20 May, 2020
Build 2020: Azure Stack Hub updated with six new features, including machine-learning tools
Cloud

Microsoft has announced a slew of up updates to its hybrid cloud platform at its Build 2020 developer conference, which is taking place virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Microsoft has announced a handful of updates to its hybrid cloud platform, Azure Stack Hub, at Build 2020, including new fleet-management and machine-learning tools for graphic-intensive applications.

Announced at the annual developer event, which is this year  taking place entirely in virtual form,  six new features will be in limited or public preview beginning summer 2020. This includes Azure Stack Hub Fleet Management, which has been designed to give customers a single view and management system for all their Azure Stack Hub deployments from Azure.

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At the same time, ManagedIQ, which was formerly known as CloudForms, has been updated to allow cloud operators to use RedHat technical tooling to manage their resources in Azure Stack Hub.

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Azure Stack Hub Fleet Management is now available in private preview, while ManagedIQ is available in public preview.

Also at Build, Microsoft has launched a private preview of its Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Resource Provider on Azure Stack Hub. This fully-managed service has been created so that customers can automatically create and manage open-source Kubernetes clusters on Azure Stack Hub. 

The Azure Container Networking Interface plug-in will come as an update to the Azure Kubernetes Service engine, and expands the capabilities of Kubernetes clusters on Azure Stack Hub.  

Finally, new graphics processing unit (GPU) partitioning for visualization using AMD GPUs on Azure Stack Hub is also now available in private preview. This enables virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and other graphics-heavy scenarios on Azure Stack Hub.

In other Azure-related news, Microsoft announced that the public preview of  Azure Arc -enabled Kubernetes, which lets customers  organize, manage and govern their Kubernetes clusters  at scale across their datacenters, multi-cloud and Azure Stack Hub.

The company is also working with Linux enterprise platform SUSE to help customers organize, manage and govern multi-platform environments – including SUSE Linux Enterprise Server – via Azure.

Arc updates and portfolio partners

A number of new partners have been added to Microsoft’s Azure Stack Hub portfolio at Build 2020. This includes the Aware Group, which builds IoT Edge modules that use artificial intelligence (AI) to detect anomalies and perform noise classification. The firm will now be working with Microsoft to deliver “tailored” IoT modules and solutions.

Meanwhile, cloud and analytics provider Avanade is offering customers a fully managed Azure Stack Hub powered by HPE’s EL8000, a small form-factor edge-computing system that can be used in scenarios where a data center might not be available on-site – for example, retail and manufacturing.

Elsewhere at Build 2020, Microsoft launched the open-source Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) server for Azure Stack Hub and Azure Stack Edge. This will enable healthcare organizations to quickly connect data sources, such as electronic health record systems or research databases at the edge, while addressing compliance and regulatory requirements, Microsoft said.

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