Microsoft is a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure with Azure Stack HCI

End of 2023, Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure with Azure Stack HCI, AKS hybrid, and Azure Arc. This is a testament to our vision and commitment to deliver the best hybrid cloud solutions for our customers.

Distributed hybrid infrastructure is the ability to run applications and services across multiple locations, from the cloud to the edge, with consistent management, security, and governance. This enables customers to optimize performance, cost, and compliance, while also unlocking new scenarios such as edge computing, IoT, and hybrid applications.

Microsoft offers a comprehensive portfolio of distributed hybrid infrastructure solutions, including Azure Stack HCI, AKS hybrid, and Azure Arc. These products and solutions are all part of the Azure adaptive cloud approach, which empowers customers to adapt to changing business needs and take advantage of the innovation and scale of Azure.

The adaptive cloud approach unifies siloed teams, distributed sites, and sprawling systems into a single operations, security, application, and data model, enabling organizations to leverage cloud-native and AI technologies to work simultaneously across hybrid, multicloud, edge, and IoT.

Azure Stack HCI is a hyperconverged infrastructure solution that combines compute, storage, and networking into a single system that runs virtualized Windows and Linux workloads at the edge or in the datacenter. Azure Stack HCI integrates seamlessly with Azure services such as backup, disaster recovery, monitoring, and security, as well as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), which enables customers to run containerized applications on Azure Stack HCI clusters. Azure Stack HCI is cloud-managed hyperconverged infrastructure that applies adaptive cloud principles to the full stack.

AKS hybrid is a fully managed Kubernetes service that extends AKS to any infrastructure, whether on-premises, at the edge, or in other clouds. AKS hybrid simplifies the deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters across diverse environments, while providing consistent tooling, governance, and security. AKS hybrid also supports scenarios such as burst capacity, data sovereignty, and low-latency applications.

Azure Arc is a service that enables customers to extend Azure management and services to any infrastructure. Azure Arc allows customers to manage servers, Azure Stack HCI clusters, Kubernetes clusters, and data services across multiple locations from a single pane of glass. Azure Arc also enables customers to run Azure data services such as Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure PostgreSQL Hyperscale on any Kubernetes cluster, with the same benefits of scalability, availability, and security as in Azure.

Azure Stack HCI gets even better with the next version

At Microsoft Ignite 2023 we also announce that the next version of Azure Stack HCI, called Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2, and is currently in public preview. This version brings several new features and enhancements to Azure Stack HCI, such as:

• Cloud-based deployment
• Cloud-based update management
• Cloud-based monitoring
• Manage and deploy workloads from the Cloud such as VMs, AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service), or Azure Virtual Desktop for Azure Stack HCI (preview).
• Hardened security posture. This covers 100% of applicable settings in the Azure security baseline, an increase of 2x compared to version 22H2.
• Integrated with Microsoft Defender for Cloud
• Trusted launch for Azure Arc-enabled virtual machines
• and much more.

If you are interested in trying out Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2, you can directly deploy the public preview from the Azure portal and follow the deployment guide. You can also learn more about Azure Stack HCI version 23H2 on the official announcment blog.

It is grea to see that Microsoft is recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure with Azure Stack HCI, AKS hybrid, and Azure Arc. There will be more to share in the coming weeks and months so stay tuned.