Azure Pack vs Stack Feature Overview







What is Azure Pack :
It was first introduced in 2012 with the launch of Windows Server 2012 at no extra cost. It is based on SQL Server, Windows Server & Microsoft System Center VMM offering customers Self Services, multi tenant Cloud services  (SaaS & PaaS) such as Virtual Machines, Websites & Databases.
You can migrate your data from the former Windows Azure Services to Windows Azure Pack

WAP utilizes Windows Server & System Center for its infrastructure to deliver the services and now supports Windows Server 2016 & System Center 2016.

What is Azure Stack :
Azure Stack is a portfolio of products that extend Azure services and capabilities to your environment of choice—from the datacenter to edge locations and remote offices.
Azure Stack uses the same underlying technologies as global Azure, which includes the core components of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and optional Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities including:
·       Azure VMs for Windows and Linux
·       Azure Web Apps and Functions
·       Azure Key Vault
·       Azure Resource Manager
·       Azure Marketplace
·       Containers
·       Admin tools (Plans, offers, RBAC, etc.)

As part of your organisation's Cloud Adoption strategy it's very important to plan the appropriate Azure service
Although the cloud offers tremendous flexibility in design choices, enterprises need a proven and consistent methodology for adopting cloud technologies.




Feature comparison between two products:




Deciding whether Azure Stack or Windows Azure Pack is the most suitable cloud service product for your organization depends on several different factors (but not limited to below):
Factor 
Azure Pack
Azure Stack
Cost
No cost solution but requires substantial amount of infrastructure especially when high availability is needed. You can add additional cost of System center if you don’t have already.
You must purchase Integrated system (hardware) from vendors like HP,DELL
Flexibility
Primarily a private cloud solution.
WAP offers features such as Shielded VMs and third party management tools for partner products which are currently not available in Azure Stack.
Azure Stack is true hybrid cloud solution providing flexibility of hosting & moving apps / services between on-prem to the public cloud (Azure).
Automation
WAP includes an Automation feature that you can use to automate tasks such as applying
a policy to a newly created virtual machine by a tenant.
Not available at this moment.
Multi-tier app support
You would need to
deploy each tier separately, and then configure integration between them as a   separate task.
Using ARM & ARM Templates, it is possible to define sequence & deployment of different roles like Back end SQL , Middle Tier Application Server & Front end web servers making deployments faster and less error prone.
System center integration
WAP uses System center components like SCVMM, SCOM etc.. When VM is provisioned through WAP, it is actually handed over to SCVMM. This simplifies the rest of VM management tasks.
Azure Stack does not integrate with System center.

Some possible challenges with WAP:
You may face some challenges while deploying WAP to your datacenter such as (but not limited to):
Challenge
WAP
Azure Stack
Infrastructure
 POC with Express Edition Single VM/Physical
Production minimum 8 VMs/Physical
High availability needs more infrastructure and manual configuration
 High availability is configured automatically
in Azure Stack. For example, when you deploy a 4-node Azure Stack installation, then the Active Directory domain controllers, network controllers, and so on, are automatically deployed and configured for high availability. This dramatically reduces the overhead when you deploy a highly available Azure Stack
installation.
System Center Dependency
Highly dependent on System center components to provide features such as VM Automation, and usage data. Virtual Machine Manager, Operations manager, Service Provider Foundation & Service Management Automation are Specifically needed.
No dependency on System Center for mentioned features however some of them are not available to date.
Hybrid Cloud with Azure
WAP is based on completely different API set which cannot be used with Azure.
Azure Stack & Azure uses same API sets therefore applications and services can be moved back & forth using same templates.
Azure Resource Manager
Not available in WAP, therefore if you already knows Azure templates, you still need to learn how to work with WAP.
Azure Stack uses ARM templates, therefore same deployment templates can be used in interchangeably in both Azure & Azure Stack.
Summary :
Please note that Microsoft Azure Stack is not the new version of Windows Azure Pack (WAP). Azure Stack releases won't retire WAP - they will co-exist together for a long time. Azure Stack and WAP have a different purpose - WAP is a great solution to build IaaS, and Azure Stack is a great platform to run Azure services in your datacenter

Useful URLs
Deploy Azure stack POC
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/resources/videos/microsoft-azure-stack-tp1-poc-deployment-tutorial/
Deploy WAP using Distributed or Express deployment
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/azure/windows-server-azure-pack/dn296432%28v%3dtechnet.10%29








Comments

  1. Glenn Hannan4 January 2022 at 05:52

    Interesting Article. Hoping that you will continue posting an article having a useful information. WS-012T00-A Windows Server 2019 Hybrid and Azure IaaS

    ReplyDelete

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