How to Improve Hybrid Cloud Performance and Governance with Microsoft and CDW
Our partners at Microsoft have solutions that could help IT teams make their hybrid cloud systems more governable. In this blog, we discuss the key challenges to building a well-functioning hybrid cloud and highlight cloud solutions from Microsoft.
Canadian organizations that want to reap the benefits of a hybrid cloud infrastructure may initially face hurdles in making private hardware and public cloud work together. A seamless interplay between on-premises and cloud resources is critical for workloads such as backups and business applications to function smoothly.
The CDW 2024 Canadian Hybrid Cloud Report surveyed organizations on the operational challenges expected from a hybrid or multicloud approach. 35 percent of organizations said consistent security, access control and compliance were a concern, while 34 percent of organizations reported that ensuring specific workloads ran on the best cloud option was challenging.
Organizations need a unified management suite to overcome the difficulties of working with multiple architectures. One that can help them manage various cloud, on-premises and edge environments from a single control plane.
Our partners at Microsoft have overarching solutions that could help IT teams make their hybrid cloud systems more governable. In this blog, we discuss the key challenges to building a well-functioning hybrid cloud and highlight cloud solutions from Microsoft.
Why hybrid cloud orchestration can be challenging
Managing a hybrid cloud often requires multiple systems, each with separate tools, policies and monitoring processes. This approach can lead to two significant challenges for IT teams.
Difficulty in getting disparate systems to gel
As they integrate local systems with cloud services, IT teams often discover that it's not straightforward. They might need to create new APIs or find a middleware solution to make the communication possible.
Weaker manageability of a sprawling IT infrastructure
Monitoring a hybrid cloud setup can be difficult without compatible tools. IT teams must carefully observe cloud performance and ensure they don't overprovision services. This extra effort can ultimately negate the benefits of a hybrid setup.
As per the Canadian Hybrid Cloud Report, 41 percent of organizations have stated that they want to purchase cloud performance monitoring and reporting functionalities in the next two years.
How Microsoft Azure Arc and Azure Stack HCI help make hybrid cloud governable
Azure Arc and Azure Stack Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) are designed to manage IT resources across hybrid environments for a more unified cloud experience.
Simplify the manageability of complex hybrid cloud systems with Azure Arc
Azure Arc is an infrastructure management platform designed to simplify and enhance the control of hybrid cloud environments. It provides a unified approach to organizing, governing and securing IT resources across on-premises data centres, multicloud environments and edge locations.
With Azure Arc, organizations can streamline management processes for Windows, Linux, SQL Server and Kubernetes clusters.
Unified approach to disparate systems
Azure Arc alleviates the challenges of using multiple tools and cloud sprawl by delivering a single control plane for all resources, no matter where they reside.
Azure Arc allows IT teams to streamline container deployments using Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS), push application code updates with GitHub and enforce consistent configuration with Azure Policy. This facilitates end-to-end cloud management from one dashboard.
Similarly, many Azure infrastructure tools are available within the Azure Arc platform, making it simple for IT teams to govern their hybrid cloud architecture.
Key benefits of Azure Arc
- Manage diverse IT assets: Manage multicloud, multiple toolchains and scattered environments with one overarching solution.
- Ensure deployment consistency: Maintain consistent application configurations and cluster deployments directly from source control for streamlined operations.
- Meet governance and compliance needs: Automate policy enforcement to ensure data governance and security requirements are met while optimizing costs.
Build an interconnected hybrid cloud with Azure Stack HCI
Azure Stack HCI is a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) operating system delivered as an Azure hybrid service. It allows organizations to run Windows and Linux virtual machines (VMs) on-premises or at the edge, leveraging their existing tools, processes and skill sets.
Integrating seamlessly with Azure services like Azure Backup, Azure Monitor and Azure Security Center extends the functionality of traditional data centres to the cloud, creating a unified hybrid cloud environment.
Enable an interconnected hybrid cloud solution
Azure Stack HCI is hybrid by design, enabling centralized management and monitoring of HCI clusters through the Azure Portal. With native integration into Azure Arc, Azure Monitor and services like Azure Defender and Azure Site Recovery, it provides seamless connectivity across on-premises and cloud environments.
The platform supports diverse workloads, catering to branch office IT needs, large-scale virtual desktop deployments and SQL Server virtualization, ensuring peak performance for demanding applications.
Additionally, Azure Stack HCI includes a Kubernetes-enabled platform for automated deployment and management of containerized applications. Its scalability allows businesses to start with just two nodes and grow to 16 or more across global locations.
Key benefits of Azure Stack HCI
- Improves cost-effectiveness and scalability: Provides a hybrid solution that doesn't elevate infrastructure costs and offers inherent scalability with the Azure platform.
- Reduces data centre complexity: Simplifies operations by consolidating workloads, APIs, control planes and monitoring into a unified stack for architects.
- Supports infrastructure modernization: Enables organizations to modernize their infrastructure while maintaining compatibility with legacy systems.
Advance your hybrid infrastructure with Microsoft and CDW
Microsoft Azure, paired with CDW services, enables organizations to build a seamless hybrid cloud environment.
CDW offers tailored hybrid cloud assessments and professional services to guide businesses through evaluating, deploying and managing their Azure infrastructure.
These services simplify the transition to the cloud by aligning IT strategies with Azure's capabilities, ensuring scalability, security and cost-efficiency. Azure's flexibility and CDW's expertise in planning and managing hybrid solutions can help your organization efficiently manage workloads.
Whether you are planning to build your hybrid cloud setup from scratch or take a workload-specific approach, our Microsoft experts can help you chart the course.