Dell EMC Embraces Microsoft Azure Stack

Hybrid cloud computing is always going to be simpler when every data center involved is running the same operating environment. With that goal in mind, Dell EMC today announced Dell EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack platform, an instance of the operating system Microsoft employs on its Azure cloud that can be run in a local data center on Dell EMC servers.

Peter Cutts, senior vice president for Hybrid Cloud Platforms at Dell EMC, says offerings such as Dell EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack platform effectively blur the line between public and private clouds in a way that gives IT organizations more control over application deployments. In some cases, it makes sense to deploy an application in a public cloud to reduce costs and improve overall agility. But there are long-running and latency sensitive applications that are more cost-effective to deploy in a local data center. There are also plenty of instances where data sovereignty laws and security concerns make it unfeasible to deploy an application on a public cloud.

Rather than being wedded to a specific computing model, Cutts says IT organizations should have platforms in place that make it easier for them to adapt to different application requirements.

Of course, Dell EMC, in partnership with sister company VMware, has been already moving in this direction. VMware can be deployed on public clouds offered by any number of cloud service providers, including IBM and Virtustream, another arm of Dell EMC. At the same time, Dell EMC has also been steadily aligning its cloud strategy with Microsoft.

Cutts says the real effort IT organizations need to make in an age where multiple clouds are available is to classify their applications as they are being deployed. Based on that classification, the applications should then be deployed on the IT infrastructure platform best suited to run it from a cost, performance and compliance perspective.

“It should be about matching the IT operations to the model,” says Cutts.

Of course, making that adjustment will require a lot more maturity on the part of the IT organization. But as multiple clouds eventually evolve into hybrid environments spanning both public and private clouds, it’s now only a matter of time before most of them successfully adjust.