Lots of On-Premises Content at Cloud Camp 18

August 20, 2018

Moving everything into The Cloud isn’t always the right strategy. You might have on-premises systems that are still relatively new. Some services need to be local to run a factory, manage a ship, or because of special regulatory/security needs. And Microsoft has you covered.

Microsoft believes that cloud is how you work, not where you work. Because of this, Microsoft’s cloud strategy has covered three areas that can be tightly integrated:

Public cloud: Such as Office 365, CRM 365, and Azure.
Hosting partners: Systems that can offer specialist equipment, skills, locations, run by Microsoft partners.
On-premises: Featuring Microsoft’s on-premises products.

No cloud company has done more for the on-premises investment than Microsoft. For example, Azure features many hybrid solutions including:

Azure AD
Azure Backup for VMware & Hyper-V
Azure Site Recovery for VMware & Hyper-V
StorSimple on VMware & Hyper-V
Azure File Sync
Database integration/replication
App Services hybrid connections
Service Bus
Log Analytics (OMS)
Security Center
Automation hybrid workers
And more!

As you can see, “hybrid” is more than a network connection – which Microsoft can handle through VPN and WAN connections. We haven’t even mentioned the private cloud solution, Azure Stack!

Secure connections from Azure to on-premises data/services using Hybrid Connections [Image Credit: Microsoft]

The common foundation for all of this is Windows Server. Many have the incorrect notion that Microsoft has abandoned development of Windows Server; nothing could be further from the truth. Microsoft is nearing the completion of Windows Server 2019 (complete with a GUI) for their long-term servicing channel release – there is also a semi-annual channel release for those applications that need the latest features as quickly as Microsoft develops them. We expect that Windows Server 2019 will be launched at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Orlando at the end of September, probably with availability in mid-late October (if history is a good indicator). There’s lots of new stuff in Windows Sever 2019, particularly if you like hyper-converged infrastructure, high performance networking, clustering, containers, security, and more.

We have a whole track at Cloud Camp focused on the on-premises investment – we’re treating this event as the unofficial Irish launch of Windows Server 2019. Thomas Maurer (MVP) has a session on the new features of the LTSC release, Kartik Pullabhotla (Microsoft Azure) is doing a session on protecting on-premises Windows/VMware assets using Azure, Gregor Reimling will discuss improving your file servers with Azure File Sync, Eric Berg (MVP) will discuss the HTML5-based Windows Admin Center, and Thomas will return to talk about Azure Stack, Microsoft’s private cloud package that is sold by a number of hardware partners.

Windows Admin Center – the next generation FREE administration toolkit for Windows Server [Image Credit: Microsoft]

So, if you want to learn about what Windows Server 2019 can offer, the new ways to manage your Windows servers/hosts, improving existing investments in your IT, or bringing cloud to your location, Cloud Camp has an entire track for you.