Azure Local.
Bringing Azure Services to Your
Local Private Environment
What is Azure Local
At Spirhed, we’ve long believed that the future of IT is hybrid—a balance where the agility of the cloud complements the control of on-premises infrastructure. Azure Local embodies this belief, delivering a solution that empowers businesses to run modern and traditional workloads with seamless integration to Azure while maintaining flexibility for unique operational needs. Whether you’re modernizing applications, meeting compliance requirements, or running in disconnected environments, Azure Local has you covered.
Azure Local: Built for the Realities of Today’s IT/OT Landscape
Azure Local goes beyond standard hybrid cloud solutions by addressing real-world challenges like regulatory compliance, latency, and disconnected operations. It enables organizations to:
- Run Azure Services Locally: Bring Azure capabilities like Azure Monitor, Azure Backup, and Azure Site Recovery to your data center or edge location, ensuring consistency across environments.
- Operate in Disconnected Scenarios: With a fully disconnected control plane (preview), Azure Local enables critical workloads to function independently of internet connectivity, making it ideal for industries like healthcare, government, and manufacturing.
- Seamlessly Support Diverse Workloads: Azure Local supports both traditional Windows/Linux virtual machines and modern Kubernetes-based containerized applications, including Azure Virtual Desktop and Azure IoT Operations, side by side.
Wait, what happened to Azure Stack HCI?
Azure Stack HCI is now part of Azure Local. The same features and functionality continue to be offered in Azure Local.. Azure Local provides additional flexibility: it supports smaller and larger deployments, more hardware, disconnected operations, and other capabilities such as new supported Azure services
New licensing
more benefits and more flexibility with Azure Local
As Azure Local is now part of the Azure family it features a new subscription model licensing billed from Azure. You can use any Azure billing model like any other Azure service, like Pay as you go, EA, CSP or Azure Plan. Azure Local is based on the same well know architecture from Windows Server and Azure. The solution is verified and certified the same way as before, with the same testing criteria.
World-class hyper-converged infrastructure stack
Delivered as an Azure service with hybrid built in
Always up-to-date subscription for software and support, integrates with Azure Portal, Azure Arc, and Azure Resource Manager (ARM), and natively monitor, secure, and backup to the cloud.
Foundation for cloud management capabilities
Supports Azure services for networking, recovery, policy, visibility, billing, and support. Monitoring, security, and update features are coming soon.
Better value for the money with Azure Local
For only $10 per month per physical processor core. Get predictable and simple pricing, without minimum term lengths or mandatory spport contracts.
Why Choose Azure Local: Spirhed’s Vision for a Hybrid Future
At Spirhed, we’ve always believed that the future of IT lies in embracing the best of both worlds—combining the agility of the cloud with the control and resilience of on-premises infrastructure. Azure Local perfectly aligns with our hybrid-first philosophy, bringing the power of Azure closer to your business, on your terms.
Azure Local isn’t just infrastructure—it’s a strategic enabler. By running modern workloads and select Azure services on your own hardware, it empowers organizations to achieve the flexibility, scalability, and innovation of the cloud while keeping critical operations local. This is the hybrid advantage that Spirhed has championed from the start.
Key Features and Benefits
1. Disconnected Operations (Preview)
In today’s distributed and often remote IT environments, Azure Local addresses the need for independence with disconnected capabilities. This feature supports data residency regulations, ensures business continuity, and enables critical workloads to operate even when internet connectivity is unavailable.
2. Cloud-Based Operations
Azure Local simplifies infrastructure provisioning and lifecycle operations across distributed locations using familiar Azure tools like Azure CLI, ARM templates, and Azure portal-based management.
3. Centralized Management and Visibility
Monitor, update, and secure Azure Local infrastructure directly from the Azure portal. Azure Arc provides a consistent management plane across on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments, ensuring visibility and governance.
4. Hardened Security by Default
Safeguard workloads with built-in security features like Trusted Launch, network segmentation, and integration with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) offers advanced identity management and secure access.
5. Support for Diverse Workloads
Run both traditional and modern workloads, including:
- Non-containerized virtual machines: Fully supported as Arc-enabled servers.
- Kubernetes-based applications: Simplify containerized workload management with AKS enabled by Azure Arc.
- Azure Virtual Desktop: Secure, scalable virtual desktop experiences for a hybrid workforce.
- IoT Workloads: Process and analyze data at the edge using Azure IoT.
6. Multiple-Node Clustering
Increase resilience and uptime with high availability and robust software-defined storage using validated clusters of Azure Local.
7. Cost-Effective Migration
Reduce costs by migrating workloads from other on-premises virtualization platforms to Azure Local without sacrificing performance or control
Modernize and secure your data center
Affordably modernize branch offices
Two-node solutions from under $20k per location. Innovative nested resiliency and cloud quorum technologies. Monitor centrally with a global view in the Azure Portal*.
General purpose platform for any application/services
Run any Windows or Linux app with resilience and performance. Managed by Azure Arc and added value from hybrid services.
Virtual desktops with edge-local access
Run desktops on-premises for low latency and data sovereignty. Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) for effortless session management. Like-local performance with cutting-edge GPU virtualization technology.
Tightly integrated Kubernetes
Run K8-compliance containerized applications on a resilient infrastructure with simple deployments and virtual infrastructure. Leverage Azure for burst and Arc for configuration management.
Industry-best performance for SQL Server databases
Millions of storage IOPS or database transactions. Consistent low latency with NVMe, RDMA, and persistent memory. Accelerate Azure Data Services and big data clusters at the edge*.
Deciding that a hybrid datacenter is the right solution for your business is the easy part. Once your organization has made the decision on going hybrid, that is when things start to get fun.
Deciding on the right mix of hardware and features
Why Spirhed Stands Behind Azure Local
Through the Spirhed lens, Azure Local represents everything we’ve championed for years: agility, control, and innovation. It’s a solution that aligns with our DNA—a belief in hybrid solutions that empower businesses to innovate without compromise.
- Hybrid Balance: Azure Local embodies the balance Spirhed advocates, combining the scalability of the cloud with the security of local infrastructure.
- Customer-Centric Design: Azure Local supports both legacy and modern workloads, providing flexibility for your unique journey.
- Operational Simplicity: With centralized tools like Azure Portal, ARM templates, and Azure CLI, Spirhed ensures streamlined operations for your hybrid environment.
At Spirhed we have many years of experience helping clients define their requirements for building a plan for a hybrid infrastructure solution across different shapes of industries. We help you make the right choice, to design and build based on your organization’s needs.
During the assessment phase it’s very critical to take the right choices and plan accordingly.
We at Spirhed work with best practices as our number one rule. Designing and building a high available and flexible HCI solution with Azure Services running on-premises and in the cloud. Taking the advantage of the Hybrid offerings of Azure. We follow best practice guidelines when assessing and designing your solution.
For information about our services inquire below.
