Migration and Deployment Series Part 12: How Windows Azure Plays Into the Equation
This entire Azure series was a lot of fun, filled with a lot of great content, and intended to help organizations gain a better understanding of the Microsoft Cloud technologies. In today’s current IT datacenters the ability to start harnessing the power of offsite computing is something that IT administrators should be investigating as soon as possible. This is true for small businesses all the way up to enterprise level datacenters. We must remember as IT Pro’s that our main priority is to provide the architecture for companies to provide better products and services while reducing internal costs. As we watched virtualization rise up again this past decade, we continuously heard the phrase, “do more with less.” While virtualization provided the momentum, it is time to take a step back and see how our current projects and goals for driving our main priorities align with what new technologies are available to us.
This is where the Microsoft story really comes to fruition. With the new capabilities in System Center 2012 SP1 and Microsoft Windows Server 2012, we are no longer forced to look at several (sometimes disjointed) technologies to achieve our “do more with less” initiative. The ability to build virtual machines, secure the infrastructure with Active Directory, bridge the security to off premise computing in the Microsoft Cloud, and then provide self service portals to our customers and end users displays a complete vision. We hope you take a look at this series and walk away with a better understanding of how you can make a positive impact on your organization’s computing strategy.
So as we continue to talk through the different scenarios for migration we felt it would be good to point out the previous blog series on Azure Infrastructure as a Service. I would like to also draw special attention to a couple of the parts in that series that have quite an impact on this current Migration and Deployment series. You will find a complete list of the articles in the IaaS series here:
https://virtuallycloud9.com/index.php/31-days-of-servers-in-the-cloud-series/
Some of my favorite articles that really impact the current Migration and Deployment series are:
Day 6: Windows Azure Features Overview
Day 13: Creating Azure Virtual Machines with App Controller
Day 16: Reasons for Using Windows Azure
Day 21: Beyond IaaS and PaaS: Stregnths and Weaknesses of both services
Day 24: Connecting PaaS to IaaS in Azure
Day 25: Stored VM: A Prerequisite for Copying VMs to Windows Azure
Day 31: Authentication Mechanisms with Diagrams and Technical Info for Windows Azure
Stay tuned for future articles in the series!