack HCI isn’t just a virtualization platform anymore, it’s becoming a true hybrid cloud solution with the use of ARM through Azure Arc and all the cloud native management and security capabilities. Although Microsoft first attempt at enabling cloud on-premises was Azure Pack, the solution to this has been Azure Stack [Hub] the past years. Required fields are marked *. The same goes for Azure App Services. Solution overview provides an overview of the Dell EMC Microsoft Storage Spaces Ready Nodes offerings built on R740xd, R740xd2 and R640 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node and PowerEdge R440 servers.. Support Matrix provides information about supported firmware … Special thanks to Ben Thomas and Mark Scholman for reviewing this lengthy piece. You just operate it as an appliance. Azure Stack HCI is a hyperconverged cluster that uses validated hardware to run virtualized Windows and Linux workloads on-premises and easily connect to Azure for cloud-based backup, recovery, and monitoring. One of us made a reference to the “will it blend” videos that were a hit in the early Youtube days, that made me smile. Family of three now, many more to come? It extends very well as an hybrid cloud to Azure where the following services can be consumed to manage Azure Stack HCI and the vm’s hosted on it:– Azure Backup– Azure Site Recovery– Azure Monitor– Azure Update Management– Azure Security Center– Azure Network Adapter– Azure Cloud WitnessIf desired you can go full private cloud only and use Windows Admin Center or even System Center to manage it. Azure Stack is the platform to build cloud native apps. On top of that Azure Stack HCI can run any ‘Azure Services’ that has Kubernetes support. Some might say it is just a marketing term and I agree, it is not IaaS, but still I believe a better fit for VM’s then Azure Stack IaaS. It is running its own instance of ARM per Azure Stack Hub deployment. If they are going to support high availability that must mean that they are going to support multiple nodes running the same service, maybe even in a cluster. So (expensive) 3th party virtual network appliances have to be deployed in order to achieve this. According to ZDNet, the Azure Arc introduction is what Mark Russinovich is considering  “a huge part of what we’re calling Hybrid 2.0.,” while ZDNet states that Azure Stack Hub was Microsoft’s Hybrid 1.0 play. I am working with some developers to check if their code would work on Azure Stack Hub App Service. Microsoft Azure is using the same concepts, probably not the exact same software for the RP, but the concept is very similar. I think we can safely state that the Azure Stack family supports a true hybrid cloud solution.But, with Azure Stack HCI you still manage the infrastructure yourself. The primary advantage here is that Azure Stack HCI connects VMs to a variety of Azure cloud services. In this blog post I will describe the differences and how to position both platforms. Same has to be achieved with 3th party tooling. Do you really want to do so today? An Azure Stack system comes pre-configured with a specific list of hardware, including network switches – in most cases a rack system plus a top-of-rack … We need to provide endpoints so that developers can use infrastructure-as-code solutions, talk to API’s to provision infrastructure and so on. . For more information, see Comparing the Azure Stack ecosystem. Azure Stack HCI. 2. The major components of the Azure Stack HCI are the hypervisor, the software-defined storage (SDS). In the meanwhile I’m active on Twitter, blogs, Github, forums, write tools and speak about all that cool stuff. “Are you thinking I am going nuts? You consume X (whatever is offered as the service) and you pay for it as long as you use it. The fact that it can also be managed centrally with a platform like Arc is also very useful. With virtualization we took our monolithic app running on hardware and transformed it into a virtual machine and ran it 24/7. Cloud native application development is about assume failure. We welcome everyone in our sessions as well as in the Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack HCI and Azure Stack Edge booths. The word got out last September about Project Saturn, to quote ZDNet: “Microsoft’s ‘Project Saturn’ is an effort to rearchitect its Azure Stack hybrid computing platform and, possibly one day, to allow key Azure services and APIs to run anywhere.”. The key advantage of Azure Stack [Hub] over your on-premises Hyper-V environment from a workload perspective is that it comes with PaaS providers, enabling consumers of Azure Stack [Hub] to benefit from services like Azure App Services, Database-as-a-Service, IoT Hub and EventHub. My opinion is that when multi scale units and improved Backup / DR arrives we have a way more solid story for the IaaS on Azure Stack. Bringing Azure Arc into Azure Stack HCI makes a lot of sense. Azure Arc brings the cloud model to any place. This is where it gets interesting from an Azure Stack HCI perspective. Optionally, it allows customers to connect Azure services .