Microsoft launches Azure Stack HCI in India

Microsoft India has announced the general availability of Azure Stack HCI, a new hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution, that combines the flexibility, scalability, and price-performance advantages of hyperconverged infrastructure with native Azure hybrid capabilities.

Part of the Azure Stack portfolio, it provides organizations seamless access to Microsoft Azure for hybrid cloud scenarios across datacenters, remote offices, cloud and edge locations Compatible with both Windows and Linux virtual machines, Azure Stack HCI solutions will be available from 20 partners offering Microsoft-validated hardware systems to ensure optimal performance and reliability.

As organizations rebuild their businesses, an effective multi-cloud, multi-edge hybrid approach will be vital. It provides them the much-required agility, efficiency and resilience, while staying compliant.  For most large enterprises or highly regulated industries, a hybrid approach makes the most sense, keeping in mind latency, regulations, data sovereignty, or complexity in moving large volumes of legacy data to cloud. Moreover, it helps organizations to scale existing infrastructure, maximizing value from on-premise investments, seamlessly maintain business continuity, secure resources, and unlock new business scenarios.

Azure Stack HCI aims to empower businesses by enabling them to build and run cloud-native applications with seamless access to cloud services on-premises with existing tool, processes, and skillsets. It combines infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) services in a software stack that spans on-premises datacenters and Microsoft’s Azure cloud, providing the latest and up to date security, performance, and feature updates. With Azure Stack HCI, organizations can:

• Modernize and secure datacenters: Update foundation infrastructure; gain better efficiency and lower costs; and simplify governance and operations.
• Affordably modernize branch offices: Azure HCI Stack provides cost-efficient IT infrastructure resources including to remote locations, improves storage availability & resilience, and streamlines distributed workloads.
• Experience industry-best performance for high-end workload: The solution supports multiple database transactions with very low latency.
• Use Virtual Desktops infrastructure with edge computing: Brings desktops on-prem for low latency and data sovereignty enabling remote work in a secure and compliant manner.

It can be scaled according to workload of enterprises and provides access to familiar tools from Microsoft as well as popular third-party tools.  A Microsoft pay-as-you-go subscription model promises to deliver flexibility and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).