Microsoft seems to have realized that the true utilization of Cloud Computing atleast in the beginning is going to be in Hybrid deployment models.
Keeping in tune with this trend they have empowered data centres and private customers to build Private clouds by announcing new “Windows Azure Platform Appliance”
Below are some extracts from the web
“The appliance is the same Windows Azure platform we run at Microsoft, and includes Windows Azure and SQL Azure on Microsoft-specified hardware. Using it, service providers, governments and large enterprises will be able to get the control they need, while still getting the benefits of scale, multi-tenancy, and low operational costs."
The Windows Azure Platform appliance site describes it as "a turn-key cloud solution on highly standardized, preconfigured hardware. Think of it as hundreds of servers in pre-configured racks of networking, storage, and server hardware that are based on Microsoft-specified reference architecture."
The description continues "The Microsoft Windows Azure platform appliance is different from typical server appliances in that it involves hundreds of servers rather than just one node or a few nodes and It is designed to be extensible–customers can simply add more servers–depending upon the customer’s needs to scale out their platform."
Microsoft seems to have made a very smart move by providing this appliance which is being called “Azure in a box”. This will allow the hybrid models to seamlessly convert to fully online models as the application deployment will be exactly the same. For the interim time period while confidence on the cloud increases Microsoft is doing the patching, the managing and everything but the hosting of the customers’ data
Do note that apart from this Microsoft is continuing to offer Windows Server, Hyper-V, System Center and other server-based components from which these customers can build their own “private clouds” (though these clouds won’t be running Windows Azure; they’ll be based on Windows Server).
More Updates Coming Up!
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