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In today's article in our continuing series on Modernizing Your Infrastructure with Hybrid Cloud, my good friend and colleague Matt Hester provides a great technical overview of Hyper-V over SMB. Matt walks us through configuration steps via GUI tools and PowerShell, and he also provides a list of additional useful resources for learning more.
From Matt's article: "In Windows Server 2012 R2 you can now store virtual machine files, such as configuration, Virtual hard disk (VHDX) files, and snapshots, in file shares over the SMB 3.02 protocol. This can be used for both stand-alone file servers and clustered file servers that use Hyper-V together with shared file storage for the cluster. By leveraging two new features of SMB 3.02 (SMB Direct and SMB Multichannel) on a file server hosting the VHDX drives for your Hyper-V cluster, you can see storage performance on your Hyper-V guests that approaches that of a built-in server storage. Not only that, but those Hyper-V guests enjoy the resiliency of a failover network to help avoid any outages!" ... and, all at a much lower cost than traditional shared storage solutions!
READ MATT'S FULL ARTICLE HERE!
In today's article in our Modernizing Your Infrastructure with Hybrid Cloud series, Matt Hester returns to walk us step-by-step through implementing Storage Spaces in Windows Server 2012 R2.
In Windows Server 2012 R2, storage is a "first-class citizen", with enterprise options such as storage virtualization, automated tiering and NTFS de-duplication integrated into the in-box Storage Spaces feature set. In many organizations, storage represents a huge and growing part of the capital IT budget when migrating servers. By smartly leveraging Windows Server 2012 R2 and Storage Spaces, these costs can be substantially reduced. This approach can also provide opportunities for organizations to re-invest these dollars in new IT projects for increased business impact. With Windows Server 2012 R2, Storage Spaces really can be Your Next SAN!
Kevin Remde and Dan Stolts continue our Modernizing Your Infrastructure with Hybrid Cloud series with an overview on how to plan for a hybrid cloud storage solution using Windows Server 2012 R2 and Microsoft Azure. Tune in for this lively discussion on the many storage options available to you as well as discussions around performance, reliability and security.
Download this video for offline viewing.
WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HERE!
In today's article in our Modernizing Your Infrastructure with Hybrid Cloud series, Jennelle Crothers provides advice on which applications you should consider prioritizing FIRST for a migration to Microsoft Azure.
From Jennelle's article: "Let's take a look at some common cloud computing patterns and scenarios where they might be useful. With the end of life of Windows Server 2003, you might be taking a close look at the functions and applications in your data center. Now is the time to modernize and mature the systems and tools you use to keep your company (and your skill set) working ..."
Common Cloud Computing Workloads and Scenarios
READ JENNELLE'S FULL ARTICLE HERE!
How much can I really expect to save by migrating workloads to the Cloud? In today's article in our Modernizing Your Infrastructure with Hybrid Cloud series, Dan Stolts shows us how to easily answer this question by using the new Microsoft Azure IaaS Cost Estimator Tool.
Microsoft Azure IaaS Cost Estimator Tool
Whether your current environment is running server workloads on physical servers or virtual machines hosted on Hyper-V, VMware or Amazon AWS, this tool can help you analyze the real CPU, memory, disk and network requirements for each workload and use "What If?" cost analysis to estimate costs for running those workloads in the cloud as Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines.
READ DAN'S COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE!
In today's article in our Modernizing Your Infrastructure with Hybrid Cloud series, Kevin Remde answers the question "Are my servers and services able to be migrated to Microsoft Azure?". Kevin walks us step-by-step through using the new FREE Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines Readiness Assessment tool to analyze our current on-premises Active Directory, SQL Server and SharePoint Server services. The resulting output provides detailed readiness guidance regarding migration of these services to Azure.
Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Readiness Assessment Tool
READ KEVIN'S FULL ARTICLE HERE!
Every successful migration project starts with an effective PLAN. In today's article in our Modernizing Your Infrastructure with Hybrid Cloud series, Dan Stolts walks us step-by-step through leveraging the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP Toolkit) to assess our current IT infrastructure and begin planning our migration towards a Hybrid Cloud strategy with Windows Server 2012 R2 and Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP Toolkit)
READ TODAY'S ARTICLE HERE!
With End-of-Support for Windows Server 2003 rapidly approaching, lots of organizations are leveraging this time to modernize infrastructure to reduce costs and improve flexibility. Today, we're kicking off a new series across our US IT Pro team to help organizations step through the planning process to just migrate servers, but also improve overall architecture along the way by smartly leveraging Hybrid Cloud components as part of the migration strategy.
Tune in for Part 1 of this multi-part series where Matt Hester and Keith Mayer discuss the importance of planning for your organization’s move to Windows Server 2012 R2 and Microsoft Azure. Along the way, they'll also explore and demo some of the tools that can help accelerate your migration plans.
Be sure to check out these additional resources: