Windows Azure Hybrid Cloud

An essential resource for implementing and managing a cloud infrastructure in Azure

Serving as a critical resource for anyone responsible for strategizing, architecting, implementing or managing a cloud infrastructure, this book helps you understand what is hybrid IT and how it's applicable (and inevitable) in today's world of emerging cloud. The team of authors focus on the Microsoft concept of a private/public cloud, deploying a private cloud fabric, deploying services, and building a private cloud, as well as integrating it with Microsoft's public cloud to create a cross-premises or public cloud.

• Looks at why hybrid IT is important to a business and what benefits a business can expect by adopting hybrid cloud
• Examines a cloud management platform and discusses why it is necessary
• Walks you through the different kinds of solutions for IT problems that may arise
• Places a focus on considerations for ensuring resiliency, availability, and scalability when designing hybrid solutions to prevent system failure and data loss
• Covers optimizing the performance of the hybrid cloud as well as using tools that help you monitor and manage the performance of the hybrid cloud

Windows Azure Hybrid Cloud helps you gain a better understanding of the hybrid IT environments, why those clouds should be implemented, and how they impact business.

Danny Garber is a lead Windows Azure Solution Architect in the Worldwide Windows Azure Center of Excellence of Microsoft. He leads the Windows Azure discovery and Bring-Your-Own-PoC workshops, application assessments, and architecture design sessions. He speaks at conferences such as TechEd, DevConnections, TechReady and Cloud Summits. Prior to this he helped grow Windows Azure as a lead pre-sales Azure architect within the Office of CTO and Enterprise Services Windows Azure Team. He is the author of Pro Windows Server: AppFabric (APress), has written several magazine articles and whitepapers, and authored the Cloud Services Maturity Model. He is a Microsoft Certified Architect, an IBM Certified Architect, Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) and Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS) in BizTalk Server.

Jamal Malik, Microsoft Corporation, is a Business Solution Architect with Microsoft's Datacenter and Private Cloud Center of Excellence. He is a board certified Architect (CITA-p - IASA Global), has published several papers around migrating to Cloud Solutions, delivers training of Cloud Solutions and Capabilities, and regularly presents at Microsoft events.

Adam Fazio is a Solution Architect for the Datacenter Services Solution and the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track program. His specialties include Private & Hybrid Cloud, Datacenter, Virtualization, Management & Operations, Storage, Networking, Security, Directory Services, People & Process. In his 14 years in IT, Adam has successfully led strategic projects for Government, Education Sector, and Fortune 100 organizations. Adam is a course instructor, published writer and regular conference speaker on Microsoft Cloud, Datacenter, and Infrastructure solutions.

CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS HYBRID IT? 1

The Thing They Call the “Cloud” 1

Cloud Service Models 2

Infrastructure-as-a-Service — The Leasing Option 3

Platform-as-a-Service — The Rental Option 4

Software-as-a-Service — The Public Transportation Option 5

What Are the Trends That You Should Watch? 7

Trends towards IaaS 8

Trends towards SaaS 9

What Are the Characteristics of a Cloud? 10

Broad Network Access 11

Resource Pooling 12

(Rapid) Elasticity 14

Chargeback (Measured Service) 17

Self-Service 19

Private Clouds 20

Hybrid Cloud 23

Hybrid Cloud Scenarios 23

Motivation and Issues behind Hybrid Cloud 27

Summary 29

CHAPTER 2: WHY IS THE HYBRID CLOUD IMPORTANT TO MY BUSINESS? 30

Everyone Else Is Doing It 31

Cutting Costs for the Short Term 33

Outsourcing Data Security Responsibilities 34

A Case for Hybrid Cloud 36

Diff erentiating Yourself from the Competition 36

Enhancing Strategic Position (Reducing

Nonperforming Assets) 38

Easing Mergers and Acquisitions 40

Summary 42

CHAPTER 3: PROJECT PLANNING 43

Envisioning and Scoping 44

Gathering Business Objectives 44

Mapping Technical Solutions to Business Objectives (Building Business Requirements) 53

Formulating Technical Requirements 53

Discovery and Assessment 54

What Is the Desired End State? 55

Prioritizing Your Objectives 56

Building the Solution 57

Organizational Changes 58

Deployment Planning 61

Gaining Executive-Level Sponsorship 63

Augmenting/Modifying Business Processes 71

Formulating the Vision and Scope Document 73

Summary 76

CHAPTER 4: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WINDOWS AZURE AS A PLATFORM 78

Execution Models 78

Websites 79

Cloud Services 81

Virtual Machines 83

Choosing the Right Execution Model 85

Data Management 85

SQL Database 86

Storage: Tables, Blobs, and Queues 87

CDN 90

Big Data 91

Messaging and Integration Components 93

Service Bus 93

Virtual Network 95

Traffi c Manager 101

BizTalk Services 101

Media Services 101

Mobile Services 103

Supporting Services 105

Caching 105

Identity Management 107

Software Development Kits 110

Summary 110

CHAPTER 5: PRIVATE CLOUD COMPONENTS AND SERVICES THAT HELP TO BUILD HYBRID CLOUDS 112

The Cloud Management Platform 113

Self-Service 114

Service Delivery 117

Process Orchestration 119

Management and Operations 119

Automation 121

Integrating System Center and Windows Azure 122

Application Self-Service across Clouds 122

Cloud Management and Operations 125

Networking 128

Virtual Networks 129

Identity Management 131

Summary 133

CHAPTER 6: HYBRID OPTIONS IN WINDOWS AZURE 134

On-Premises Service Integrated

with Cloud Service 135

Using Windows Azure Service Bus 136

Using Windows Azure Virtual Network 137

Cloud Service Integrated with

On-Premises Service 137

On-Premises Application Integrated with Low-Cost Windows Azure Storage 138

Cloud Service Integrated with Confidential Data Storage 139

Cloud Bursting, or Batching at Scale 140

Development and Test Cloud Infrastructure 141

Windows Azure as a Disaster Recovery (DR) Site 143

Service Bus as an Integration Hub 144

Enabling Modern Applications 145

Virtual Desktops in Windows Azure 146

Summary 146

CHAPTER 7: DESIGNING FOR RESILIENCY AND SCALABILITY 148

Building Resilient Solutions 149

Fault Domains 149

Upgrade Domains 149

Private Cloud Fault and Upgrade Domain Considerations 151

What Does High Availability Really Mean? 153

Resiliency Patterns and Considerations 154

Designing for Business Continuity 158

Infrastructure Redundancy 158

Data Durability and Backup 159

Geo-Replication 160

Planning Hybrid Cloud Site Disaster Recovery 160

Redeploy on Disaster 161

Active/Passive Deployment 161

Active/Active Deployment 162

Designing Scalable Hybrid Cloud Solutions 162

Scale-Out, Not Scale-Up 163

Scaling-Out through Scale Units 163

Compress Density of Scale 164

Summary 165

CHAPTER 8: OPTIMIZING FOR PERFORMANCE 166

Cloud Application Performance Fundamentals 167

Storage Types and Data Location 168

Optimizing Network Throughput and Latency 170

Affi nity Groups 172

Summary 174

CHAPTER 9: MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT FOR SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS 175

Change Is the New Normal 175

Monitoring the Hybrid Cloud 176

Unified Monitoring 177

Scenarios and Use Cases for Monitoring 178

Integration of Operations Manager and Service Manager 180

Unified Management 181

Orchestration Considerations 181

Service Management Considerations 182

Systems Management Considerations 182

Summary 183

CHAPTER 10: FINAL HYBRID CLOUD CONSIDERATIONS 185

How Do I Execute My Hybrid Cloud Initiative? 186

Analyzing Skill Sets 186

Moving toward a Converged Infrastructure 189

Managing Stakeholder Objections 189

The Hybrid Cloud Admin 192

Embracing Continual Improvement 193

When Is It Time to Jump Onboard? 193

The Time Is Now — the Tipping Point 194

Summary 195

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