LIGHTHOUSE Private Cloud Built on Microsoft Cloud Platform
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Built for Purpose and Direction Built for Purpose and Direction WHITE PAPER LIGHTHOUSE Private Cloud Built on Microsoft Cloud Platform Published by: Groupware Technology | Publish date: September 2015 Abstract: With LIGHTHOUSE, Groupware offers a turnkey, purpose-built private cloud solution ready to consume. The pre-configured FlexPod™ solution, built on Cisco and NetApp components, empowers business units (BU) to meet business requirements with cloud-scale capabilities providing the organization with greater control and security. While keeping IT and Dev resources focused on business objectives, this scalable Microsoft Cloud Platform environment quickly delivers a secure, self-service platform for rapid resource provisioning. A fully-integrated IaaS platform, LIGHTHOUSE is architected to accelerate innovation and drive IT effciency. The design is based on Cisco Validated Design (CVD) principles and jointly developed reference architectures, which allow for a faster, more reliable and predictable deployment. Disclaimer: This report is for informational purposes only. GROUPWARE TECHNOLOGY MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS or IMPLIED, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. Product names, logos, brands and other trademarks featured or referred to ©2015 Groupware Technology, Inc. within this report are the property of their respective trademark holders in the United States and/or other countries. GROUPWARETECH.com Contents Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................................1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................1 System Overview ..........................................................................................................................................3 LIGHTHOUSE Hardware and Software......................................................................................................3 Installation ................................................................................................................................................3 Support .....................................................................................................................................................4 Add-Ons ........................................................................................................................................................4 System Capabilities .......................................................................................................................................5 Order Fulfillment...........................................................................................................................................5 Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................................6 FAQs ..............................................................................................................................................................7 Compute....................................................................................................................................................8 Network ....................................................................................................................................................8 Storage......................................................................................................................................................8 Windows Azure Pack (WAP) .....................................................................................................................9 Appendix .....................................................................................................................................................10 GROUPWARETECH.com Executive Summary The LIGHTHOUSE private cloud solution is an agile, efficient and scalable platform for hosting infrastructure software and business applications in a virtualized environment. The solution includes an integrated portfolio of compute, network and storage hardware from Cisco and NetApp, delivered in a rack that integrates seamlessly into your existing IT infrastructure. It is designed for automation and rapid deployment of resources using a Microsoft Azure-consistent self-service portal. LIGHTHOUSE is built on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 for virtualization and management along with Windows Azure Pack for a rich, self-service, multi-tenant cloud experience. It is easy to begin with a starter solution that has the capability to increase capacity on your terms and timeline. This whitepaper is for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and organizational IT decision makers seeking a solution to accelerate deployment, lower TCO, enhance productivity, increase security and improve business agility. LIGHTHOUSE can help you optimize your budget from CAPEX to OPEX, all while increasing your ROI and productivity. Building a secure and scalable private cloud is no easy task. It can be quite time consuming and complex, depending on the configuration and its capabilities. It can also take months to deploy and configure in a scalable, secure and highly-available manner. Groupware has taken on this challenge for you so that you can allocate your resources where they are most useful. We provide a pre-built, fully configured, private cloud in weeks, not months. Introduction In today’s IT landscape, many businesses are starting to explore cloud computing—be it public, private or hybrid. Some businesses see the public cloud as a security risk with little control while others see it as an opportunity to decrease CAPEX and outsource some of the responsibilities for maintaining a data center. For many, security and control are concerns for public cloud computing, and many organizations are opting for private cloud computing. Private cloud is a model of cloud computing that involves a secure cloud-based environment, including scalability and self-service, in which the organization has complete control. A private cloud provides compute, network and storage, leveraging a virtualized environment and using an underlying shared pool of physical resources. In addition, a private cloud offers hosted services to users behind a well-defined security perimeter so it minimizes security risks. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page | 1 For those organizations looking to take advantage of both private and public cloud models, a hybrid cloud deployment allows for scaling or “bursting” of computing resources into the public cloud. Private clouds utilize a self-service Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, which provides the business unit (BU) with the capabilities to deploy virtual machines as guests from pools of hypervisors. This allows for scale-up and scale-down activities, all residing behind an organization’s firewall. However, a considerable amount of time and effort are required to design and provision such a solution. With LIGHTHOUSE, Groupware delivers a private cloud with an Azure-consistent experience that supports business agility, reduces costs, increases ROI, improves development quality and increases elasticity. It is designed as a pre-validated, integrated solution using the Cisco Validated Design (CVD)1 and Microsoft Fast Track (FT)2 Reference Architecture, which includes the following: Hardware required to run the system, compute/network components from Cisco and storage from NetApp—all neatly racked, cabled and labeled, and then delivered as a complete solution ready to consume. Software required to run the system, including the operating system, hypervisor and management software used for monitoring and provisioning workloads. With a pre-validated design, you get a solution that minimizes the risk associated with a private cloud deployment; thereby, allowing your organization to deploy revenue-generating applications and services much faster. 1. Cisco Validated Designs provide the foundation for systems design based on common use cases or current engineering system priorities. They incorporate a broad set of technologies, features and applications to address customer needs. Each one has been comprehensively tested and documented by Cisco engineers to ensure a faster, more reliable and fully- predictable deployment. For more info, click here. 2. Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track is a reference architecture designed to help build private clouds to reduce the complexity, risk and time involved in deployment. The FT program provides faster deployments, reduced risk and lower cost- of-ownership by delivering a validated, pre-configured solution. For more info, click here. GROUPWARETECH.com/LIGHTHOUSE Page | 2 System Overview The initial offering of LIGHTHOUSE is a 42U rack with an additional 6U of side-mounting capabilities that includes both the management environment and the tenant environment with additional space for future expansion. The first rack allows for an Expansion Unit (EU) to be added to increase capacity. As the capacity requirements increase beyond the first rack, additional racks can be added into the solution without the requirement of another management stamp. This allows you to increase the tenant capacity as needed. The solution is designed not to disrupt your existing IT environment, but to co-exist with it to utilize supporting services. LIGHTHOUSE Hardware and Software