Seeing is Believing – See a Real Microsoft Private Cloud in Action at the HP ‘Serverquarium’ at MMS

“Seeing is believing” is a phrase that we all use regularly in the world of information technology to convince someone to take a look at the latest application we’ve developed, device we’ve built, or service we are offering. We want you to try it for yourselves, so you can get a feel for what it’s capable of.

The literal definition of this idiom means "only physical or concrete evidence is convincing".  But it’s easier said than done to see a ‘concrete’ private cloud in action. When do you get the chance to see a datacenter with pools of resources consisting of hundreds of servers and disk drives, and racks of network switches, all working in unison to provision cloud services to thousands of users in real time? And when do you get the chance to talk to the architects and engineers who built the system, and who can explain why they chose the components they did, how it all got implemented, and how to manage a complex physical, virtual and cloud environment? Chances are, not until it’s bought and paid for, and installed in your datacenter – and you’re figuring it out as you go!

Well if you are attending the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS), April 8th-12th in Las Vegas, ‘seeing is believing’ and you have the chance to see a real private cloud in action. This year, the ‘Serverquarium is where you can get an up close view of what a  combined HP and Microsoft Cloud OS solution has to offer, and how easy a Microsoft private cloud solution based on HP Converged Infrastructure  is to deploy.  The Serverquarium is premised on best-in-class HP Converged Infrastructure (ProLiant Gen 8 servers, 3PAR 10800 storage and HP Networking), with Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V and Systems Center 2012 SP1 integrated with HP Insight Control. This datacenter will bring to life how the entire MMS IT and networking infrastructure is deployed over the course of the event.  Come and see how we are going to provision over 50,000 virtual machines in just four and a half days, create 4,000 virtual machines per hour, and tear down 1,000 virtual machines and rebuild 1,000 new ones in just 8 minutes!

This isn’t a simulated exercise to demo private cloud computing. It’s real and It’s happening in real time at MMS, and we are doing it because cloud computing is real. The demand for private cloud solutions like this is being driven by the rapid growth in modern applications, data and devices; these trends require organizations to quickly scale and deliver continuous services. At the same time, innovation is happening across storage, network and compute technologies. With these new requirements and innovations, you are under pressure to deliver capacity on demand, whether for short-term projects or for longer-term initiatives. Your organizations have higher expectations for service levels, and services must be always up and always on, with no planned or unplanned downtime.

So why not get some practical advice and guidance from the HP and Microsoft team that built the Serverquarium and get a guided tour during your visit to MMS?  Alternatively if you’re not going to be at MMS this year, check out the session WSB394 Serverquarium Unwrapped: The HP Cloud Solution for Microsoft that Powers MMS Hands on Labs. This will take place at 10:15 AM - 11:30 AM on Wednesday, April 10th and it will also be available for on-demand viewing shortly after MMS.

Thanks and remember, ‘seeing really is believing’.