Cloud Computing: Microsoft’s embrace of server bundles may rankle IT

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Editorial Staff.

Hidden in Microsoft’s announcement of the public beta for its Azure Analysis Service was word of another big data development: the SQL Server 2016 DW Fast Track Reference Architecture. It sounds innocuous and even downright useful. Microsoft has, in its words, "collaborated with a number of our hardware partners on a joint effort to deliver validated, preconfigured solutions that reduce the complexity and drive optimization when implementing a data warehouse based on SQL Server 2016 Enterprise Edition."

However, this sounds a lot like the "validated, preconfigured solution[s]" Microsoft has declared its sole delivery method for Azure Stack in hybrid deployments. If Microsoft is building a hybrid cloud future where every significant part, from database to compute, requires specific hardware, that’s going to turn off a lot of IT…

With Azure Stack, the in-house component of Microsoft’s plan to deliver a hybrid Azure experience, you’ll get the full-blown version only if you buy a preconfigured box courtesy of Microsoft and a hardware partner. Don’t pop out that corporate Amex card yet; Azure Stack won’t even be available until mid-2017…

Read more from the source @ http://www.infoworld.com/article/3134882/cloud-computing/microsofts-embrace-of-server-bundles-may-wrankle-it.html