Windows Azure Hybrid Cloud

An essential resource for implementing and managing a cloud infrastructure in Azure Serving as a critical resource for anyone responsible for strategizing, architecting, implementing or managing a cloud infrastructure, this book helps you understand what is hybrid IT and how it's applicable (and inevitable) in today's world of emerging cloud. The team of authors focus on the Microsoft concept of a private/public cloud, deploying a private cloud fabric, deploying services, and building a private cloud, as well as integrating it with Microsoft's public cloud to create a cross-premises or public cloud. Looks at why hybrid IT is important to a business and what benefits a business can expect by adopting hybrid cloud Examines a cloud management platform and discusses why it is necessary Walks you through the different kinds of solutions for IT problems that may arise Places a focus on considerations for ensuring resiliency, availability, and scalability when designing hybrid solutions to prevent system failure and data loss Covers optimizing the performance of the hybrid cloud as well as using tools that help you monitor and manage the performance of the hybrid cloud Windows Azure Hybrid Cloud helps you gain a better understanding of the hybrid IT environments, why those clouds should be implemented, and how they impact business.

INTRODUCTION xiii CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS HYBRID IT? 1 The Thing They Call the “Cloud” 1 Cloud Service Models 2 Infrastructure-as-a-Service — The Leasing Option 3 Platform-as-a-Service — The Rental Option 4 Software-as-a-Service — The Public Transportation Option 5 What Are the Trends That You Should Watch? 7 Trends towards IaaS 8 Trends towards SaaS 9 What Are the Characteristics of a Cloud? 10 Broad Network Access 11 Resource Pooling 12 (Rapid) Elasticity 14 Chargeback (Measured Service) 17 Self-Service 19 Private Clouds 20 Hybrid Cloud 23 Hybrid Cloud Scenarios 23 Motivation and Issues behind Hybrid Cloud 27 Summary 29 CHAPTER 2: WHY IS THE HYBRID CLOUD IMPORTANT TO MY BUSINESS? 30 Everyone Else Is Doing It 31 Cutting Costs for the Short Term 33 Outsourcing Data Security Responsibilities 34 A Case for Hybrid Cloud 36 Diff erentiating Yourself from the Competition 36 Enhancing Strategic Position (Reducing Nonperforming Assets) 38 Easing Mergers and Acquisitions 40 Summary 42 CHAPTER 3: PROJECT PLANNING 43 Envisioning and Scoping 44 Gathering Business Objectives 44 Mapping Technical Solutions to Business Objectives (Building Business Requirements) 53 Formulating Technical Requirements 53 Discovery and Assessment 54 What Is the Desired End State? 55 Prioritizing Your Objectives 56 Building the Solution 57 Organizational Changes 58 Deployment Planning 61 Gaining Executive-Level Sponsorship 63 Augmenting/Modifying Business Processes 71 Formulating the Vision and Scope Document 73 Summary 76 CHAPTER 4: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WINDOWS AZURE AS A PLATFORM 78 Execution Models 78 Websites 79 Cloud Services 81 Virtual Machines 83 Choosing the Right Execution Model 85 Data Management 85 SQL Database 86 Storage: Tables, Blobs, and Queues 87 CDN 90 Big Data 91 Messaging and Integration Components 93 Service Bus 93 Virtual Network 95 Traffi c Manager 101 BizTalk Services 101 Media Services 101 Mobile Services 103 Supporting Services 105 Caching 105 Identity Management 107 Software Development Kits 110 Summary 110 CHAPTER 5: PRIVATE CLOUD COMPONENTS AND SERVICES THAT HELP TO BUILD HYBRID CLOUDS 112 The Cloud Management Platform 113 Self-Service 114 Service Delivery 117 Process Orchestration 119 Management and Operations 119 Automation 121 Integrating System Center and Windows Azure 122 Application Self-Service across Clouds 122 Cloud Management and Operations 125 Networking 128 Virtual Networks 129 Identity Management 131 Summary 133 CHAPTER 6: HYBRID OPTIONS IN WINDOWS AZURE 134 On-Premises Service Integrated with Cloud Service 135 Using Windows Azure Service Bus 136 Using Windows Azure Virtual Network 137 Cloud Service Integrated with On-Premises Service 137 On-Premises Application Integrated with Low-Cost Windows Azure Storage 138 Cloud Service Integrated with Confidential Data Storage 139 Cloud Bursting, or Batching at Scale 140 Development and Test Cloud Infrastructure 141 Windows Azure as a Disaster Recovery (DR) Site 143 Service Bus as an Integration Hub 144 Enabling Modern Applications 145 Virtual Desktops in Windows Azure 146 Summary 146 CHAPTER 7: DESIGNING FOR RESILIENCY AND SCALABILITY 148 Building Resilient Solutions 149 Fault Domains 149 Upgrade Domains 149 Private Cloud Fault and Upgrade Domain Considerations 151 What Does High Availability Really Mean? 153 Resiliency Patterns and Considerations 154 Designing for Business Continuity 158 Infrastructure Redundancy 158 Data Durability and Backup 159 Geo-Replication 160 Planning Hybrid Cloud Site Disaster Recovery 160 Redeploy on Disaster 161 Active/Passive Deployment 161 Active/Active Deployment 162 Designing Scalable Hybrid Cloud Solutions 162 Scale-Out, Not Scale-Up 163 Scaling-Out through Scale Units 163 Compress Density of Scale 164 Summary 165 CHAPTER 8: OPTIMIZING FOR PERFORMANCE 166 Cloud Application Performance Fundamentals 167 Storage Types and Data Location 168 Optimizing Network Throughput and Latency 170 Affi nity Groups 172 Summary 174 CHAPTER 9: MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT FOR SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS 175 Change Is the New Normal 175 Monitoring the Hybrid Cloud 176 Unified Monitoring 177 Scenarios and Use Cases for Monitoring 178 Integration of Operations Manager and Service Manager 180 Unified Management 181 Orchestration Considerations 181 Service Management Considerations 182 Systems Management Considerations 182 Summary 183 CHAPTER 10: FINAL HYBRID CLOUD CONSIDERATIONS 185 How Do I Execute My Hybrid Cloud Initiative? 186 Analyzing Skill Sets 186 Moving toward a Converged Infrastructure 189 Managing Stakeholder Objections 189 The Hybrid Cloud Admin 192 Embracing Continual Improvement 193 When Is It Time to Jump Onboard? 193 The Time Is Now — the Tipping Point 194 Summary 195