Build seamless hybrid cloud capabilities

The adoption of hybrid cloud is playing a critical role in business continuity, operational resilience and long-term remote work enablement. The recent 2020 IDG Cloud Computing Study highlights hybrid models being embraced by enterprises with 82 percent adopting a mix of on-premises and cloud ecosystems.Fast-tracking digital transformation solutions, Microsoft are paving the future with their Windows Server 2019. Built on the strong foundation of Windows Server 2016, the holistic and centralised management platform bridges cloud and on-premises environments with Microsoft Azure services. This enables IT professionals and organisations to simplify and streamline the adoption of hybrid cloud, while optimising existing investments.

Ian Welch, Chief Information Officer & Director of Operations, Dicker Data said, "Hybrid cloud is the ideal IT model for today's digital business climate. The need for innovation, flexibility and security are business critical. Working closely with IT partners, Dicker Data is proud to extend bespoke and purpose-built strategies through Microsoft Windows Server. Our partners now have access to scalable, cost-effective and packaged experiences, leveraged from unified cloud and on-premises infrastructures."

Leveraging Microsoft Windows Server Capabilities

Hybrid cloud is a rapidly maturing realm bringing together the best of both cloud and on-premises infrastructure. Ian Welch said, "By their very nature, hybrid architectures are bespoke, connecting traditional business operations to new approaches, accelerated by technology."

Maximising investments of the Windows Server, IT providers can help enrich customer experiences through four key elements: Hybrid Cloud, Security, Application Platform, and Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI).
It bridges on-premises environments with Azure and provides additional layers of security, data compliance and governance while helping users modernise IT applications and infrastructure.

Today's business landscape has become increasingly complex and when transitioning to cloud-based services, organisations often need to manage multiple environments, servers and hardware requirements.
IT professionals can leverage Microsoft's exclusive hybrid capabilities and extend datacentres to the cloud through Azure Active Directory, a hybrid database platform built on Azure SQL Server technologies. AI-powered, the automated features optimise performance and durability, offer hyperscale storage options and automatically scale resources on demand, enabling IT teams to build new applications without worrying about storage and resource management.

With built-in management capabilities, Windows Admin Centre delivers consolidated administration, single point view and system insights of workloads running on-premises and in the cloud-based infrastructure. This allows IT managers to leverage cloud and natively integrated services such as Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, Azure File Sync, Azure Security without disrupting applications and infrastructure and using technology they are used to managing.

Ian Welch said, "The future is all about flexible cloud architecture. We're enabling IT leaders to shift the focus from physical connectivity to supporting portability, automating deployment of workloads and tailor purpose-built solutions with cloud environments suited to a given business case."

Microsoft's $1 billion cybersecurity commitment

IDG's 2020 report on Protecting the Human Side of Cybersecurity indicated 52 percent of IT leaders surveyed find managing the security of multiple apps deployed in the cloud a critical challenge.

Security concerns are also on the rise. The recent Untangle SMB IT Security report found 80 percent of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) rank IT security as a top business priority.

In response to the growing market demands, Microsoft invests $1 billion on cybersecurity every year. Ian Welch said, "Privacy and compliance concerns are driving factors for organisations to uphold data on-premises. Microsoft offers solutions to safeguard intellectual property by enabling advanced multilayer security within datacentre infrastructure."

Windows Server consolidation capabilities extends to enterprise identity, offering unified infrastructure security management systems maximising Azure Security Center, Azure Active Directory, Single Sign On and multi-factor authentication protecting users from 99.9 percent of cybersecurity attacks.

These solutions protect admin credentials, address security breaches using Windows Defender Advanced Threat Detection, prevent host intrusion by locking down devices against attack vectors and blocks malware attacks with Windows Defender Exploit Guard. Additional Shield Virtual Machines protect VM workloads and secure virtualisation.

Bundled capabilities and packaged experiences

Built on 100 percent software defined infrastructure, Microsoft delivers real time reconfiguration, capacity evaluation and scalability on the hybrid data centre.

Container technologies integrated within Windows Server help IT managers and developers collaborate as part of a DevOps approach delivering applications faster. Taking this a step further, Microsoft has become an all-inclusive ecosystem, with third party providers becoming first class citizens. Embracing vendors beyond the Microsoft world empowers, user experiences, seamless accessibility, streamlined user integration and reduces complexity and collaboration barriers.

Ian Welch said, "These solutions enable IT professionals to package and sell customised solutions, that encompass unique IP across multiple vendors across the technology stack while adding true value and enhancing customer experiences."

Gartner predicted 20 percent of business-critical applications currently deployed on three-tier IT infrastructure will transition to hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) by the end of 2020. Redefining the way IT leaders scale storage, deploy and manage workloads, the hyper-converged capabilities within Window's Server offer turnkey infrastructure solutions from preferred hardware partners in the Winders Server Software Defined (WSSD) program. This optimises configuration with industry leading performance, built-in security and simplifies the management of HCI deployments and workloads via Windows Admin Center and reduces infrastructure costs.

How can Dicker Data support your hybrid strategy?

Dicker Data work with partners as trusted technology advisors, offering reliable, strategic, and proactive IT guidance across the entire value chain.

Bringing over 40 years of experience, Dicker Data understand profitability is critical to business success and work with partners to build solutions that meets their customer's needs. We invest in every stage of your business from connecting you to our dedicated licensing experts and solution architects and hardware teams, through to sales support, configurations services, third party logistics and project management and rollout services.