Azure Stack HCI
Run your production workloads on hybrid, familiar hyperconverged infrastructure
Flexible HCI delivered as an Azure hybrid service
Azure Stack HCI is a new hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) operating system delivered as an Azure service that provides the latest security, performance, and feature updates. Deploy and run Windows and Linux virtual machines (VMs) in your datacenter or at the edge using your existing tools, processes, and skill sets. Extend your datacenter to the cloud with Azure Backup, Azure Monitor, and Azure Security Center.
Built-in hybrid capabilities and up-to-date software and support
World-class hyperconverged infrastructure stack for secure, efficient virtualization of Windows and Linux guests
Save money and increase efficiency—use your Hyper-V and Windows Server skills to consolidate aging servers and storage
Flexible hardware offerings, including integrated systems and repurposed devices, from a variety of vendors
Azure hybrid by design
Extend your datacenter to the cloud and manage Azure Stack HCI hosts, VMs, and Azure resources side by side in the Azure portal. Make it hybrid by seamlessly connecting to Azure services such as Azure Backup, Azure Security Center, and Azure Site Recovery. Purchase an Azure Stack HCI subscription to get regular and consistent feature and security updates with unified Azure billing and leverage either your Premier or Azure support plan. Use Windows Server and Hyper-V skills to reduce time to value.
Enterprise scale and great price performance
Modernize your infrastructure of aging servers and storage. Consolidate virtualized workloads and gain cloud efficiencies on premises. Take advantage of software-defined compute, storage, and networking on a broad range of form factors and brands. Optimize your costs based on your needs with a flexible per-core subscription. Get Windows Server 2008/R2 security updates at no extra cost. Achieve higher throughput with your demanding SQL Server workloads.
Familiar management and operations
Simplify your operations by using an easy-to-manage solution that integrates with your environment and popular third-party solutions. Use a built-in deployment GUI and familiar Windows Server and Hyper-V skills to build your hyperconverged infrastructure. Automate completely scriptable management tasks using the popular, cross-platform Windows PowerShell framework.
Deployment flexibility
Select the deployment scenario that’s best for your environment, such as an appliance-like experience, a validated node solution from one of more than 20 hardware partners, or repurposed hardware. Choose optimized solutions that are available on a broad portfolio of x86 servers and hardware add-ons. Manage your solution using Azure or familiar management tools.
Azure Stack HCI wins key innovation award
CRN gave Azure Stack HCI the 2020 Tech Innovators Award in datacenter infrastructure.
Run workloads from your branch office to the edge
Meet the evolving IT demands of branch offices, retail stores, and field locations. Deploy your container-built edge workloads and essential business applications in highly available VMs and use Azure Monitor to get a global view of system health.
Support large-scale virtual desktop implementations
Use remote desktop services, highly available VMs, and integrated scalable storage to support your large-scale virtual implementations. Connect virtual desktops to the Azure update management solution to control your enterprise virtual desktop infrastructure configuration in the cloud.
Get the benefits of virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server
Deploy and manage high-performance, scalable SQL Server running on hyperconverged infrastructure. Run your applications with the flexibility of virtualization coupled with high availability and the ability to use Azure Site Recovery to migrate, restore, and protect your organization’s data.
Apply trusted enterprise virtualization
Use virtualization-based security and certified hardware to help protect your security-sensitive workloads. Connecting this trusted infrastructure to Azure Security Center activates behavioral analytics and reporting to account for rapidly changing workloads and threats.
Tightly-integrated Kubernetes
Enable automated deployment and management of containerized apps by running Kubernetes clusters on your hyperconverged infrastructure. Integrate with Azure Arc for configuration management and governance along with Azure Monitor for insights into performance and health from infrastructure to apps.
Azure Kubernetes Service on Azure Stack HCI
Deploy and manage containerized apps with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on Azure Stack HCI. Take advantage of AKS consistent experience, extend to Azure with hybrid capabilities, run apps with confidence with built-in security, and use familiar tools to modernize Windows apps.
Check out new validated solutions for Azure Stack HCI
Get up and running quickly and reliably with validated Azure Stack HCI solutions that feature new integrated systems and validated node solutions. They’re available from a range of hardware partners who offer solutions on industry-standard x86 hardware with service and support.
Visit the Azure Stack HCI hardware catalogFlexible pricing at USD10 per core per month
Purchase an Azure subscription and activate only the cores you need for your hyperconverged infrastructure deployment.
Azure Stack HCI resources and documentation
Get started with learning resources
Learn how the new Azure Stack HCI can help you start your hybrid journey.
Explore technical resources
Learn about the technical details for the new Azure Stack HCI.
"It is critical we maintain cost-effective solutions while providing strong security. Our work with Azure Stack HCI is showing how we can improve our processes with Azure in our modernization journey."
Matt Roper, Facilitator of Technology Support Services, Cherokee County School District
"Bradley, as a national law firm with many distributed offices, has to develop a hybrid cloud strategy for workloads that need to remain on prem. Azure Stack HCI is showing great hybrid capabilities to help achieve our internal cost and performance targets."
Paul Maune, Systems Architect, Bradley
"Acuutech is a global IT solutions provider delivering a broad range of hybrid/on-premises services. We are engaged in testing the new Azure Stack HCI and found this provides a solution approach that complements our current offerings, reducing time to value."
Terry Storey, Chief Cloud Officer, Acuutech
Frequently asked questions about Azure Stack HCI
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The minimum is two nodes, which is ideal for a remote office or branch office. The maximum is 16 nodes per single cluster.
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Yes, you’ll get extended security updates at no cost when you migrate your Windows Server 2008 R2 workloads to Azure Stack HCI.
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No, there are no virtualization rights included with the host subscription. Customers running Windows VMs on this hyperconverged solution need to procure an appropriate license.