Microsoft Private Cloud

Journalists, decisions makers, IT-pro`s, developers, farmers, users, consumers, and my mother.

What? What do these peoples have in common?

-          They all have their very own definition of the cloud

First of all, many people believe that a cloud computing is an all-or-nothing “thing”, and that you either have it, or you don`t.

And this is – of course not true.

It`s not a secret that I work a lot with Microsoft technology. Both the products that embraces the public cloud, but most of the time, the private cloud.

Most of the people I speak with have some sort of understanding that Windows Azure is located in the public cloud – somewhere, and somehow. That is great, or at least a beginning. But if the talk moves toward the thing called “private cloud”, people seem to tune out.

Who should know what a Private Cloud is, and why should they care?

Recently, I got the honor to be made as a moderator In the SCVMM forum, and I`m now able to underline the important foundation of a private cloud for the persons who asks the questions. It may be an IT-pro, it may be a developer, it may also be a farmer – I don`t know, but they get their answers.

The most common misunderstanding is as follows:

“We got server virtualization, so yes, we have a Private Cloud”

Microsoft`s approach to a private cloud is much more than “just” server virtualization.

So far, this article may sound a bit disorderly, so once again I will try to start at the beginning.

Cloud computing is far more than server virtualization.

A highly virtualized infrastructure is not cloud computing, but an important stepping stone towards cloud computing. You can even do cloud computing without virtualization. But who has the money for that, and who does not want to use virtualization in the first place, even if they discard the entire cloud-extension?

For that`s what it is. A private cloud is an extension to your already highly virtualized datacenter. It brings in some important and useful mechanism into your organization.

We`re talking about being able to scale out and in, the users can provisioning their own resources – when they need it. Things are fault tolerant at many layers and most important – your business saves money because a cloud is optimizing the resources, and gives the organization a chance to respond to peaks, new business requirements, and new markets. And add automation to all the processes, and you`ll see that it`s far more than just server virtualization.

I always use NIST`s definition of cloud computing as my reference: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/800-145/Draft-SP-800-145_cloud-definition.pdf

To work with cloud computing, and private cloud in general, it`s important to know the following.

·         What is cloud computing

·         What is the composition of a private cloud with Microsoft products

·         What business am I in

You have to know these factors to be able to work with a private cloud, and you have to become an expert in using this technology.

Cloud computing is a major paradigm shift, and there are so many new opportunities for entire industry, whether you are an IT-pro or a developer.

Know the difference between the deployment models (public, private, hybrid), and know the different service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and what Microsoft offers.

A private cloud is mostly about Infrastructure – as a Service.

The products that summarize the composition of a private cloud is:

·         Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V

·         Active Directory

·         DNS

·         ADFS

·         System Center Virtual Machine Manager

·         System Center Operations Manager

·         System Center Configuration Manager

·         System Center Data Protection Manager

·         System Center Self Service Portal

·         System Center Orchestrator

·         System Center Service Manager

·         System Center App Controller

As you can see, a cloud is more than the virtual layer, which Hyper-V stands for. You`ll also need management, automation, operations, security, and support.  

So, to take advantage of this, train your skills on the additional layers that composite a cloud, and not only the infrastructure and the virtualization-part.