Microsoft IT Part 1 - Hybrid Cloud Strategy
This is Part 1 of Microsoft IT’s journey to the cloud:
Microsoft is on a complex, multi-year journey to adopt cloud computing across the company. Learn how we developed our cloud strategy, made cultural shifts, and changed processes at Microsoft to help make this journey a success.
“We needed to prove that the largest enterprises
on the planet can run in the Microsoft cloud, starting with our own.”
- Brad Wright, Software Engineering Manager, Microsoft
"Our Journey to the cloud" with Brad Wright:
Hybrid strategy
A hybrid cloud is a blend of on-premises (private) cloud and off-premises (public) cloud. Orchestration between the two allows mobility of workloads between locations, depending on needs, costs, and flexibility. 
Figure: Hybrid cloud strategy at Microsoft
We always choose the public cloud first, because it offers the most agility and scalability. We chose to use commoditized services, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, SharePoint, and email, through Software as a Service (SaaS). Existing applications with planned investments use Azure Platform as a Service (PaaS), reducing lead-time between strategy and service. If no further investment will be made to an existing (sustaining) app, but it still fulfills a service, it will move to Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In addition, all preproduction environments will be moved to Azure.
Read the full case study here.
Additional Resources:
- Enterprise Cloud Strategy (e-book)
- Azure Application Architecture Guide (online)
- Azure Virtual Datacenter (e-book)
- The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure (e-book)
- Get Started Guide for Azure Developers (online)
- Azure Stack: Building an end-to-end validation environment (e-book)