Tag: Windows Azure Pack

Launch Event – Learn From The Best; Not From The Rest

There are only hours now between now and the start of TechCamp 2013 in City West in Dublin, where Irish MVPs (and a couple of Microsoft folks) will be presenting on:

  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Service automation using System Center 2012 R2
  • Hybrid cloud using Hyper-V Network Virtualization, NVGRE, SCVMM 2012 R2 and Windows Azure Pack
  • Service level management using System Center 2012 R2
  • Windows 8.1 in the business
  • New Windows devices
  • BYOD, consumerisation of IT, and mobile device management
  • Enterprise desktop management using System Center 2012 R2

You could wait for a sales person come to town and tell you stuff that they’ve read about.

Or, you could make a little effort to come to TechCamp 2013 where some of the worlds leading experts independent experts (all with international followings and tech book credits to their names) on these technologies (who are Irish BTW) will be there to present an honest appraisal of this technology that they have worked with every day since the 2012 R2/8.1 previews were launched.

Event: Sept 10th, London –Transform The Data Centre

A number of MVPs will be talking about Windows Server and System Center 2012 R2, and how these technologies really can transform designing, deploying, configuring, and managing the cloud in the data centre.

Respond to changing business needs with the power of a hybrid cloud from Microsoft.

Today’s business runs on IT. Every department, every function, needs technology to stay productive and help your business compete. And that means a wave of new demands for applications and resources.

The datacenter is the hub for everything you offer the business, all the storage, networking and computing capacity. To ride the wave of demand, you need a datacenter that isn’t limited by the restrictions of the past. You need to be able to take everything you know and own today and transform those resources into a datacenter that is capable of handling changing needs and unexpected opportunities.

With Microsoft, you can transform the datacenter. You can take the big, complicated, heterogeneous infrastructure you have today and bring it forward into the new world of cloud. You can take advantage of the boundless capacity the cloud offers, while still meeting requirements for security and compliance. You can reduce cost and complexity with technology innovation in areas like storage and networking. And you can deliver services to the business faster with a platform that makes you more agile and more productive.

This free event (registration required) is on Tuesday 10th September at Microsoft Cardinal Place, SW1E 5JL London, United Kingdom.

  • 8:45am: Key Note.
  • 9:00am: Savision
  • 9:45am: Licensing and what is supported when virtualized with Windows 2012 and System Center? MVP David Allen explains licensing of Windows Server & System Center as well as what is supported when virtualized. This will be a great way to start the day and information that is often sort after by many customers.
  • 10:15am: Virtualization is the key element to your success and it starts with Networking. MVP Aidan Finn makes sense around Hyper-V networking including the new features in Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V. Aidan will also clarify best practices for hardware that hosts your Virtual Machines and why Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V will be the best Hyper Visor platform yet.
  • 11:15am: Break
  • 11:30am: How to manage your Virtual Environments effectively with System Center Virtual Machine Manager. MVP Damian Flynn will demonstrate the improved SCVMM 2012 R2 and how with the growing demand on Virtual servers SCVMM is a must in any data center or private cloud. Bring your level 400 tech guys for this one.
  • 12:45: Lunch
  • 1:45pm: Managing any size data centers is by no means an easy task. MVP Gordon McKenna will take us through will take us through SCOM 2012 R2. And how we can monitor any part of our environment effectively, including how System Center is with Microsoft Gold Partner Veeam the best tool for monitoring VMware.
  • 14:45pm: Break
  • 15:00pm: Let’s not forget the applications! MVP Simon Skinner will demonstrate how using System Center 2012 with service templates can get our clients to deploy complex solutions like SharePoint or SQL Server. Here we will see where automation becomes the norm.
  • 16:10pm: Where next? The future is already here today! MVP Gordon McKenna and MVP David Allen presents Windows Azure Pack which delivers Windows Azure technologies for you to run inside your datacenter, enabling you to offer rich, self-service, multi-tenant services that are consistent with Windows Azure. The Microsoft Cloud OS: One Consistent Platform. The Cloud OS is Microsoft’s vision of a consistent, modern platform for the world’s apps running across multiple clouds; enterprise datacenters, hosting service provider datacenters and Windows Azure. The Windows Azure Pack helps to deliver on this vision by bringing consistent Windows Azure experiences and services to enterprise and hosting service provider datacenters with existing investments in System Center and Windows Server.
  • 17:10: Question time with the UK/IE MVPs.

Don’t be one of those IT Pros that deserves to have their job outsourced or who shames the rest of us; keep up to date and learn what you could be doing for your employers … and your career.

TechEd NA 2013: Building Cloud Services with Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 and the Windows Azure Pack

Spakers: Bradley Bartz, Nagender Vedula, and an army of others.

1 consistent cloud experience

picture039

Service Bus coming to WS2012 R2.  There are 2 UIs:

  • Admin
  • Consumer portal

Cloud OS Consistent Experiences.

Heres Azure versus on-premise:

Continuity of experience and services being deployed.  Note that Windows Azure Pack portal is customizable.

picture042

The right hand side is powered by:

  • Windows Server
  • Hyper-V
  • System Center – VMM and Operations Manager
  • Service Provider Foundation
  • Windows Azure Pack

Service Consumers

People centric computing – self-service administration, acquire capacity on demand, empowered operations, predictable costs, get up and running quickly.

Difference between Azure and on-premise.  On-premise has limits of scalability.  So we set quote a limits to control how much resources the consumer can take.

Service Consumers:

  • Build highly scalable web apps
  • Iterate with integrated source control
  • Manage app with real-time telemetry
  • Use the languages and open source apps of your choice (supported by Azure pack)

Service Providers

Extreme focus on cost. Maximize per-customer profitability, hardware efficiency, automate everything, differentiate on SLAs.  All makes sense for the hoster.  What about the enterprise private cloud?  Same goals apply – IT needs to be efficient and effective.  Doubly so when doing cross-charging … and to be honest, IT doesn’t want to become more expensive than outsourced services!

Service Bus

  • Messaging service for loud apps
  • Guaranteed message delivery
  • Publish-subscribe messaging patterns
  • Standard protocols (REST, AMQP, WS*)
  • Interoperability (.NET, JAVA/JMS, C/C++)
  • Now integrated with management portal

An elastic message queuing system.  A dev building a modern app in Azure will feel right at home on your WSSC 2012 R2 cloud.

Virtual Machines

  • Consistent with IaaS Azure
  • Roles: portable, elastic, gallery, Windows & Linux support
  • Virtual networks: site-site connectivity, tenant supplied IP address

Additional services in Windows Azure Pack

  • Identity: AD integration, ADFS federation, co-administrator – huge for on-premise
  • Database services: SQL Server and MySQL
  • Value add services from gallery – you can curate a set of add-ons that your customers can use.
  • Other shared services from provider
  • Programmatic access to cloud services – Windows Azure consistent REST APIs

There is a model on acquiring capacity. There is a concept of offers and plans, and that dictates what’s being deployed.  A subscriber will get billed.  Concept of teams is supported with co-administration.  Teams can be large, and membership can change frequently.  With ADFS, you can use an AD group as the co-administrators of the subscription.

Demo

Azure supports ADFS – so he logs into Azure portal using his MSFT corporate ID.  He deploys a new website, goes to a store in Azure, and installs a source code control app: Git.  Now there’s a dedicate Git repository for that website.  It’s the usual non-modified Git.  He adds a connection to the repository locally.  Then he pushes his source code up to the repository from his PC.  That’s done in around a minute.  The website launches – and there’s the site that he pushed up.

This is more than just an FTP upload.  It’s cloud so it scales.  Can scale out the number of website instances.  By default they run on a shared tier, basically the same web server/pool.  Can change that through the GUI.  Can scale the site easily with a slider, with content and load balancing.

Now logs into the Katal portal.  Can sign in with AD user account, Email account (ASP membership of email and password), and ADFS.  The same login appears as on the Azure portal as on Azure.  Same end user experience (can be skinned).  Creates a web site.  Sets up Git source code control, as on Azure.  Basically repeats the same steps as on Azure – the customer is getting the same experience. 

In Katal, scalability can be limited by the admins, won’t have the same infinite resources as Azure.

Now he logs out, and Mark Umeno logs in as a co-admin.  He can see the resources that were just deployed by Bradley.  He can also see some other stuff that he owns. 

I get bored here … there’s no cloud building going on.  It’s turned into a user experience demo which does not match the title of the session.