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Get the advantages of both the cloud and on-premises with Azure Stack HCI

Level: 200
Publishing date: 03-Jan-2023
Author: Catalin Popa

Introduction:

When it comes to IT infrastructure, organizations often face a difficult decision - whether to use cloud services or on-premises infrastructure. The cloud provides scalability, flexibility, and easy access to resources, while on-premises infrastructure provides control, security, and compliance. With Azure Stack HCI, Microsoft has combined the best of both worlds to provide a hybrid infrastructure solution that meets the needs of modern businesses.

What is Azure Stack HCI?

Azure Stack HCI is a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solution from Microsoft that combines the advantages of cloud services with the control of on-premises infrastructure. It is a fully integrated, software-defined system that includes compute, storage, and networking resources. Azure Stack HCI can run on-premises or in the cloud, and it is built on the same technology as Microsoft Azure, the company's cloud computing platform.

Advantages of Azure Stack HCI:
  1. Scalability: Azure Stack HCI allows organizations to scale their infrastructure up or down based on their needs. They can easily add or remove resources as their workload changes.
  2. Control: With Azure Stack HCI, organizations have complete control over their infrastructure. They can customize it to meet their specific needs and ensure compliance with their security and regulatory requirements.
  3. Flexibility: Azure Stack HCI provides the flexibility to run workloads on-premises or in the cloud. This allows organizations to choose the deployment option that best meets their needs.
  4. Cost-effective: Azure Stack HCI is a cost-effective solution that helps organizations reduce their infrastructure costs. It eliminates the need for separate compute, storage, and networking resources, which can be expensive to maintain.
  5. High availability: Azure Stack HCI provides high availability through built-in failover and redundancy features. This ensures that organizations can keep their workloads running without interruption.

What are the differences between Azure Stack and Azure Stack HCI?

In the past, Azure Stack was a single product, but now it has become a family of products that includes Azure Stack Edge, Azure Stack HCI, and Azure Stack Hub.
Azure Stack Edge is a useful tool for machine learning at the edge or for network data transfer between the edge and the cloud.

On the other hand, as previously mentioned, Azure Stack HCI is an ideal solution for modernizing on-premises infrastructure and offering scalable virtualization and storage. It provides the ability to run your own private, connected or disconnected cloud using Azure services on-premises, which is particularly useful for "air gapped" networks.

What types of data are being sent by Azure Stack HCI to Microsoft?

Regarding the data that Azure Stack HCI sends to Microsoft, it is necessary for the system to communicate with Azure at least once every 30 days. However, it does not send virtual machine names, configurations, or content of resources to the cloud, unless you are using services like Azure Backup or Azure Site Recovery and have specifically chosen to send that information.

The only data that Azure Stack HCI sends to Azure is diagnostic data. It collects and sends data that helps keep your HCI clusters up to date, secure, and functioning correctly. The collected data is kept for 90 days in a US-based Azure data center.

The diagnostic data collected by Azure Stack HCI includes details about servers, such as operating system version, processor model, and memory size, a list of installed Azure Stack HCI server features, and information to measure the reliability of Hyper-V, among other data. A comprehensive list of the collected data can be found here.

Use cases for Azure Stack HCI:
  1. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI): Azure Stack HCI can be used to create a VDI environment that provides employees with secure, remote access to their desktops and applications.
  2. Disaster recovery: Azure Stack HCI can be used to create a disaster recovery site that is fully integrated with the organization's primary infrastructure.
  3. Edge computing: Azure Stack HCI can be used to provide compute, storage, and networking resources at the edge of the network. This is useful for organizations that need to process data close to the source, such as in a manufacturing facility or a retail store.

Conclusion

Azure Stack HCI is a hybrid infrastructure solution that combines the advantages of cloud services with the control of on-premises infrastructure. It provides organizations with the scalability, flexibility, and control they need to run their workloads effectively.

With built-in failover and redundancy features, Azure Stack HCI ensures high availability and helps organizations reduce their infrastructure costs. Whether organizations are looking to create a VDI environment, a disaster recovery site, or an edge computing solution, Azure Stack HCI provides a versatile and cost-effective solution.

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