Windows Azure throws a shrimp on the barbie: What our new Aussie Datacenters mean to you
Hey Everyone!
Yesterday’s news around the Australian Datacenters was really exciting and it will be nice to finally put an end to all those discussions on Data Sovereignty. The news got me thinking that now there’s really no more excuse to put off at least looking closer at Azure and what this could now mean to your business. Up until now, it has been very easy for us to use the Data Sovereignty thing to not worry about what Azure might offer, and to a certain extent management hasn’t really pushed us due to this problem. Now that it has gone away, many Technical Decision Makers are going to be asking us as IT Pros to give them information about how Azure could be used in our environments, so I thought I would put some thoughts down here as they come to mind.
What does a new Datacenter change for an IT Pro?
We can now start looking at what the new Azure Virtual Machines can do for us in the cloud, and really start to move towards Hybrid Cloud scenarios for our datacenter. Got an application which has to handle burst traffic at certain times of the year? No problem, with System Center 2012: Virtual Machine Manager and App Controller, we can use Azure VM’s to automatically scale out VM’s to handle this load, and then scale back on the fly! Think about these other benefits of Azure VM’s as well:
Many compute configurations // Options sized to fit your application needs including new high memory instances.
Many operating systems // Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Plus, Linux by commercial distributors: Ubuntu, CentOS, SLES.
Pre-built images // Get started from the Image Gallery and provision your stack with Windows Server, SQL Server, BizTalk Server in minutes.
Community images // Choose your favorite open source stack from the VM Depot.
Secure, isolated connections to on-premises // Virtual Network provides a logical IPsec based network connection between your apps running in Virtual Machines and your on-premises datacenter.
Geo-redundant disk storage // 6 copies of your Virtual Machine images redundantly stored at two datacenters hundreds of miles apart. No extra cost.
Transparent SLA // 99.95% monthly SLA for multiple Virtual Machines. 99.9% monthly SLA for Virtual Networks.
Bring your apps // If it runs on Hyper-V, it runs on Windows Azure Virtual Machines.
What tools should I be looking at?
System Center 2012 becomes your friend here, and there are new features in SP1 which really help to light up Azure VM’s. One of the really great new features is Global Service Monitor.
System Center Global Service Monitor helps achieve a 360-degree view of the health of web applications. It uses Windows Azure points of presence across the globe, monitored alongside existing data found within the familiar System Center 2012 Operations Manager console. Global Service Monitor reports on availability, performance, and function of web applications by scheduling and executing synthetic transactions against the application from Windows Azure.
Global Service Monitor also helps unify tooling and processes, integrating with Microsoft Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server to enable new DevOps scenarios that better align operations and development roles. Global Service Monitor can save time by building synthetic transactions from existing Microsoft Visual Studio web tests and speed issue resolution by delivering IntelliTrace-based issue reports direct to a developer’s Team Foundation Server work item queue.
So if we look at GSM in context of the new Datacenters, we will now be able to initiate application tests from a local point of presence to the application itself, which is going to give a far greater accuracy of results that exercising those same tests from other areas of the planet.
In addition to this, System Center 2012: Data Protection Manager can integrate with Azure Recovery Services to store those important backup images in the cloud, and you will now be able to store those in our local point of presence.
Am I going to lose my job now?
Of course you aren't! Azure gives you the opportunity to truly take your organization to the Hybrid Cloud, and this means new skills to learn which make you even more important to your organization! In terms of skilling up, the first place to look is getting Cloud Certification and there are even some great free resources to get you started!
Also check out these other resources for more information on Azure Infrastructure Services:
Getting started with Windows Azure Virtual Machines
Getting started with Windows Azure Virtual Network
Architecture Guidance: SharePoint Server in Windows Azure infrastructure services
Getting started: Running SQL Server in Windows Azure infrastructure services
Guidelines for Deploying Windows Server Active Directory in Windows Azure Virtual Machines
So get started on the journey and don’t forget to come to TechEd 2013 for loads of content to get you moving to the cloud!