Solutions and Design Guidance

Solutions provide clear definition of the scenario or customer problem being addressed and then the relevant design, implementation and operations guidance.Â Some guidance on this page is focused only the solution design and hence does not have implementation detail yet is still valuable in helping create your solutions.

Cloud Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise IT

This solution is targeted at enterprise organizations that want to build well architected virtualized infrastructure that will form the foundation of future private cloud solutions. The assumption being that before sophisticated concepts such as fabric management are addressed, the basic ability to deliver virtual machines in accordance with NIST characteristics should be in place. The solution is targeted at general purpose workloads that are compatible with virtualized compute, network and storage environments and is not suitable for specialized I/O requirements.

Guidance

Design Options Guide

Scenario Definition

Design Decisions Guide

Implementation Guide

Behind the scenes of the cloud infrastructure solution for enterprise IT

Private Cloud Fast Track

The Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Program is a reference implementation for building private clouds, which combines Microsoft software, consolidated guidance, and validated configurations with hardware partner computing power, network, and storage. The solution utilizes the core capabilities of the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, Hyper-V technology, and Microsoft System Center 2012 to deliver the building blocks of a private cloud infrastructure as a service offering.

Guidance

Reference Architecture Guide

Reference Deployment Guide

Reference Operations Guide

Private Cloud Fast Track Program

Cloud Infrastructure Design Patterns

Windows Server 2012 has some new capabilities across compute, network and storage that allow for more sophisticated Private Cloud infrastructure design patterns. This guidance defines some specific design patterns based on the new ability to converge networking and storage traffic to simplify solution design. Convergence has trade-offs and these are explored across the three design patterns described.

Guidance

Building your Cloud Infrastructure: Scenario Overview

Designing Cloud Infrastructure

Pattern 1: Non-converged Datacenter

Pattern 2: Converged Datacenter with File Server Storage

Pattern 3: Converged Datacenter without Dedicated Storage

Letâ€™s Build a Cloud with PowerShell

Private Cloud Infrastructure as a Service

This material is targeted at enterprise organizations that want to build well architected virtualized infrastructure that will form the foundation of future private cloud solutions. The assumption being that before sophisticated concepts such as fabric management are addressed, the basic ability to deliver virtual machines in accordance with NIST characteristics should be in place. The solution is targeted at general purpose workloads that are compatible with virtualized compute, network and storage environments and is not suitable for specialized I/O requirements.Â

Guidance

What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Blueprint for Private Cloud IaaS

IaaS Self Service

IaaS Hardware Platform

IaaS Automation and Orchestration

IaaS Fabric Management

IaaS Service Monitoring and Manageable Applications

TechNet Article: Architecting a Private Cloud

Private Cloud Security

This material provides planning and design guidance for Private Cloud with a specific focus on security. It provides design principles and using NIST as a backdrop discusses the security challenges faced in a variety of scenarios.