Applying cloud goodness to your existing environments

By Pierre Roman, Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft

19/08/2022

The Azure logo, with a drawing of Bit the Raccoon looking up at it.

We have been bombarded with marketing telling us that the future is the cloud and that we must migrate everything. The reality is that hybrid, I believe, is a permanent state. It’s not just a transition. A lot of IT Pros wonder how to get started – to integrate the goodness of cloud services in a way that brings value and efficiencies without the need for a complete rip and replace.

Case in point, I spoke to a conference attendee last month in Vienna and he made a statement that stuck with me. He basically said that it was easier to find guidance on migrating everything than finding guidance on slowly integrating cloud services in his environment when it makes sense. I can’t confirm his findings, but I can agree that finding the right information for each specific situation can sometimes be challenging.

Our approach to hybrid environments is to be consistent – it’s the way we enable unified management, common identity framework and security. Taking that approach also allows for seamless extension to the cloud when it makes sense for you. This is where technologies like Azure Arc are so impactful as they simplify the way to provide a centralised, unified way to:

Manage your entire environment together by projecting your existing non-Azure and/or on-premises resources into Azure Resource Manager.
Manage virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, and databases as if they are running in Azure regardless of their location.
Use familiar Azure services and management capabilities, regardless of where they live.
Continue using traditional ITOps while introducing DevOps practices to support new cloud native patterns in your environment.
Configure custom locations as an abstraction layer on top of Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters and cluster extensions.

To that end, our team has started a series that will take you on a journey. A journey of a typical on-prem only environment where we gradually implement cloud services to lighten up efficiencies and the power of cloud services to the benefit of the business. Step by step, with a look at why and not just how you too should look at cloud services:

More articles will be added to this list in the near future. However, we are very interested in hearing about your challenges in this area, and as such we have set up an email address you can use to tell us about the scenarios you are challenged with. You can reach us at ITOpsTalk-Feedback@microsoft.com or as usual on our discord server.

Cheers!