Azure Stack HCI delivers an effective blend of application performance and ease of management. This makes it a great solution for remote office/edge use cases, desktop virtualization such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), Microsoft SQL Server and other resource intensive workloads, and container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes. It is structured to use Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) technology from Microsoft for the infrastructure elements, namely compute, storage, networking, and security. Effective for running existing apps with improved efficiency, it also lets you connect to Azure for hybrid cloud scenarios such as backup, cloud-based monitoring, and other Azure services.

Azure Stack HCI is factory installed on certified AX nodes from Dell Technologies, and supports familiar Windows Server Datacenter components and management tools such as:

• Hyper-V (SDC)
• Storage Spaces Direct (S2D)
• Software Defined Networking (SDN) (optional) 
• Windows Admin Center 
• Azure services
• PowerShell for scripting and automation

In this chapter, we will deep dive into the solution architecture of Azure Stack HCI with a walkthrough into its building blocks: 

• Hardware ecosystem
• Elements of Software Defined Data Center (SDDC)
• Container platforms
• Hybrid Cloud scenarios
• Management tools

Figure 13.    Solution architecture of Azure Stack HCI