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Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT - Overview

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Published: August 23, 2013
Version: 1.1
Abstract: This article provides an overview of the Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT article set. The article set provides information relevant to enterprise IT architects, system designers, and system implementers that want to better understand how to integrate infrastructure resources from public cloud computing infrastructure service providers with their on-premises private cloud infrastructure resources.

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction
      1.1 Audience
      1.2 Included Articles
2.0 Summary

1.0  Introduction

For many organizations, most of the information technology (IT) capability utilized by their employees is provided by their own IT department.  The organization typically owns physical datacenter space, owns physical servers, owns software licenses, and employs members of an IT department that manage and operate all of these resources.  However, over time datacenters run out of available space, hardware fails or becomes outdated and must be replaced, software versions become outdated and must be upgraded, and IT staff must manage all of the datacenter space, hardware and software.

To start decreasing the need to add more datacenter space, replace hardware, upgrade software, and manage as much of all of it, most organizations have started providing some of the IT capability that employees consume by first consuming the capability from a public cloud service provider, integrating the capability with some of the capability owned and managed by their IT department, and then providing that integrated capability to their employees. This is often referred to as providing hybrid cloud capability.

IT capabilities that an organization may consume from public cloud computing providers are:

  • Software services that provide direct end-user capability.  Examples of such services are Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and others from non-Microsoft providers
  • Platform services that application developers integrate into applications.  Examples of such services are Windows Azure Service Bus, Windows Azure SQL Database, and others from non-Microsoft providers
  • Infrastructure services that allow organizations to run virtual machines on the public provider's infrastructure. Examples of such services are Windows Azure Infrastructure Services, and others from non-Microsoft providers

An organization may integrate the public cloud computing provider's capabilities with its own capabilities by:

  • Integrating authentication mechanisms between their own systems and their provider's systems to provide single sign-on capability to the organization's users
  • Integrating their network with the provider's network to provide secured communication between the two organizations
  • Integrating systems management tools so that the organization can manage the systems at their public provider as they manage their own on-premises systems

This article set provides guidance for integrating infrastructure services provided by Windows Azure Infrastructure Services with an organization's on-premises infrastructure.

Note
For an excellent video review that describes the rationale for, and the goals of the Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure for Enterprise IT project, please see the Solution Overview video.

 

1.1  Audience

The primary audiences for this article set are enterprise architects and system designers who are interested in understanding the issues that should be considered before integrating public cloud infrastructure services with their on-premises infrastructure systems. System implementers will also be interested in the implementation steps for the sample design included in the article set.

1.2  Included Articles

This article is one of several articles that are included in the Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT article set. Article sets include multiple articles that are expected to be collectively read, like the chapters of a book. The guidance in this article set can be used to design and implement a hybrid cloud infrastructure solution for enterprise IT. The article set details implementation of a hybrid cloud infrastructure solution using hardware vendor-agnostic and Microsoft products and technologies. Since this article set is lab-tested, usage of it can significantly decrease the amount of custom design and testing required to implement a hybrid cloud infrastructure solution.

The Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT article set includes the articles listed below. Each article name is followed by a description of the article, as well as the role within an enterprise IT organization that will likely find the article most useful to them. While the articles are not dependent upon each other, the context for the text in each article listed lower in the list can be found in the article listed above it in the list. Given this, when a role is listed as the primary audience for multiple articles in the list below, the reader is encouraged to read the articles in the order listed. Each article assumes that its reader has a basic understanding of the hybrid cloud infrastructure domain, and has read this article.

Overview  (this article):
This article introduces the hybrid cloud problem domain, the audience, the article set, and the articles included in the article set. 

Scenario Definition :
This article describes an example, fictitious enterprise IT organization that is implementing a hybrid cloud infrastructure solution. It details the organization’s current environment, their design objectives and requirements, and their existing environmental policies and constraints that drive the design of any new technology implementation in their environment. Many organizations will find that they have a similar environment with similar requirements and constraints as the example organization. This article is most helpful to those responsible for designing hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions within enterprise IT organizations, since its contents drive the hybrid cloud infrastructure design.

Design :
This article details which specific products, technologies, and configuration options were selected, out of the hundreds of individual available options, to meet the unique requirements for the example organization defined in the Scenario Definition article. This article also details the rationale for why specific design decisions were made. For organizations that have similar requirements and constraints as the example organization, the lab-tested design and rationale in this article can help decrease both the implementation time and risk of implementing a custom hybrid cloud infrastructure solution. This article is most helpful to those responsible for designing hybrid cloud infrastructures or implementing solutions within enterprise IT organizations, since it details an example design, and the rationale for the design.

If, instead of, or in addition to, only understanding one example hybrid cloud infrastructure design, and the rationale for the design options selected for it, you’d like to understand all of the relevant individual design configuration options for hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions so that you can determine which options are most appropriate for your own, unique requirements, then it’s recommended that you read the Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Design Considerations article. While the Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Design Considerations article details all available Microsoft product and technology design options and considerations for hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions, it does not provide any example designs or recommendations for specific requirements. Many people will find it helpful to read both the Design article for the RI article set targeted to an organization similar to their own, as well as the Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Design Considerations articles for the hybrid cloud infrastructure problem domain. Others will only find it necessary to read one article or the other. Though the two articles are related, there are no dependencies between them.

Implementation :
This article provides a step-based approach to implement the design detailed in the Design article in your environment. While this article lists implementation steps to install and configure the solution, the steps are written at a level that assumes you already have some familiarity with the technologies utilized in the design detailed in the Design article. In cases where new technologies are utilized, more detailed implementation steps are also included within the article. To review lower-leveled implementation steps than provided in this article, you’re encouraged to read the information found at the hyperlinks included throughout the article. This article is most helpful to those responsible for implementing hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions within enterprise IT organizations.

2.0  Summary

This article introduced the Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT article set and the articles within it. You’re encouraged to read any of the articles within the set that are most applicable to your role within your organization.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Please let us know if after reading this you find the content potentially useful. It's designed to make your trek to the hybrid cloud a lot easier, because we've gone through the pain that you might feel when trying to design and implement a hybrid cloud and we've shared our insights with you in this document set. Just leave a comment either way - thanks! --Tom.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Frankn!
    You can find a table of contents here http://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2013/10/17/hybrid-cloud-infrastructure-solution-for-enterprise-it-overview-video.aspx
    Thanks!
    Tom

  • Anonymous
    December 28, 2013
    Pingback from Hybrid IT Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT | UC3

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2014
    [This week’s blog post is from fellow solutions writer Tom Shinder. Tom is a member of Datacenter

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 09, 2014
    Pingback from TechNet Radio: (Part 9) Building Your Hybrid Cloud - Getting Started with the Windows Azure Pack - Windows Azure Blog

  • Anonymous
    May 09, 2014
    Pingback from TechNet Radio: (Part 9) Building Your Hybrid Cloud - Getting Started with the Windows Azure Pack - Windows Azure Blog

  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2015
    This is fantabulous. I need a pointer to the repository for the other articles referenced in this article