Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Information New and Improved

So you’ve had an earful about cloud computing and you’ve read all about it. You’ve decided that maybe private cloud is something that you need to look into. Maybe you’ve read through the entire Reference Architecture for Private Cloud and get what the difference is between a private cloud and a traditional data center. You even understand that private cloud is more than just a highly virtualized infrastructure and know that some applications might not be a best fit for private cloud while other applications have been waiting for private cloud.

If some or all of this is true, you’re probably curious about how do you build a private cloud infrastructure. What are the hardware and software requirements and how to you put the whole thing together?

One answer is the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track. What is Private Cloud Fast Track? The Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Program is a joint effort between Microsoft and several private cloud hardware partners. The goal of the Private Cloud Fast Track program is to help you decrease the time, complexity, and risk of implementing a Microsoft private cloud.

The Microsoft Private Cloud Fast guidance includes:

Reference implementation guidance
We’ve tested the configurations in the lab and validated this guidance for implementing multiple Microsoft products and technologies with hardware that meets specific hardware requirements that are vendor-agnostic. You can use this information to implement a private cloud infrastructure with hardware you already own or plan to purchase.

The Fast Track document set consists of the following:

• Reference Architecture Guide: This guide details a reference architecture that incorporates many Microsoft product and consulting team best practices. The architecture is the foundation for a highly available, scalable, secure, and manageable private cloud with high performance. While all organizations will find it of value, it will prove most useful to medium through large enterprise environments.
• Reference Deployment Guide: This guide provides detailed installation and configuration steps to deploy the physical architecture detailed in the reference architecture guide.
• Reference Operations Guide: This guide includes many of the operational tasks that are often executed in a private cloud environment.

Reference implementations
Microsoft hardware partners define physical architectures with compute, network, storage, and value-added software components that meet (or exceed) the minimum hardware requirements defined in the reference implementation documents. Each reference implementation is validated by Microsoft and made available for you to purchase. Further details can be found by reading the information at Private Cloud How To Buy.

You have the choice of building the solution by using the reference implementation documents or you can purchase a reference implementation from a Microsoft hardware partner that couples the guidance with optimized hardware configurations. Although both options decrease the time, cost, and risk in implementing private clouds, purchasing a reference implementation from a Microsoft hardware partner will result in the fastest, lowest-risk solution. This is because all of the hardware and software best practices have been determined by both Microsoft and hardware partners’ engineering teams. With all of this up front work having been done for you it might prove to be the most inexpensive option for your organization.

HTH,

Tom
Tom Shinder
tomsh@microsoft.com
Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX Solutions Group
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