If you were at Microsoft Ignite last month you may still have missed the launch of HPE’s latest hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution: Microsoft Azure Stack HCI on HPE Apollo 4200 storage. It would be understandable, as Ignite was a major industry event packed with technology news, especially with lots of HPE show activity, including prominent HPE mainstage appearances for both Azure Stack and the new Azure Arc.
But among the new and enhanced solutions we demonstrated at the show, our presentations about Azure Stack HCI on HPE Apollo storage were well-received and timely given the growing emphasis on HCI, hybrid cloud and all things software-defined. The key message for this solution was that it is pioneering a new area in software-defined HCI for Windows Big Data workloads. The solution uniquely delivers the convenience of hyperconverged Infrastructure on a high-capacity platform for the most data-intensive applications.
The emergence of Big Data HCI
We’ve all heard about the explosive growth of data, and that we’re in an age of zettabytes. IDC made a specific prediction, that by 2024, just data created from AI, IoT and smart devices will exceed 110 zettabytes (source: IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Cloud Predictions 2020).
At the same time, organizations are trying to simplify their IT infrastructures to reduce cost, complexity and the need for specialized expertise. The conflict is that the applications required to harvest this explosion of data can be the most demanding in terms of performance and management. I’m seeing companies – even the largest most capable enterprises – are recognizing the value of easy-to-use hyperconverged infrastructure to alleviate some of the strain of delivering these demanding, data-centric workloads.
Azure Stack HCI on HPE Apollo 4200 storage is a new solution that addresses the needs of the growing “Big Data HCI” customer. Azure Stack HCI on HPE Apollo is built on the highest capacity Azure Stack HCI qualified 2U server, bringing an unmatched ability to serve big data workloads on a compact Windows software-defined HCI appliance.
HPE Apollo HCI solution key components
Azure Stack HCI is Microsoft’s software-defined HCI solution that pairs Windows Server 2019, Hyper-V, Storage Spaces Direct, and Windows Admin Center management, along with partner x86 hardware. It is used to run Windows and Linux VMs on-premises and at the edge with existing IT skills and tools.
Azure Stack HCI is a convenient way to realize benefits of Hybrid IT, because it makes it easy to leverage the cloud-based capabilities of the Microsoft Azure cloud. These cloud-based data services include: Azure Site Recovery, Azure Monitor, Cloud Witness, Azure Backup, Azure Update Management, Azure Network Adapter, and Azure Security Center to name a few.
The Azure Stack HCI solution program includes Microsoft-led validation for hardware, which ensures optimal performance and reliability for the solution. This testing extends to technologies such as NVMe drives, persistent memory, and remote-direct memory access (RDMA) networking. Customers are directed to use only Microsoft-validated hardware systems when deploying their Azure Stack HCI production environments.
HPE Apollo 4200 Gen10 Server – leading capacity/throughput for Windows HCI
The HPE Apollo 4200 Gen10 server delivers leading scale and throughput for Azure Stack HCI. The HPE Apollo 4200 storage system can accommodate 392 TBs of data capacity within just a 2U form-factor. This leads all other Azure Stack HCI validated 2U solutions as seen in the Microsoft Azure Stack HCI catalog (Microsoft.com/HCI). In addition, the HPE Apollo storage system is a leader in bandwidth, supporting 100Gb Ethernet and 200Gb Infiniband options. Customers are already running large scale, data-centric applications such as Microsoft Exchange on HPE Apollo systems, and can now add Azure Stack HCI as a means to simplify the infrastructure stack, while preserving performance and the space-efficient 2U footprint.
The HPE Apollo Gen10 system is future-proofed with Intel Cascade lake processors for more cores and faster processing, along with memory enhancements and support for NVMe storage. The HPE Apollo systems leverage a big data and high performance computing heritage, and have an established Global 500 customer track record.
Azure Stack HCI on HPE Apollo solution – more than just hardware
The HPE Apollo 4200 system is at the core of this Microsoft software-defined HCI solution, but there’s much more to the solution. HPE solution engineering teams perform testing on all solution designs, and publish technical whitepapers to provide guidance on implementation, administration, and performance optimization, for example the recent Microsoft Windows Server 2019 on HPE Apollo 4200 implementation guide. HPE also trains authorized reseller partners to help assure fast, successful deployments and fast time-to-solution for customers.
Windows Admin Center (WAC) is becoming the new standard interface for Windows system management. HPE is developing Extensions for WAC that will make it easier to manage HPE Apollo systems within Windows Server 2019 environments as well as specifically within Azure Stack HCI clusters.
As an HPE Storage solution, customers also enjoy high availability through HPE InfoSight predictive analytics that deliver the uptime benefits of AI to the datacenter.
Get started with HPE Apollo HCI
The Azure Stack HCI on HPE Apollo solution is available today. It’s the largest capacity 2U Azure Stack HCI validated solution available, and has been officially qualified for All-Flash, Hybrid SAS SSD, and NVMe providing options for affordable and high-performance data storage.
The Azure Stack HCI on HPE Apollo solution is the go-to choice for analytics and data-centric Windows workloads. Get easy to manage infrastructure with native Microsoft Windows administration. Available with the solution are published technical guidance including whitepapers and related resources, with WAC extensions on the way.
The launch webinar was recorded and is available on demand – watch it to learn more:
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/16289/374384/simplify-your-big-data-infrastructure-with-azure-stack-hci-on-hpe-apollo
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