Microsoft Launches Azure Local for Hybrid Cloud, edge uses

Microsoft has launched cloud-connected software that lets companies run Azure computing, networking, storage and application services in an edge location or hybrid cloud environment.

Microsoft introduced Azure Local on Tuesday at the Ignite conference in Chicago. The infrastructure software, which can run on over 100 validated hardware platforms, is generally available. Companies using hybrid cloud-builder Azure Stack HCI will get Azure Local as a replacement through an automatic update.

Azure Local uses the Azure portal to deploy, configure, update and monitor Azure cloud resources, including APIs. The local management tools provide a unified approach to cloud resources across distributed locations.

Enterprises want to replicate their public cloud computing environments on-premises to keep sensitive data in-house for security, sovereignty, and reliability reasons, said Jim Frey, an analyst with TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group. Microsoft's cloud rivals already provide products similar to Azure Local.

"It's great to see Microsoft Azure responding to the needs for on-premises deployment of cloud-connected and cloud-oriented application infrastructure in ways that the other major cloud providers have already done," Frey said.

During his Ignite keynote, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged the high customer demand for a product like Azure Local.

"This is something that many of you have asked us to do," he said.

The first step in using Azure Local is to connect the machine it's running on to Azure Arc, a tool for managing resources across data centers, edge and multi-cloud environments. From there, Arc deploys an Azure Local instance on the hardware.

IT can customize Azure Local's computing, networking and storage services. Microsoft packages the software as an Azure Arc extension and stores a template of the installation on Azure Resource Manager to deploy on other locations.

Microsoft provides monthly local updates for the entire infrastructure stack and drivers and firmware for the validated hardware. Manufacturers providing Azure Local devices include Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Lenovo.

IT staff can view and choose to deploy Azure Local updates within Azure Update Manager. Azure Local moves workloads and updates to each physical machine sequentially to ensure applications continue running, Cosmos Darwin, group product manager for Azure distributed infrastructure, said in a blog.

Azure Local integrates with Azure Monitor, a monitoring service that provides observability across applications, infrastructure, and networks in Azure and on-premises environments enabled by Azure Arc. Azure Monitor covers distributed virtual machines (VMs), Kubernetes container clusters, and physical infrastructure.