its deployment life cycleAs Azure adopts Windows Server 2016, it will be able to utilize more of the in-box
functionality instead of having custom fabric elements to achieve the required
functionality, and Azure Stack will utilize this from its initial release as the backbone
of the core compute, storage, and network resource providers. Azure Stack is built on
Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V, and will provide a fast update cadence to Azure Stack;
like Azure, it will constantly be evolving with new features being made available in
Preview (think Beta) and then through General Availability, or GA (think Release).
Initially, Azure Stack will support only a small number of Azure services, which will
include the following but could change as Azure Stack gets closer to release. Again,
this list will change over time as more and more services are added:
Blob storage (required to store IaaS VHDs)
Virtual network
Load balancer
VPN gateway
Virtual machine
Containers
Portal
Key vault
VM Image Gallery and VM Depot
Azure SDK
Tables
QueuesBased on these services, it is easy to realize that the initial workload is essentially
IaaS, which requires compute, storage, networking, and management—all of the main
services that will be available at GA. Additionally, various services will be available in
Azure Stack in Preview mode; for example, Azure Web Apps, Service Fabric, and
Premium Storage. Over time, however, expect more services to be added to Azure
Stack.
Architecture
As previously mentioned, Azure Stack is built on Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V
Server. There is a core cloud infrastructure layer on which an extensible service
framework is utilized to enable both Microsoft Azure services and third-party services
to operate providing foundational services, additional services, and core services.
A foundational service can be considered out-of-the-box for Azure Stack; for example,
IaaS with its VMs, images, networks, and storage. These foundational services are