Azure Arc-Enabled Servers

“But what about all the cloud stuff Azure Local gets?”

It’s the first objection every decision-maker raises when you propose traditional Hyper-V over Azure Local. Azure Local comes with AKS, Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure Portal VM management, Azure Monitor, Azure Update Manager, Defender for Cloud , all integrated. How do you compete with that on standalone Hyper-V?

The answer: you don’t need Azure Local to get most of those services. Azure Arc brings much of the same Azure management plane to your existing Hyper-V infrastructure , selectively, incrementally, and without taking on the Azure Local platform fee just to reach the Azure control plane. You pick the services that add value. You skip the ones that don’t. You keep control over where the monthly bill starts.

With Azure Arc-enabled servers, many of us are already familiar with the ability to establish SSH connections to these machines. If this is news to you, here’s something exciting: you can SSH into Windows machines that have been onboarded to Azure Arc! Now, I can imagine security professionals having a moment of concern—yes, you read that right: SSH access to Windows machines onboarded with Azure Arc is possible.

Here’s an even bigger revelation: this applies not only to on-premises machines but also to Azure Arc-enabled servers running on other cloud platforms like AWS and GCP. However, before panic sets in, let me assure you that this functionality is secure and well-architected for safe usage. (Although I’ll admit, I’m not the security expert breaking out in a cold sweat right now!)

They say peanut butter and chocolate are better together, but have you ever heard anyone say AWS and Azure are better together? How about having a centralized solution to manage both your AWS and Azure resources seamlessly?

Well, I have something exciting to share. It’s not chocolate and peanut butter, but it will definitely make managing resources across a multicloud environment much easier. Let me introduce you to the Multicloud Connector enabled by Azure Arc.

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