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Hi Everyone,

This week we have announced the availability of the initial public preview of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on Azure Stack HCI.

 

You can evaluate AKS on Azure Stack HCI by registering for the Public Preview here: https://aka.ms/AKS-HCI-Evaluate 

 

Azure Kubernetes Service on Azure Stack HCI takes our popular Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and makes it available to customers to run on-premises; delivering Azure consistency, a familiar Azure experience, ease of use and high security for their containerized applications. AKS on Azure Stack HCI enables developers and administrators to deploy and manage containerized apps on Azure Stack HCI. You can use AKS on Azure Stack HCI to develop applications on AKS and deploy them unchanged on-premises, run Arc enabled Data Services on a resilient platform and modernize Windows Server and Linux applications.

 

With AKS on Azure Stack HCI, Microsoft is delivering an Industry leading experience for modern application development and deployment in a hybrid cloud era. Microsoft is the only company that delivers technology that takes you from bare metal to a public cloud connected and consistent application and data platform in your datacenter.

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AKS on Azure Stack HCI can run Windows and Linux containers, all managed and supported by Microsoft. AKS on Azure Stack HCI leverages our experience with AKS, follows the AKS design patterns and best-practices, and uses code directly from AKS. This means that you can use AKS on Azure Stack HCI to develop applications on AKS and deploy them unchanged on-premises. It also means that any skills that you learn with AKS on Azure Stack HCI are transferable to AKS as well.

 

AKS on Azure Stack HCI uses Windows Admin Center and PowerShell to provide an easy to use and familiar deployment experience for any user of Azure Stack HCI. AKS on Azure Stack HCI simplifies the process of setting up Kubernetes on Azure Stack HCI and includes the necessary components to allow you to deploy multiple Kubernetes clusters in your environment.

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Which all means that you can focus on what matters most to you – your applications.

AKS on Azure Stack HCI is designed such that every layer is secure. Microsoft provides a secure baseline of all components in AKS on Azure Stack HCI and keeps them up to date. We will be adding mode security features and further hardening the platform over the course of the public preview.

AKS on Azure Stack HCI fully supports both Linux-based and Windows-based containers. When you create a Kubernetes cluster on Azure Stack HCI you can choose whether to create node pools (groups of identical virtual machine, like on AKS) to run Linux containers, Windows containers, or both. AKS on Azure Stack HCI creates and maintains these virtual machines so that you don’t have to directly manage operating systems.

 

If you have existing .NET applications that you want to modernize, and take advantage of the latest cloud development patterns, AKS on Azure Stack HCI is the platform for you. AKS on Azure Stack HCI provides an industry leading experience for Windows Containers on Kubernetes. We are also working on great tooling and documentation for the process of moving .NET applications from virtual machines to containers with AKS on Azure Stack HCI.

 

If you are building a new cloud native applications on AKS, AKS on Azure Stack HCI provides to easiest way for you to take those applications and run them in your datacenter. AKS on Azure Stack HCI shares a common code base with AKS, the user experience is consistent across both products, and Microsoft is investing to ensure that applications can move easily between these two environments.

 

If you are wanting to utilize new Microsoft technologies like Arc enabled Data Services in your datacenter, AKS on Azure Stack HCI delivers a complete solution from Microsoft. It is validated and supported by Microsoft, designed to deliver the best experience for these applications.

 

You can learn more about AKS on Azure Stack HCI by watching:

 

Working on this project has been a lot of fun for everyone involved, and we are excited to finally be able to share this with the world. I look forward to seeing what everyone is able to achieve with AKS on Azure Stack HCI!

 

Cheers,

Ben Armstrong

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.