In our overview post about hybrid cloud solutions, we introduced Azure Stack HCI and briefly talked about the different solutions within Azure Arc – Azure Arc enabled servers, enabled for data, and enabled for Kubernetes. In this post we discuss further the key drivers of our customers to use Azure Arc for data and elaborate on some core technical aspects.

Did you know that DexMach is the 4th enabled Microsoft Azure Stack partner worldwide? If you have any questions on hybrid cloud solutions, you are at the right place. We have a cloud first approach – not from on-premises to cloud, but from cloud to on-premises. We provide the tools and automation to extend to on-premises or multi-cloud environment. Feel free to reach out to us, schedule a call at the end of the article.  

Alternatively, for a high-level use case design custom-made to your organization, opt directly for our 3 days’ Azure Hybrid Cloud Solutions Workshop.

The future of the public cloud is looking very bright. However, the reality is that the hybrid model will remain relevant for a very long time. This has several reasons: 

• Regulations requiring resources to remain in a sovereign region where there is no possibility to use public cloud 
• Existing on-premise datacenter or cloud investments 
• Fragmentation of the IT landscape across different landing zones within multiple clouds 

The challenge in this case is to have an efficient operating model. Keeping different technological platforms aligned is a daunting and sometimes impossible task. 

This goes double for data workloads, where on top of a large storage and compute need also a governance model comes into play. 

• What data do I have? 
• Where is it allowed to be stored? 
• Who is allowed to use it? 

• How can I ensure quality control? 
• How do I keep my data platform up-to-date and secure? 
• How can I scale my data consumption? 

Azure Arc-enabled data services allow customers to run Azure SQL and Azure PostgreSQL databases on-premises and in multicloud environments on infrastructure of their choice. Customers would gain Azure innovations and cloud benefits, including a cloud billing model that helps to manage costs efficiently. 

Azure Arc recognizes and solves these issues by allowing you to bring your own environment (based on Kubernetes) and have Microsoft put compliant, centralized and cloud-native services inside of it. This enables the following data workloads, which were born in Azure, to be deployed within any cloud of your choosing: 

• Azure SQL Managed Instance 
• Postgres SQL Hyperscale 

All you need to bring over these capabilities, is to rollout a Kubernetes environment in your on-premise environment, AWS or Google Cloud are these 2 easy steps: 

• Install the client tools 

• Deploy the Arc Data Controller 

This will prepare your Kubernetes environment for the provisioning of ARC workloads and register with the Azure portal. 

From this point on you can use your favorite Azure tools like az-cli, Data Studio and the Azure Portal to rollout and manage data workloads on virtually ANY platform. 

Because this is a subscription-based service, updates to the fabric will trickle down automatically to your environment, ensuring that you are always running the latest versions as well as avoiding the operational overhead of manual updates. 

Thanks to this service, you can provide your business with the capability of having a data platform that runs anywhere, can be secured centrally and consumed in a self-service fashion. Creating, removing and sizing workloads are click-of-a-button operations and scale as far as your environment can go. 

During the preview period of this service, there is no cost attached to the use of this service (aside from your environment costs). So don’t hesitate to get started! 

Dexmach aims to provide cloud-native capabilities to your IT organization. It does this by having an exclusive focus on Azure technologies in combination with applying industry reference architectures, best practices and notes from the field. 

There are different teams specializing in the many aspects of the cloud landscape, amongst which container and data workloads. Due to this holistic approach, a customer can consume services and advisory for across the eco-system and have a well-architected, well-integrated solution regardless of components or complexity. 

If you are in need of a helping hand, whether just to take the first steps or hold your hand along the entire journey, Dexmach is here! We were Microsoft partner of the year in 2020 and finalist in 2021, and earned numerous Microsoft Advanced Specializations. But besides the theory, we have quite some happy customers and years of field experience earned through those real-life projects.