I’m really interested to see what Microsoft and Dell EMC can do together around Azure Stack.
I won’t bury the lead: the Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack is the the easy button for customers looking for the on-premise peer to Azure. It has common APIs, common semantics, common data services. It even has aligned common consumption economic models.
But there are two other things “beneath the headline” on this one that I think are of strategic import:
- Like the RedHat OpenStack Ready Bundle – our commitment to Microsoft Azure shows that while Dell Technologies is opinionated, and we have a complete stack “in family” (Enterprise Hybrid cloud, Native Hybrid Cloud), our partnership with key “friends” (Microsoft certainly!) is real, and something we will continue to double-down on. I can be quite stubborn. I refuse to lose. The same goes for all my Dell brothers and sisters. The Dell EMC Stack for Microsoft Azure Stack will be the best – and for customers that chose to go this route, we are determined to be their choice – count on it.
- That we are a new company. Dell’s collaboration with Microsoft has been long and massive – starting on the client business, Windows Server, and the full compliment of the Microsoft server platforms. There was an era of tight partnership between Microsoft and EMC about a decade ago – EMC CLARiiON ran on something a lot like Windows Server Core, and there was a boom around Exchange Server 2000 and 2003 and SANs. But then things changed between EMC and Microsoft with the acquisition of VMware, and Exchange and DAG. It’s not that we became enemies, but there was less to partner around. Weird aside not everyone knows (many know me primarily during the time where I was focused on VMware – the startup I was part of that EMC acquired was very centered around Exchange, my first EMC gig was leading the Microsoft practice in the field and I spent years living on and beside the Microsoft Redmond campus.
Dell started collaboration around Microsoft’s cloud efforts early, and it was the first partnership to deliver a Microsoft on-premises cloud stack – the Cloud Platform System – in 2015. It was the first attempt, and they learnt a lot together. The efforts around Azure Stack built on this baseline.
I remember the first “post Dell EMC acquisition meeting with my Microsoft counterparts on this project, Mike Neil who leads the Azure Stack and Azure operations) –a cool gig and a cool dude, his leader Scott Guthrie, and his leader, Satya Nadella (who I have a bit of a fanboi thing for – amazing to see Microsoft change under his leadership).
The meeting was interesting. I got the sense that they were genuinely curious – would the great Microsoft/Dell partnership continue? We were like wise genuinely curious on the same topic!
Answer: hell ya – our partnership will continue. In fact, we’re going to hit the gas pedal.
EMC brought something new to the party – we have more experience with maintaining turnkey stacks on premises in “full lifecycle” – a business we invented with VCE and Vblock/VxBlock – and the fundamental capabilities to support that business at scale.
In fact, as the meeting went on, we pointed out how over the future of Azure Stack – we wanted more. We want to innovate together. Dell Technologies is more than the sum of the parts – and stands as a giant in a new way, a new strategic dimension. We can build offers by just putting the hardware under a stack someone else has locked down – but there’s no fun in that :-)
- In the same way that there is overwhelming demand for Pivotal Cloud Foundry on Azure (you would be SHOCKED to hear the number of Azure cores that are running PCF), if we want Azure Stack to keep it’s promise of “common API, common semantics, common data services” – then surely we need to make PCF on Azure Stack part of the offer!
- Like with RedHat – we think we can improve the platform with stronger data persistence layers. Storage Spaces Direct is fine. We think ScaleIO is better. Unlike RedHat where ECS can be a better object store – it’s not the case here, because the Azure Blob store doesn’t use the S3 APIs, and Azure Stack must have consistent API, semantics, and data surfaces.
- We think that just like we’ve learnt with the Enterprise Hybrid Cloud – Azure Stack will need more data protection services than native capabilities. We will need to evolve Azure Stack to include more of this over time – without breaking the lifecycle and stack experience.
- Even with VMware – there’s a dynamic of partnership that is possible. Hybrid Cloud models really benefit from NSX – and as VMware is showing with NSX-T, it is open – and can benefit non vSphere stacks. VMware customers are also asking for something that doesn’t exist yet, but could which is Azure stack on top of the investment in the vSphere platform they have already made, in the same vein as VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO)
Microsoft saw our commitment to openness, to choice. They saw how we were going to structure the program for success. And here we are. That’s one of the “stories behind the story”.
I’m a big believer that you build teams around a shared purpose – structure and alignment matter. The Dell EMC teams that work on the VMware-aligned stacks are 100% focused on that purpose. Conversely, the Dell EMC team working on Azure Stack led by Paul Galjan are 100% focused on making the Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack overwhelmingly successful.
So – what’s in the offer?
The first release (you may have heard the codename “Sacramento”) will include the full Azure Stack software release, which includes the full set of IaaS and PaaS services, Azure Resource Manager, various developer tools, and runs on what Microsoft refers to “cloud inspired infrastructure” (in essence, HCI powered by Storage Spaces Direct as the SDS).
The hardware expands in 4 node scaling increments – and has as small management/admin domain for isolation of those functions (similar to how we do for EHC – where the vRealize and NSX components are isolated from the tenant/workload domain).
We will be including Avamar and Data Domain for back, Cloudlink for cloud portable encryption services, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry.
Some of you may have noticed the red “Developer’s Edition” on the left. We’ve found overwhelming demand for Azure Stack – and so have built an early adopter program along with Microsoft. It’s a single node that lets customers learn, play, and get an understanding of what to expect.
A really big part of a Hybrid Cloud is a consistent management experience for the off- and on-premises instantiation. Frankly, I’m not sure if calling a CMP that points at and consumes a public cloud IaaS is really a hybrid. There’s so much more to a cloud stack, including all of its’ APIs and services.
Microsoft has done a good job of making this very common – in fact, the Azure Resource Manager is at the core of both Azure Stack and Azure – and you can take Azure Resource Management (ARM) templates and use them exactly the same way in both cases. It’s pretty simple, and pretty cool – check it out below!
I want to reiterate a “meta point” that matters a LOT. You’ll note that I make a similar comment on the RedHat OpenStack Ready Bundle post here. It’s because while they are two different stacks (though peers and analagous) the “meta point” applies equally to both.
The Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack is a vivid illustration of the Dell historical partnership with Microsoft continuing in the new Dell Technologies era.
Yes, of course there is an element of “co-opetition” here – we have completely “Dell Technologies” family offers:
- The Enterprise Hybrid Cloud – which is the turnkey instantiation of the VMware and Dell EMC stack up to the IaaS layer deployed on CI (VxBlock) and HCI (VxRail and VxRack)
- The Native Hybrid Cloud – which is the turnkey instantiation of the Pivotal, VMware and Dell EMC stack up to the PaaS layer, Developer-Ready Infrastructure with all of the 4 abstraction models develoeprs need (Cloud Foundry structured PaaS + containers and Kubernetes via Kubo + the best VMs on ESXi – all with rich NSX integration, and the data platform layer including a rich data fabrics and an object store).
As much as I believe we’re entering an era of “stack consolidation” (where the only players left standing will need to have “stack completeness” for things that are becoming “fundamental” infrastructure commodities to consume)… I also believe that customers want opinionated partners – but will reject partners whose opinions are dogmatic, who don’t offer choice.
Dell Technologies stands for choice – and our embrace of the Microsoft Azure platform (along with our awesome RedHat offer) means that it’s not just words – it’s action.
Put it this way – if you agree with the following 3 obvious statements:
- Hybrids with a mix of on- and off-premises clouds are the winning operating cloud model.
- …that there won’t be one that rules them all – but multiple (each federating with the hyperscale public clouds)
- … and the most value is in focusing “above the value line” – making the infrastructure fade away more and more as something to be consumed, not built/maintained, so you can focus your money, talent, and efforts on building new apps and new analytics in new ways…
… Then Dell Technologies is the answer for you. We have a strong opinion and capabilities in family, and together with our friends, the industries only full complement of choice.
It’s been FASCINATING. Tech Preview 3 is out, and we have amazingly (at least to me), sold many of them. It highlights that the demand for Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack is off the charts – far, far outstripping what we saw with “v1.0” – the Cloud Platform System. This customer demand coupled with our double down, our experiences – they guide the path forward.
A huge “congrats!” to the Dell EMC and Microsoft team who have worked so hard – and the platform General Availability is right around the corner!!!
Comments