Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT Available for Download
You’ve heard a lot about private cloud on this blog. We’ve talked about why you should consider private cloud, what advantages private cloud has to offer, and the key architectural principles, concepts and patterns that drive a well architected and designed private cloud solution. But one thing seems to be missing – a solid solution for getting the ball rolling. 
What does it take to get the private cloud ball rolling? Well, everything starts with the cloud infrastructure. It doesn’t matter if it’s a public cloud or a private cloud, you need to get your core infrastructure in place. That’s where Windows Server 2012 comes in. We consider Windows Server 2012 to be the ideal cloud operating system because it supports the key capabilities you require to power your cloud infrastructure.
The challenge for you, the person who’s been tasked with building a private cloud, is how do you discover all the Windows Server 2012 platform capabilities that enable your private cloud? And after you discover them, how do you decide which ones to use based on your requirements? Windows Server 2012 has literally hundreds of features and options from which you can choose to build out your cloud infrastructure. How do you mix and match these features and make sure that no only do they provide you with the performance and availability you want but also make sure that technologies don’t step on each other?
We know it can be a daunting challenge and that’s why we put together the Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT . This document set has as its goal to provide you the information you need to design and implement a cloud infrastructure which includes the storage, networking and compute components. We considered this a critical area of concern because you before you get into cloud management infrastructure (which includes a variety of System Center products), you need a core infrastructure in place that meetings your technical and business requirements.
Specifically, the Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT document set includes:
- Scenario definition: Describes an example organization that is implementing a cloud infrastructure. It details the organization’s current environment and why they’ve chosen to implement a cloud infrastructure. Many organizations will likely find that they have similar environments and requirements.
- Design options guide: Details all of the planning considerations for hardware and software that comprise a cloud infrastructure. This includes the network, storage, and compute components of the infrastructure. Further, it addresses planning considerations for different types of availability, scalability, performance, and security needs.
- Design decisions guide: Details what design decisions, as defined in the Scenario Definition, were made from the considerations covered in the Design Options Guide, as well as the rationale for why they made the decisions.
- Implementation guide: Details the implementation steps for the design detailed in the Design Guide. This guide provides a step-by-step approach that can be used to build the cloud infrastructure.
We wanted to take a slightly different approach with these guides and I think you’ll find that they’re a little different than what you’re accustomed to seeing on the Microsoft.com technical documentation sites. What we wanted to do is take the perspective of you, the person who has to design a cloud infrastructure on which you will subsequently build an Infrastructure as a Service solution. For more information about how and why we did things the way they did, check out Behind the Scenes of the Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT .
HTH,
Tom
Tom Shinder
tomsh@microsoft.com
Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX Solutions Group
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