Azure Stack with PowerScale
Mon, 17 Aug 2020 18:44:45 -0000
|Read Time: 0 minutes
Dell EMC Integrated System for Microsoft Azure Stack Hub has been at the forefront in bringing Azure to customer datacenters, enabling customers to operate their own region of Azure in a secure environment that addresses their data sovereignty and performance needs.
As data growth explodes at the edge, many of our customers are looking to process PB scale data in the context of file, image/video processing, analytics, simulation, and learning. With Azure Stack Hub, built on hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), the need for external storage to handle this growth in data was critical. Additionally, for applications that use file storage with CIFS/NFS today, Azure files storage service is currently not supported.
As we set out to identify the right storage subsystem that met our customers’ needs (with performance, multi-tenancy, multi-petabyte scale-out storage, and advanced data management features), we did not have to look far. Dell Technologies has a large product portfolio that enables us not only to integrate with other infrastructures but to innovate in other areas to deliver the Azure consistent experience our customers expect.
With newly announced Azure Stack Hub integration with Dell EMC PowerScale, customers can run their Azure IaaS and PaaS on-premises while connecting to data that is generated and stored locally. In the context of Azure consistency, depending on your application needs, there are two ways to consume this storage.
- Azure Consistent Storage (ACS): Applications that are using Azure Block Blob storage
- Integrated NAS (File Storage): NFS and CIFS
Here are some highlights about the choices and differences:
Regardless of your protocol of choice, you have two personas engaged:
- The Azure Stack Hub Cloud administrator (screen below) is responsible for creating offers, quotas, and plans to offer the underlying storage, via subscriptions, to Azure tenants.
- The Azure Stack tenant can consume storage and be metered and billed consistent with other Azure Services. All of this, without having to manage anything in PowerScale.
With this strategy, our customers can tap into external PB storage to consume Azure Block Blob or Files via CIFS/NFS while maintaining the Azure consistent experience. Additionally, for customers looking to keep their applications in the public cloud while maintaining their data on-premises, Dell Technologies Cloud PowerScale extends OneFS running on-prem to Azure.
To read more about it, see this solution brief:
Dell Technologies Cloud PowerScale: Microsoft Azure
With the work Dell Technologies has been doing with Azure and Azure Stack Hub, your data is secure and compliant. You also have the choice to run your application in Azure or Azure Stack Hub and connect to your on-prem data without sacrificing bandwidth or latency.