2023 was an exciting year for DataON, Microsoft, and hybrid cloud technology. DataON exhibited at many conferences, hosted social events and webinars, and enjoyed meeting customers across the country. We’ve connected with so many people and made great friends along the way and are looking forward to 2024.
In 2023 we were excited to see Microsoft recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure. Microsoft has delivered innovations across cloud-to-edge with products like Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), AKS Hybrid, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and AVD for Azure Stack HCI (preview). This recognition is significant because it marks the climb from visionary in one short year to a leader, competing feature-to-feature, neck and neck with VMware Cloud Foundation, and in many ways surpassing it with native integration into the Azure ecosystem.
We also introduced our new Integrated Solutions for Azure Hybrid Cloud to help customers easily make the leap to Azure hybrid cloud. They combine DataON Integrated Systems with Azure Arc-enabled Azure Stack HCI and Azure hybrid workloads for complete and integrated hardware, software, and workload solution. DataON provides an appliance-like experience for AVD for Azure Stack HCI, AKS Hybrid, Azure Arc-enabled Data Services, and AI at the edge.
One of the biggest news grabbers last year was Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. Many VMware customers are concerned about the price hikes, declining customer/sales support, and changes to product offerings. In fact, VMware announced it will be eliminating on-premises perpetual licenses and the sale of support and subscription renewals. This has caused many long-term VMware customers to consider other options. According to The Register, one in five are expected to leave the VMware stack this year, many of whom will be considering Microsoft Azure Stack HCI. Now may be the time for you to make the switch!
There’s a lot we’re looking forward to in 2024!
Microsoft announced Azure Stack HCI 23H2 that includes new features, enabling users to deploy, update and monitor deployments straight from the cloud as well as simplifying the experience for Arc VM management. Many of our Azure Stack HCI customers will soon be updating to 23H2 and our team is already in place to ensure the process goes smoothly. We expect 23H2 to be generally available in 1Q24.
Another product we’re looking forward to is Azure Virtual Desktop for Azure Stack HCI, which is also expected to be generally available in 1Q24. Currently in public preview, this should be a great option for customers who are looking to implement virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) in their on-premises data centers.
We’re excited to partner with Nerdio for management for AVD for Azure Stack HCI. Nerdio Manager for Enterprise (NME) simplifies and automates VDI on-premises deployments and adds robust features to better scale, optimize, secure and protect AVD for Azure Stack HCI. NME should help our customers get the most out of AVD for Azure Stack HCI.
This year, DataON is set to participate in the largest number of industry events across the country in our history. If you’re planning to attend FETC, FLGISA, ACCIS, TAGITM, GAMEIS, or CITE, be sure to stop by our booth and say hello. We are looking forward to meeting more future customers and continuing to build relationships with our existing ones.