Extending the power of Microsoft Azure to your datacenter
As government agencies contend with tighter budgets and growing amounts of data, many are turning to the cloud for at least some of their operations. Indeed, a lot of governmental organizations are moving everyday capabilities like email and web hosting to the public cloud. And some are migrating servers and storage. Yet many remain hesitant about migrating all their workloads to the cloud, citing data sovereignty and security as prohibitive factors.
The good news is that Microsoft introduced a new hybrid cloud platform that makes it easy for government agencies to embrace the cloud at a pace and scale that match their comfort level. Microsoft Azure Stack enables governments to deliver cloud-based services from their own datacenters in a way that’s consistent with Microsoft Azure, essentially allowing organizations to take advantage of the public, private, and hosted cloud, however and whenever they choose.
By choosing Microsoft Azure, governments can deliver truly innovative digital citizen services and promote economic opportunity—at the same time they improve security. And with Azure Stack, governments can embrace a truly hybrid environment in which they decide which data to store in the public or private cloud. For example, they can keep confidential data on-premises, while moving non-sensitive data to the cloud. Or they can keep most of their data on-premises, using the public cloud for large data computations or to scale up during busy times of the year. As circumstances change, agencies can seamlessly move workloads between their on-premises environments and the public cloud.
Azure Stack is the first truly hybrid platform, allowing governments to easily and flexibly operate their workloads wherever they see fit. They can introduce infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) capabilities into their on-premises datacenter. They can also take advantage of a “write once, deploy to Azure or Azure Stack” approach, in which applications are built and deployed in the same manner no matter where they are housed. This is possible because Azure Stack uses the same APIs as Azure. This level of consistency also enables a single set of management and automation tools to operate across both cloud environments.
Azure Stack is changing the conversations we are having with government customers, many of whom tell us they’re excited to take advantage of this highly flexible hybrid environment. To prepare, many government agencies are working to classify their data, specifying what information should be considered confidential and what control mechanisms will be used to protect different data sets. By developing sound data governance programs, government agencies can strategically prepare for this new hybrid cloud environment. Microsoft is working with leading government organizations through the process of understanding their systems, workloads, and data by delivering data governance and classification workshops for its customers. As they categorize their data sets, governments can align each category to the cloud deployment model—private, public, or hosted—that best meets their needs.
Azure Stack is a game-changer—one that enables government agencies to truly embrace the cloud on their terms. To learn more, please read our whitepaper, “Taking the cloud to your datacenter” and our previous blog post, “Announcing the First Technical Preview of Microsoft Azure Stack.” Also, look to request a trial: Azure Government Trial, Office 365 Government Trial.
