One of the biggest parts of Microsoft Inspire’s announcement is about Microsoft’s Azure. Microsoft Inspire has launched the latest member of Microsoft’s hybrid portfolio the next generation of Azure Stack HCI.
It is a native and fully integrated Azure service that gives customers the easiest and fastest way to integrate their data center with the cloud. Customers can use their existing skills as well as manage their Azure Stack HCI systems, Windows Server and Linux virtual machines from Azure Portal, just like any other Azure resource, according to Microsoft announcement.
Azure Migrate
Azure Migrate comes with new enhancements. This enables users to conduct data center assessments using uploaded Configuration Management Database data, new support for Azure VMware Solutions assessments. There are additional Azure disks and networking enhancements, including shared disks for Azure Disk Storage, private links for exporting and importing data securely over a private network and support for third-party virtual appliances within virtual wide-area network hubs, like Barracuda. Moreover, users can a new HDInsight cluster based on Apache code that is built and supported by Microsoft.
Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage has the support of the Network File System (NFS) 3.0. This provides support for read-heavy data workloads across media, energy and financial services.
Microsoft states that:
“Now in public preview, this upgrade helps remove data silos by serving as the only storage platform that supports NFS protocol over objects, with object storage economics. Customers must move data frequently and within various storage platforms. NFS on Blob Storage helps customers remove silos and run applications at scale.”
HashiCorp Consul Service (HCS) is available on Azure. HCS on Azure is a fully managed service that enables customers to natively provision HashiCorp-managed Consul clusters directly through their Azure dashboard in multiple Azure regions.