
close
close
I was stunned when Microsoft announced that they would support using Azure as a cloud-based disaster recovery site for VMware vSphere. VMware has a large share of the on-premises virtualization market, and despite the growth and progress of Hyper-V, many customers are keeping that incumbent footprint.
Rather than ignoring that lucrative market or causing customers with heterogeneous on-premises virtual installations to seek multiple vendors for disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) solutions, Microsoft has given those customers a single cloud, Azure, to which they can replicate Hyper-V, vSphere, and physical machines to for disaster recovery. Unfortunately, Azure Site Recovery (ASR) required some in-Azure complexity, but Microsoft has announced the simplification of ASR for vSphere, and this should make Microsoft’s DR site in the cloud much more attractive.
The solution that Microsoft rolled out to support vSphere in 2015 was based on a product called Scout that was obtained by Microsoft through the acquisition of InMage. As has often been the way of the past, Microsoft has gone through a phased process of releasing and integrating this new product:
advertisment
This has been the case with Scout, which provided Microsoft the means to replicate Windows and Linux machines to Azure. The architecture was quite complex when compared to ASR for Hyper-V. At least two Azure virtual machines were required to run in Azure, and another machine was required on-premises:
The legacy architecture of replicating VMware VMs and physical servers to Azure (Image Credit: Microsoft)
Microsoft announced that ASR will no longer need virtual machines to run in Azure as the Master Target Server or the Configuration Server; I assume these roles will be handled by the Azure fabric, something that was discussed at TechEd Europe 2014. You no longer need those machines and that means:
Other changes made to ASR for vSphere include:
advertisment
Microsoft stepped ahead of VMware when they offered VMware customers a hybrid cloud DR solution. Microsoft’s rapid pace of development means that, just a few months after release, ASR support for VMware has been enhanced and extends Microsoft’s lead.
More from Aidan Finn
advertisment
Petri Newsletters
Whether it’s Security or Cloud Computing, we have the know-how for you. Sign up for our newsletters here.
advertisment
More in Microsoft Azure
Build 2022: Microsoft's Intelligent Data Platform Combines Data and Analytics
May 25, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft Revises Restrictive Cloud Licensing Policies to Avoid EU Antitrust Probe
May 19, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft's Azure AD Conditional Access Service Can Now Require Reauthentication
May 13, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft Addresses Cross-Tenant Database Vulnerability in Azure PostgreSQL
Apr 29, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft Simplifies IT Monitoring with New Azure Managed Grafana Service
Apr 19, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Most popular on petri
Log in to save content to your profile.
Article saved!
Access saved content from your profile page. View Saved
Join The Conversation
Create a free account today to participate in forum conversations, comment on posts and more.
Copyright ©2019 BWW Media Group