New Datacenter Infrastructure? What to choose, when?

Customers often ask us which choice they should make to renew their on-premises datacenter infrastructure. Should we go for a full public cloud solution? Should we reinvest in ‘traditional’ hardware? What if we are migrating to a Software Defined Datacenter solution? Should we choice for a private cloud solution? Do we need a ‘cloud’ solution? Should we take the hybrid cloud path? And more valid questions are arising in this discussion. Not all customers are familiar with all the options that are available in the Microsoft portfolio today.

This purpose of this blog is to give a decision framework when you should invest in a new datacenter infrastructure. This blog has a focus on the following Microsoft ‘datacenter’ solutions: Azure, Azure Stack, Azure Pack and Windows Server 2016. This blog will not cover a whole explanation about these solutions. It will just briefly mention some key features and make a comparison between the solutions in the context when you should invest in a new datacenter infrastructure.

Ok, you need a new datacenter infrastructure? Where to start?

Before you start, the main question you should answer is: what is your main strategy for the new datacenter? Main strategies could be:

• Re-host (lift & shift): you will just ‘easy and simple’ migrate your current workloads to a new infrastructure. A lift & shift scenario. No specific adjustment will be made to the current workloads;
• Re-platform (lift & re-shape): you will move some current workloads to the new environment and you will re-shape them. You will use more cloud features and capabilities;
• Re-purchase (replace, drop & shop): you will not lift & shift all current workloads to the new environment. But instead of lift & shift you will replace the workloads with other offered solutions like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions;
• Re-architect (re-writing / decoupling applications): you will create a new architecture and you will use modern technologies like: Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) services, containers, micro services, etc.

In practice, most customers are looking for a re-host scenario. Just a “simple” lift & shift migration from the current datacenter infrastructure to a new one. Mostly virtualized workloads are active in the current datacenter solution based om VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V. Some customers are looking for a scenario where some workloads are migrated by a lift & shift scenario but they have also some re-platform requirements. For example, when new applications are introduced (f.e. mobile services). This blog will focus on the re-host and some re-platform scenarios to replace a datacenter infrastructure. Re-purchase and re-architect are not discussed in this blog.

Re-host: lift & shift scenario

If you have decided that a re-host scenario is the best scenario for your company we assume that you just want to lift and shift your virtual machines (workloads) from your current datacenter infrastructure to a new solution. So, you want a quick and simple conversion of your virtual machines to the new environment. For this case there are two possible solutions within the current supported Microsoft datacenter solutions: Azure Pack or Windows Server 2016. Azure and Azure Stack don’t offer the same quick and simple conversion methods as Azure Pack and Windows Server 2016 (Hyper-V). More complex actions are needed when using Azure Stack and/or Azure.

The next question is “Do you need a Self Service Portal?”. Is there a business case for this (private) “cloud” feature? Do you want to give end users the possibility to create and change IT servers/services? If you need a Self Service Portal the best solution for your new datacenter infrastructure is to run Windows Server 2016 with Azure Pack. In this scenario, you will have the capability to easily convert your current workloads to the new environment and have private cloud capabilities with Azure Pack, like the Self Service Portal, in the new datacenter solution. If you don’t need to have a Self Service Portal you could just choose Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V. It is an easy and cost effective solution and you could choice your own hardware (vendor). You can easily migrate your current workloads and still have some Software Defined Datacenter capabilities using Windows Server 2016.

Greenfield scenario

When you don’t have a requirement for a simple re-host: lift & shift scenario for your current workloads than you could choose a greenfield scenario. One of the first question you need to answer is: do you have cloud optimized workloads? Cloud optimized workloads are:

• Fast growing scenario;
• On-Off scenario;
• Predictable bursting scenario;
• Unpredictable bursting scenario.

If you don’t have cloud optimized workloads and your datacenter environment is more or less “stable” and predictable than the next question is: “Do you need a Self Service Portal?”. Is there a business case for (private) “cloud” features? Do you want to give end users the possibility to create and change IT servers/services? If you don’t need a Self Service Portal the best solution to choose is Windows Server 2016 (Hyper-V).

If you need a Self Service Portal, the next question will be: do you have a requirement to use existing hardware or do you want to choose your own hardware? With these sentence we mean: you don’t want to be restricted to choose from a couple of hardware vendors that will offer a complete Azure Stack fabric solution (“hardware appliance”). If you don’t want to invest in a complete new boxed fabric solution or you want to re-use existing hardware the best solution to choose is Windows Server 2016 with Windows Azure Pack.

When you don’t have a requirement to re-use existing hardware or want to be fully free of choice of hardware (be aware: Azure Pack and Windows Server 2016 have also hardware requirements) then the next question is: would it be possible to move all workloads to the public cloud? In this scenario: Microsoft Azure. Are there any regulations that allow you to only run workloads in your own datacenter and not in the public cloud? If the answer is no, could you make a positive business case to move all your workloads to Azure? Think of items like: systems management requirements, financial requirements (Opex/Capex, etc.), technical requirements, etc. If there is a positive business case to move workloads to Azure this is the best solution for your case.

No public cloud requirement

If your company cannot use the public cloud for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) services and/or there is no positive business case to use Microsoft Azure, then you should choose a private or hybrid cloud solution. This blog is written in April 2017. Some customers require a solution implemented in two months from now. So, they could not wait until Azure Stack is General Available (official GA date: “Summer 2017”). If your timeline requires you to implement a solution before September 2017 the next question to be answered is: do you want to use Azure Marketplace items in your own private cloud (“syndication”)? If the answer is yes, you should choose to implement Azure Pack before September 2017 and Azure Stack after September 2017 and run both solutions at the same time using the Azure Pack-Azure Stack-connector. If you don’t have a strict need for Marketplace syndication the next question is: do you want to have full hybrid cloud capabilities? For example, you want to use the same PowerShell scripts to run on Azure and on-premises. If the answer is no, you could use Windows Server 2016 and Azure Pack. If the answer is yes, you should use Azure Pack and Azure Stack together.

Costs & support of Windows Azure Pack

Windows Azure Pack is a product on top of Microsoft Windows Server. It is an on-premises solution that you could run in your own datacenter on your own hardware (see https://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/library/dn296442.aspx). You can also use it free of charge (be aware: you need System Center for SPF). There is no initial fee for the use of Azure Pack or a monthly – pay-as-you-go – fee. Windows Azure Pack could be installed on top of Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2016. When we mention Windows Azure Pack in this blog we assume that you use Windows Server 2016. This option (Azure Pack with Windows Server 2016) is supported by Microsoft until 2022 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search). Windows Azure Pack with Windows Server 2012 is supported until 2017.

Cloud Optimized Workloads

There are some cloud optimized workloads defined:

• Fast growing scenario: in this scenario, your workload growth very fast. It growths so fast that it is almost impossible to size the datacenter for the use of it.
• On-Off scenario: you have a workload or a scenario where you sometimes need a specific workload but not 24 x 7 x 365.
• Predictable bursting scenario: in this scenario, you could predict when you need more resources to host your workload. After the period of bursting you can downsize the resources you allocated (automatic).
• Unpredictable bursting scenario: in this scenario, you know that bursting will happen, but you cannot predict when and how long. So, you need a flexible infrastructure that allocates the resources you need at a specific time to host your application with a good performance.

Management and public cloud IaaS services

Which choice you made for a new datacenter infrastructure, you need to manage this new environment. You could manage all solutions with Microsoft System Center and/or with Microsoft Operations Management Suite (Operations Management + Security). OMS is an Azure public cloud offering to manage your environment: on-premises and in the public cloud, with Microsoft products and Open Source products. OMS capabilities are: back-up, disaster recovery, automation and monitoring. Microsoft System Center is an on-premises management solution that contains different products like: Data Protection Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager, etc.

Whatever solution you choose, it is possible to use public cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) services like back-up (Azure Backup), disaster recovery (Azure Site Recovery), etc.

Decision framework

Below you will find the decision framework for a new datacenter infrastructure based on Microsoft datacenter solutions.

The Solutions

For the purpose for this blog the advantages and disadvantages per solution are mentioned. You can find specific product information at the following resources:

• Azure Stack: https://azure.microsoft.com/overview/azure-stack/
• Azure Pack: https://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/library/dn296435.aspx
• Windows Server 2016: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-server
• Azure Pack Azure Stack connector: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-stack/azure-stack-manage-windows-azure-pack
• Azure: http://azure.microsoft.com

Another “type of solution” / choice I haven’t covered in this blog is: a Hosted Azure Stack scenario. This solution will be offered by regional/local Microsoft partners. We could ompare this type more or less in the decision framework as a public cloud choice.

Offline scenario’s: there are some scenario’s where an offline (on-premises) cloud platform is preferred or even necessary. Examples are offshore scenario’s where there is no connection to the Internet or a very limited bandwidth and/or high latency and scenario’s in manufacturing where a cloud platform should be close to a production environment. If this is the case, Azure is not an option.

Azure Stack:

For the purpose for this blog the advantages and disadvantages of Azure Stack are:

Azure Pack:

For the purpose for this blog the advantages and disadvantages of Azure Pack are:

Windows Server 2016:

For the purpose for this blog the advantages and disadvantages of Windows Server 2016 are:

Azure Pack & Azure Stack:

For the purpose for this blog the advantages and disadvantages of Azure Pack and Azure Stack working together are: