>> Hi, folks. Matt from Microsoft here,
joined by Terry Storey from Acuutech. Welcome, Terry.
>> Thanks for having me, Matt.
>> Now before we get started,
let's understand a little bit more about what you do at Acuutech.
>> Well, Matt, I have an interesting role with Acuutech going.
I'm the Chief Cloud Officer.
I've been in the industry for over 20 years,
designing and deploying complex Microsoft solutions.
I work with OEMs, partners, and customers to identify and
create new hybrid and on-premises solutions that are innovative,
and really solve real life problems.
For me AKS for HCI clearly assist in this space.
I am very happy to discuss further about this today.
>> Now you've been involved in the preview of
Azure Kubernetes Service on
Azure Stack HCI for a couple of months now.
What have been your experiences,
especially with some of the more recent builds?
>> It's been really good, great experience.
I've been working with various Microsoft engineering teams
over the past few months,
testing and validating AKS for HCI,
feeding back on every aspect of the product,
and seeing all those problems being addressed.
Watching the product evolve from Beta Code,
to a polished public preview,
and really becoming a solution addressing
real world container deployment,
operational management, and security issues
for the Microsoft IT Pro.
Normally, it's been a journey,
and watching each release just get better and better.
>> What do you see as some of the key benefits of AKS on HCI?
>> There are many benefits to the AKS on HCI, Matt.
The one that really stands out for me though,
it bridges the gap between
virtual machines and container management,
actually unifying in a well underscored platform, Azure Stack HCI,
so the IT Pro can reuse their existing knowledge,
and through this journey can better support
the developer and their business in their digital transformation.
>> What do you say you need in order to get started?
Do you need to be a Kubernetes expert?
Were you a Kubernetes expert when you got started with AKS HCI?
>> A really good question, Matt.
You don't need to be a Kubernetes expert.
I'm not a Kubernetes expert.
I'm an IT Pro.
I can deploy, its really simple and
easy through PowerShell, Windows Admin Center.
I just reuse existing knowledge of Azure Stack HCI,
CSVs in terms of persistent volume,
standard clustering, because essentially AKS for
HCI is Linux worker nodes and Windows Server worker nodes.
It is virtual machines has a worker platform to
run, process isolated containers.
>> Based on your experiences,
what do you think really differentiates
AKS HCI from all the similar offerings out there,
including doing it yourself with the source code?
>> That's a really good question, Matt.
In my opinion, it is Microsoft's ability to provide a secure,
fully patched Mariner OS and Windows OS as the worker
nodes to use as a platform for deploying containerization.
With PowerShell and Windows Admin Center,
and Azure Stack's HCI custom integration,
means that you can just reuse that knowledge and get
to standing up AKS HCI cluster really simply and easily,
compared to a lot of the offerings out there today.
This really allows you to very
simply and easily reuse what you know,
and really run containers and virtual machines side-by-side.
>> Nice. You mentioned briefly you were in the office earlier on.
As a final question, tells a bit more
about your lab infrastructure,
that you've been testing this solution on.
>> Well, Matt, I have a 2-node Azure Stack HCI 20H2 cluster,
and a 4-node 20H2 stretch cluster.
I have deployed it through PowerShell
for Windows Admin Center to both environments.
You can't tell the difference between the two.
It works as well as on stretch as
it does on the standard HCI cluster.
Reusing existing knowledge, using existing CSVs,
running side-by-side, besides my VA, virtual machines.
Literally, with that up and running,
I can look at then how I want to lift and shift applications,
my iOS applications, to that containerized platform.
Yeah, it's really able to get things up and running quickly.
You can then get to business of
looking at your applications and running on that platform.
>> That's all we've got time for. Thanks very
much for your time, Terry.
>> Thanks for having me, Matt.
>> Stay tuned for the next session.