Microsoft’s Internal IT Dept Begins Azure Hybrid Migration
Microsoft wants to be known as a cloud first, mobile first leader. Microsoft has decided to put its money where its mouth is and implement the cloud within its own internal IT departments. Microsoft employees are often thought of as being computing geniuses. Most are, however, there’s still a need for an IT department within one of the world’s largest tech companies. Some analysts have noted that this is like Microsoft eating its own dog food. The Azure implementation is scheduled to be complete by 2018
Using Azure for Microsoft’s own internal IT service delivery model will reduce the need for up to 2 private Microsoft datacenters and many other co-located servers around the world. Other solutions may stay onsite creating a hybrid cloud. Microsoft notes that with much of its current datacenter equipment reaching end of life, almost $200 million in capital would have been needed to replace the servers. According to the TechNet article, Microsoft’s IT team will keep Active Directory, DNS, WSUS and System Center 2012 R2 in on-site facilities.
The TechNet article mentions, “Microsoft IT has adopted a cloud-first approach to applications and workloads, which supports the vision. We have been using Microsoft Azure as the default infrastructure for new applications and workloads to further this cloud strategy.” The article goes on to reaffirm Microsoft’s vision which is “All of Microsoft runs in the cloud.”
Microsoft goes into great detail about the intricacies of moving such a large, tech-focused company into the public cloud. The report is flushed with graphs, charts and visions of how this massive project will be carried out. As Microsoft continues to build its own internal services based on Azure, they will effectively conduct one of the biggest test cases for running a large tech company with almost everything except the essentials being run inside the cloud.
