Build Your Own Cloud: What You Need to Know

Applies To: Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2

You can build your own cloud infrastructure using Microsoft products and technologies such as Windows Server® 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, Windows Azure Pack for Windows Server, and SQL Server. Whether you are a service provider offering cloud services to tenants, an enterprise building a private cloud for departments, or an enterprise interested in combining a private/public cloud capabilities in a hybrid cloud; Microsoft has a solution.

But before you begin planning and building your own cloud, you’ll need to learn about the Microsoft products and technologies used to build the infrastructure. This topic guides you through useful topics and articles that help you learn what you need to know.

To build your network infrastructure, you need to understand Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) networking concepts. VMM is used to build your cloud networking infrastructure. The following topic explains VMM networking objects:

• Virtual Machine Manager Network Object Fundamentals

Learn more about VMM networking:

• Configuring Networking in VMM

Set up a test lab environment to see a working example of VMM network objects, tenant network isolation using Hyper-V Networking Virtualization (HNV), and gateways (not highly available):

• Test Lab Guide: Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V Network Virtualization with System Center 2012 R2 VMM

Watch the following video to learn about deploying Hyper-V Network Virtualization and gateways:

• Deploying Hyper-V Network Virtualization

Plan and deploy a virtualized network solution:

• Microsoft System Center: Building a Virtualized Network Solution

Plan and deploy a scalable and highly available cloud network infrastructure:

• Deploy highly scalable tenant network infrastructure for hosting providers

Design a virtualization fabric:

• Virtualization Fabric Design Considerations Guide