Practical Approaches to Deploying SharePoint on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure

I’ve recently presented talks at a number of SharePoint-related conferences and events on practical approaches to deploying SharePoint on Windows Server 2012 and our FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 enterprise-grade bare-metal hypervisors ( on–premise ) as well as using Windows Azure VMs ( in the cloud ).  In this article, I’m including a copy of each deck along with a set of follow-up resources that can be leveraged as next steps in getting your infrastructure platform ready for your next SharePoint deployment …

Deploying SharePoint on Windows Server 2012

In this session, I step through the best practices I’ve compiled for leveraging Windows Server 2012 to reduce the cost and complexity of SharePoint deployments and improve overall scale and manageability.

Specific topics include:

  • How does Windows Server 2012 fit in a SharePoint deployment? [ Slide #3 ]
  • Positioning Server Core and Minimal Server Interface for SharePoint Deployments [ Slides #4 & #5 ]
  • Scale-out or Scale-Up: Using Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V to virtualize enterprise SharePoint Deployments [ Slides #6 – #8 ]
  • VM Guest Clustering of virtualized SQL Server DB instances [ Slide #9 ]
  • Load Balancing virtualized SharePoint Web Front End ( WFE ) servers [ Slide #10 ]
  • IIS 8.0 Web Server Improvements in Windows Server 2012 [ Slide #11 ]
  • Accelerating Centralized SharePoint Content with BranchCache [ Slide #12 ]
  • High Availability and Disaster Recovery Options for SharePoint on Windows Server 2012 [ Slide #13 ]
  • Additional Resources [ Slides #14 – #17 ]

Deploying SharePoint on Windows Azure Virtual Machines

In this session, I present best practices for scaling out a lab, pilot or production SharePoint deployment on our Windows Azure IaaS ( Infrastructure as a Service ) Cloud Platform.

Specific topics include:

  • Introduction to Windows Azure [ Slides #3 – #6 ]
  • A Primer: Windows Azure Virtual Machines [ Slide #7 ]
  • Migrating SharePoint on-premise architecture to SharePoint in the cloud [ Slide #8 ]
  • Cloud-based scale-out architecture for SharePoint on Windows Azure [ Slide #9 ]
  • Additional Resources [ Slides #10 & #11 ]
  • Appendix: Windows Azure Storage [ Slides #12 – #17 ]
  • Appendix: Windows Azure Virtual Machines [ Slides #18 – #29 ]
  • Appendix: Windows Azure Virtual Networks [ Slides #30 – # 34]
  • Appendix: Automating the Cloud with PowerShell [ Slides #35 – #44 ]

Want more? Build Your SharePoint Lab!

Get started building your own SharePoint Lab in the Cloud with this Step-by-Step Lab Guide:

OR ... Download these resources and Join our "Early Experts" program to begin building your on-premise infrastructure foundation for SharePoint:

Hope you enjoy!

- Keith