It seems to me that the original definition of hybrid cloud described a private cloud solution that accessed the public cloud as a secondary repository, a backup for applications, a bursting opportunity, etc. As we have evolved our Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack solution, it has become increasingly obvious that the line between public and private cloud is blurring to an extent that hybrid cloud is now more of an opaque combination of on-prem infrastructure and comprehensive, yet portable, cloud workloads. Essentially, workloads running in public or private cloud won’t matter (… unless, of course, they matter). Add in other business influences, like the trend toward pay-as-you-go everything, and you can see that the IT industry is hitting a seminal transition period.
So, in our mission to always provide our customers and partners complete end-to-end solutions, we’re very pleased to announce our recent agreement with Microsoft enabling us to offer consumption-based cloud services as a world-wide Azure Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Direct and Indirect partner. What does this mean? Well, there are several billing “elements” for Azure Stack — on-prem infrastructure software, on-prem cloud workloads, and public cloud workloads/services — and the CSP program is a preferred path to consolidate this usage into a single monthly bill. And, since Dell can administer provisioning, billing and support for these Azure services, in addition to the Azure Stack infrastructure itself, we are a single stop resource for our customers and partners, kiddingly described as “one throat to choke.”
The nice aspect of having both CSP Direct and Indirect capability is that a Dell Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack solution will deliver the same high-quality experience for end users, regardless whether it is offered by Dell or our partners.
If you’ve got questions about Azure CSP, we’ve got answers. Contact us at Get_Azure@Dell.com. If you’d like to know more about the CSP program, find more info here.
