Build 2021 is underway and Microsoft is continuing to bolster its hybrid cloud solutions. At the developer conference, the company confirmed new features for Azure Arc, Azure Stack HCI, and new services such as Azure Bicep.
Azure Arc
Azure Arc is a Microsoft solution for hybrid cloud organizations that allows them to manage whole environments both in the cloud and on premises. It takes current resources and compiles them into a single Azure resource. At Build 2021, Microsoft announced two new features coming to Azure Arc; Azure App Services and Open Service Mesh (OSM):
- “Azure app services are now Azure Arc-enabled, joining previously announced Arc-enabled services such as Arc-enabled data services and Arc-enabled machine learning. Azure native apps services like Functions, App services, Logic Apps and Event Grid can now be used whether customers are running on Azure, on-premises services or on other cloud providers through Azure Arc. For more information, see Azure app services can now run on Kubernetes clusters anywhere with Azure Arc.
- Azure Arc-enabled Open Service Mesh (OSM) is now in preview. The OSM add-on simplifies integration between OSM and Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters, so customers can more easily build extensible distributed apps across datacenter, edge and multicloud environments. The integration provides additional tools to manage and secure highly dynamic microservice environments on Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters. Customers can onboard OSM to a single cluster or apply policy to onboard multiple clusters at scale.”
Azure Stack HCI
Microsoft brought HCI support to Azure Stack back in 2019, bringing its hyperconverged infrastructure into Stack. This week at Build 2021, the company says Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) is now also available in Stack HCI.
With AKS running on Stack, customers get the Kubernetes platform for developing apps within edge environments. Deploying Kubernetes clusters on a datacenter is easier with AKS running through the Windows Admin Center.
Microsoft is also allowing multi-cluster monitoring in Azure Stack HCI for the first time. This is an important addition because it allows the monitoring of clusters even from on-premises locations.
Azure Bicep
Microsoft also announced a new Azure edge solution is arriving. Called Azure Bicep, the tool is arriving now as an open source language for deploying Azure sources in code form. According to the Microsoft, Bicep is a better tool for reusing code while also adding a layer of extra security.
