Microsoft Smart Cloud Releases Multiple Hybrid Cloud Services and Feature Updates in China

Microsoft Intelligent Cloud announced that it will release a series of hybrid cloud services and feature updates in China, including the Azure Stack HCI 22H2 version, which will be previewed in the second half of this year, Azure Arc-enabled Servers, Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes public preview version, and application-specific Relevant updates to programs, data, and machine learning services to better stimulate technological innovation in on-premises data centers, multi-cloud environments, and edge devices to meet the needs of enterprises to improve business operations and create agile development processes in multi-cloud environments.

Microsoft's Global Hybrid Cloud Strategy: Converging Hybrid Cloud, Multicloud and Edge Computing

As one of the first manufacturers to propose hybrid cloud, Microsoft's global hybrid cloud strategy has also been continuously updated - from the beginning, it has opened up public clouds and private clouds, allowing data and applications to be shared between public clouds and private clouds, and has evolved to later development. Out of the overall unification of the architecture and operating system. Correspondingly, Microsoft's intelligent cloud Azure also ensures the security, operation and governance of infrastructure, data and applications in hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments through Azure Stack (Hub), Azure Stack HCI, and Azure Arc.

Enterprises have a wide variety of application and security needs that require innovation and deployment anytime, anywhere. Azure Arc brings Azure security and cloud-native services to hybrid and multi-cloud environments with Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance (Business Critical), Azure Arc-enabled Machine Learning (Preview), Azure Arc-enabled Open Service Mesh, and Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance (Business Critical), Azure Arc-enabled Machine Learning (Preview) Landing zone accelerator for Arc-enabled Kubernetes, protect and manage enterprise infrastructure and applications anytime, anywhere, help enterprises to build cloud-native applications at scale at any location, run Azure data and machine learning services anywhere, and achieve unification across hybrid and multi-cloud Security, flexible to meet the needs of supervision and cloud connection.

At the same time, Microsoft announced the launch of the Azure Stack HCI single-node version of the solution, where the use of a single server can minimize hardware and software costs in locations that can allow for lower resiliency. A single server also allows initial small-scale deployments, which can be Add servers to this deployment to scale out. To simplify collaboration and provide consistent control across all environments, Microsoft is also rolling out a new version of System Center VMM globally, which can be used to manage Azure Stack HCI clusters and cluster groups, as well as Windows Server 2022 physical server and virtual machine management, and extends to Supports virtual machine management for Windows 11.

Localized innovation and practice of Microsoft's hybrid intelligent multi-cloud strategy

Currently, the hybrid deployment of public and private clouds has become the norm for most enterprises. In particular, large enterprises are accelerating the speed of cloud application. Their core business and business privacy data use private cloud. At the same time, they also use the characteristics of public cloud to innovate collaborative applications and new services. Enterprise IT has a high demand for hybrid cloud deployment. To a large extent, it has driven the development of hyper-converged infrastructure, especially in China. The IDC report shows that China's hyper-converged HCI market has maintained rapid growth. In the fourth quarter of 2021, China's hyper-converged storage system (HCI) market share increased by 30.4% year-on-year. Hybrid cloud has also become an important driver of hyper-converged technology innovation and development force.

In response to the technical requirements and scenario-based applications of China's hybrid cloud market, Microsoft Azure China has released a series of service and function updates, and will soon launch the public preview versions of Azure Arc-enabled Servers and Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes. Azure Arc-enabled Servers enable businesses to manage Windows and Linux physical servers outside of Azure, as well as virtual machines hosted on corporate networks or other cloud providers. Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes allows enterprises to conduct unified management and scheduling operations for Kubernetes clusters running anywhere, and supports unified release and change of applications; the "anywhere" mentioned here includes running in the enterprise's local data center Kubernetes environments (Azure Stack HCI or a friend's private cloud platform), and managed-type Kubernetes environments running on other public cloud providers.

Today, in on-premises data centers, multi-cloud environments and edge devices, enterprises can use Azure Arc and Azure Stack HCI to innovate anytime, anywhere, and achieve technological innovation in three scenarios: edge sites, data center modernization, and migration of Windows Server and SQL Server to the cloud.

For edge sites in digital factories, retail stores, branch offices, life sciences and other industry scenarios, Azure Hybrid Cloud has the advantages of high availability, strong system robustness, scalability, low cost, and easy security and risk management, helping customers reduce For IT support pressure at each site, containerized innovation at edge sites, SKF Group is one of the customers benefiting from the Azure Hybrid Cloud. SKF Group, the world's leading supplier of bearings, seals and lubrication systems, faces enormous challenges such as local environment computing power, business system availability, safety compliance, and management requirements in the process of transforming traditional factories into digital factories. With the help of Azure Stack HCI, SKF China has enhanced the factory-side edge computing capabilities, strengthened security guarantees, and ensured the stable operation of applications; at the same time, with the cloud capabilities of Azure, SKF China has achieved overall operation management, backup and disaster recovery, and flexible use of resources. , and gradually use the data analysis services and AI capabilities of the cloud platform to achieve business innovation, accelerate factory intelligence, and create a hybrid cloud architecture for SKF's future factories. Currently, Microsoft is helping SKF China launch the solution in multiple factories.

By applying a hybrid and multi-cloud strategy, Microsoft can effectively modernize on-premises data centers. Azure hybrid cloud provides a wide range of hardware support, and its hyper-converged architecture is easy for enterprises to operate and maintain; for those regulated industries, business data and key services can be run under the cloud; rich Azure hybrid services allow enterprises to enjoy managed "" "Healthy" service; high IOPS performance provides ideal user experience and services for enterprises. In addition, Azure Hybrid Cloud can implement innovative PaaS services on the public cloud, innovate applications and data such as containers and data PaaS services, and bring consistent management experience on and off the cloud.

As the Group's business moves to the cloud, the local data centers of Almatis' branches also need to be modernized. Azure Stack HC provides Ammann with a hybrid cloud solution that can flexibly support its global architecture. On the basis of reducing operation and maintenance risks, the hybrid cloud solution greatly improves its IT maintenance efficiency and builds a hyper-converged connection between the present and the future. Architecture system to reduce TCO. When the data center is expanded to the cloud, you can choose to pay on demand, and it also provides full life cycle support after one-stop purchase, providing higher reliability and providing new momentum for the development of Ammann's global business.

For Windows Server and SQL Server migration to the cloud, Azure Hybrid Cloud is an option provided by Microsoft for the application scenarios that cannot be migrated to the public cloud platform. Considering that the Windows Server 2012/SQL Server 2012 series products are about to exit the support cycle, Then Azure Stack HCI is the best local support platform. Customers can perform free extended security updates without software upgrades to ensure SA; from a technical point of view, Azure Stack HCI is optimized for the high-performance operation of SQL databases, and at the same time Consistent with the Azure public cloud, it provides the latest functions such as hot patches and SMB over QUIC for Windows Server virtual machines, and can use Azure Arc to achieve system security and compliance governance. Microsoft hopes to achieve new breakthroughs in this direction.

Microsoft's Hybrid Intelligence Multicloud-Related Service Updates Focus on Cloud Infrastructure and Data Insights

In terms of hybrid cloud infrastructure and local service innovation, Azure Stack HCI and Azure Arc will also usher in a number of functional and service updates.

The Azure Stack HCI 22H2 release will be available in the second half of 2022. Azure Stack HCI is a flexible hyperconverged infrastructure based on modern subscription services and one of the important bearer products of Azure hybrid cloud. Based on its hardware and software security technologies, enterprises can modernize data centers and innovate edge applications. Leveraging a 2-node solution, or even the latest single-node solution, can achieve lower costs and provide a centralized management solution. Since its July 2020 release, the Azure Stack HCI system has been extensively tested and continuously improved in industries such as retail, education, healthcare, motorsport and more. Customer feedback shows that this hyper-converged system has achieved good performance in application scenarios such as enterprise branches, retail stores, and front-line work environments. It can provide enterprise-level remote desktop services, high-availability virtual machines, and integrated scalable storage. Better support the needs of large-scale virtualized applications.

Azure Stack HCI provides three advantages that help enterprises run virtual machines on-premises and easily connect to Azure hybrid cloud services. First, the Azure Hybrid Design, which integrates natively with Azure services and is centrally managed from the Azure portal. In addition, unified Azure subscription billing enables regular access to feature and security updates; second, software-defined infrastructure, this updated version is a high-performance hyperconverged foundation based on Hyper-V, Storage Spaces Direct, and network controllers Architecture, but also through software-defined integration of server infrastructure for computing, storage and networking; third, access to Microsoft-proven HCI solutions, which cover more than 200 solutions from more than 20 OEMs.

Microsoft easily secures and manages servers, applications and databases with powerful management, security and management services to build a flexible and open hybrid cloud platform that allows businesses to use familiar development tools like Visual Studio when building next-generation applications and GitHub, using application, data, AI, and machine learning services from Microsoft to build a bridge between Azure and the rest of the enterprise (on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge):

▍ Brings Azure capabilities to Azure Arc-enabled Servers in on-premises and multi-cloud environments, allowing developers to manage large-scale searchable inventories of Windows and Linux virtual machines and bare metal on any infrastructure, using familiar tools, enabling monitoring, security, Updated and consistent VM scaling Centralized agent management, built-in Azure policies to ensure compliance across environments, and role-based access controls to secure enterprise multi-cloud environments.

▍ Introducing Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes - Use Azure Arc to connect, manage and operate Kubernetes clusters and applications running anywhere. This function is friendly to the open source ecosystem and supports deployment of various genres to existing clusters; it integrates with Azure Monitor of public cloud platforms, and can output health reports to achieve cluster and application observability. Built-in Azure policies, cluster security baselines, and Access controls for roles ensure compliance across environments.

▍For data services, launch Azure Arc-enabled Data Services - Use Azure Arc to integrate Azure data services into on-premises data centers, multi-cloud and edge devices. This function supports network or disconnection mode, and has the advantages of automatically updating the latest version of SQL, built-in HA/DR automatic expansion to provide PaaS services, elastic large-scale expansion upwards and outwards, and consistent with Azure cloud services.

▍For application services, the preview version of Azure Arc-enabled Application Services was launched to provide an application hosting operating environment, allowing enterprises to use innovative applications anytime, anywhere. Using modern cloud-native practices, enterprises can manage applications running on Kubernetes at scale, with the flexibility to use the services they need for any CNCF-compliant Kubernetes cluster, and a single-view capability across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Facilitate unified management.

▍For machine learning, launch Azure Arc-enabled Machine Learning Preview - Leverage Azure Arc for machine learning training and inference across on-premises, multi-cloud and edge devices. Enables rapid innovation through the use of familiar tools, compliance with industry regulations, and automatic scaling of computing resources; can be enabled in minutes without uploading data to the public cloud, allowing enterprises to leverage existing infrastructure for efficient operation; in the Azure cloud, Unified management of machine learning applications across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Actively expand ecological partners and jointly build an innovative ecosystem

For Microsoft's hybrid cloud strategy deployment, technology platforms and technology partners are critical. Microsoft actively expands its hybrid cloud ecosystem partners and creates a diverse and vibrant innovation ecosystem. In mainland China, Microsoft has aggregated a number of OEM hardware partners including Intel, Dell, H3C, HPE, Lenovo, Hyperfusion, etc., as well as Azure Stack such as Nanyang Wanbang, Beijing Kunlun Unicom, Lenovo, SYSTEX, Dell, etc. HCI Acceleration Program partners, launch a verification platform or integrated system hybrid cloud solution based on the Azure Stack HCI hyper-converged infrastructure to accelerate the process of enterprises going to the cloud.

Intel supports Microsoft Azure Stack HCI with a number of underlying technologies. Among them, Xeon Scalable processors can provide different configurations for customers' application loads to meet various application requirements of customers. The third-generation Xeon Scalable processor can more comprehensively protect the security of data and applications in a zero-trust cloud computing environment. In addition to computing power, Optane can support memory virtualization and storage virtualization in terms of storage. Customers can take advantage of Optane non-volatile memory technology to increase the memory cache when dealing with their critical business. In the part of external storage, Optane solid-state drives can be used to build a different storage architecture at different levels, from hot data to warm data to cold data, on the basis of hyper-convergence. Gao Feng, Director of Intel (China) Co., Ltd. Cloud Innovation Center, said: "Building on a long-term partnership, Intel and Microsoft have launched Intel Select Solutions certified security solutions for Azure Stack HCI by combining innovative software with advanced hardware. , flexible and high-performance joint solutions to help customers simplify deployment and improve the operational efficiency of modern infrastructure. Intel looks forward to working with Microsoft to create hyper-converged integrated solutions for the industry market, and to promote the implementation and promotion of technologies and solutions.”

In 2021, the Azure Stack HCI hyper-converged infrastructure hybrid cloud solution based on Microsoft technology and operated by 21Vianet will be officially commercialized in the Chinese market. As the first batch of partners, Dell has launched the AX series of integrated systems for Azure Stack HCI, and received Widely praised by customers. This time, Microsoft launched the HCI single node for branch and edge computing, and Dell has also become the first OEM partner to certify the HCI single node. Yang Jie, global vice president of Dell Technologies Group and general manager of pre-sales system engineering in Greater China, said: "Dell and Microsoft have maintained a deep partnership for more than 30 years. Whether it is in servers, storage, hyperconverged products, or in In terms of data protection products, we have been verified and integrated with Azure Arc to provide customers with the most comprehensive multi-cloud solutions. It is worth mentioning that this year, Dell China R&D Center has also established a team based on Microsoft hybrid cloud solutions. It is foreseeable that Dell and Microsoft will have more in-depth R&D and technical cooperation in the future."

As a new hardware ecological partner, Hyperfusion will also join hands with Microsoft to carry out in-depth cooperation in the field of hybrid cloud. Ren Junwei, President of Hyperfusion Data Center Solutions, said: "Hyperfusion solutions support the rapid modernization of traditional IT infrastructure and facilitate the digital transformation of thousands of industries in China. This time, Hyperfusion and Microsoft launched the FusionOne for Azure Stack HCI solution. Another milestone in the innovation of Hyperfusion and Microsoft solutions cooperation. In the future, we will work with Microsoft to provide customers with higher performance, more flexible and more reliable hybrid cloud solutions.”

In the future, Microsoft will work hand in hand with various partners to serve the Chinese market and customers with advantageous technologies, products and services, and bring more possibilities and innovation space for local enterprises in terms of hybrid cloud, multi-cloud and edge.

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