Cloud computing is big business. The use of highly scaled, automated IT platforms is growing rapidly.
According to a study conducted by McKinsey & Company, 80 percent of the large organizations in North America it surveyed are planning or have begun executing programs to host critical applications in cloud environments. The prospects of improved business agility and cost savings have spurred many to adapt their in-house IT operations to make use of the cloud.
That being said, it’s no wonder the cloud continues to be the focus of Microsoft’s message to organizations. With its Cloud OS vision, the company continues to introduce new technologies aimed at helping businesses thrive in the era of the cloud.
At its core, Microsoft’s Cloud OS vision is to provide global-scale cloud services with Microsoft Azure AND provide customers the same innovative technologies to run their own cloud and IT services. System Center and Windows Server 2012 technologies have been the foundation of delivering Microsoft Azure-consistent cloud services, and have been adopted by many seeking an internal service provider model. To deliver on the Cloud OS vision Microsoft now offers a set of technologies they’ve called Windows Azure Pack, designed to bring Microsoft Azure services to your enterprise environment.
What is Windows Azure Pack?
Built to run on top of Windows Server and System Center, Windows Azure Pack is a collection of Microsoft Azure technologies made available to service providers and enterprises. These technologies extends the functionality of Microsoft Azure to private data centers. It provides both an admin portal and a customer or tenant portal. These portals, like with Microsoft Azure, provide a single entry point to a variety of services. The admin portal allows IT administrators to set up various services, plans and manage users. While end-users can sign-up for services, provision and manage resources such as Virtual Machines or databases using the customer portal.
Windows Azure Pack takes your private cloud to the next level by making provisioning simple. If an end user requires a database server or a web server the traditional procurement process would be lengthy. The end user would submit a request to IT, this request would go through the approval process, procurement, management, updates etc. With Windows Azure Pack you can streamline the workflow by providing one single portal for the entire process.
Windows Azure Pack creates a consistent platform framework across all cloud deployment models, allowing developers to build new cloud applications that can be deployed in Microsoft’s public cloud, in a hosted facility or on-premises. IT admins no longer have to work with disparate products across the organization. Applications can be moved across environments with little to no adaptations with Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure Pack.
Windows Azure Pack has simplified the enterprise cloud landscape by providing one single web based portal where resources can be provisioned and managed. As our platform of choice, we are dedicated to evolving this technology set. Whether we are hosting your SharePoint farm, monitoring your applications or simply providing support we’ve built on the powerful Windows Azure Pack platform to extend the capabilities of these technologies to better serve your business. For more information regarding Windows Azure Pack please contact sales@navantis.com.
In my next blog post I’ll discuss how we’re bringing a new look to managed services using Windows Azure Pack!
Terry, an IT Leader and visionary, brings more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry to the Navantis team. In his role as the Director of Cloud and Infrastructure Solutions at Navantis, Terry works closely with his team to develop innovative solutions to help clients navigate the complex cloud driven environment.
(647) 258-9031
info@navantis.com
