Microsoft focuses on hybrid cloud, announces availability of Azure Stack HCI solution in India

Microsoft India on Thursday announced the general availability of Azure Stack HCI, a new hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution.

Part of the Azure Stack portfolio, Azure Stack HCI provides organisations access to Microsoft Azure for hybrid cloud scenarios across data centres, remote offices, cloud and edge locations.

The solutions compatible with both Windows and Linux virtual machines, will be available from 20 partners offering Microsoft-validated hardware systems to ensure optimal performance and reliability.

A multi-cloud, hybrid approach is convenient for organisations looking to accelerate their digital transformation, especially for most large enterprises or highly regulated industries.

For them, a hybrid approach is more convenient considering latency, regulations, data sovereignty, or complexity in moving large volumes of legacy data to cloud.

“Moreover, it will help organisations scale existing infrastructure, maximise value from on-premises investments, seamlessly maintain business continuity, secure resources, and unlock new business scenarios,” Microsoft said.

Azure Stack HCI plans to enable businesses to build and run cloud-native applications with seamless access to cloud services on-premises with existing tool, processes, and skillsets. It aims to “commoditise” hybrid cloud.

The solution combines infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) services in a software stack that spans on-premises data centres and Microsoft’s Azure cloud, providing the latest and up-to-date security, performance, and feature updates.

It can be further scaled according to the workload of enterprises. Enterprises can get access to familiar tools from Microsoft as well as popular third-party tools. The tech giant will provide a Microsoft pay-as-you-go subscription model to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO).

“The role of hybrid cloud has transformed from being integrator of data centres with the public cloud to enabler of day-to-day business functions,” Rajiv Sodhi, COO, Microsoft India said.

“With our cloud-native approach, we aim to help customers realise higher value HCI through quick deployment and integration that leverages familiar management and tools with flexible Azure subscription pricing. This will enable organisations to be adaptive, agile, efficient, and responsive across locations, optimising operations and IT cost efficiency in an increasingly remote work environment today.”

The tech giant is collaborating with Intel on taking Azure Stack HCI to the market. Intel will support Azure Stack HCI through a broad set of technologies foundational to scaling, processing, and moving workloads. Intel Select Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI will combine software with hardware capabilities to deliver an intelligent cloud for all.

“Modern Indian enterprises consider the cloud to be an essential investment that lies at the heart of their digital transformation efforts, creating the scale and cost efficiencies they need. Enterprises are increasingly turning to hybrid cloud models to modernise their infrastructure for flexibility in workload placement without compromising on performance and security,” said Prakash Mallya, VP and MD – Sales, Marketing and Communications Group, Intel India.

“Azure Stack HCI simplifies how IT can access Azure services based on what makes sense for their business, whether that is on premises or in the cloud. Intel Select Solutions combine Intel-based hardware with Microsoft Azure Stack HCI to form the basis for simplified, low-cost, hyperconverged infrastructure by enabling scalable storage, compute and memory,” added Mallya.

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