Dell and Microsoft unite to redefine hybrid cloud with Azure local integration

Dell Technologies and Microsoft have announced a significant expansion of their strategic partnership, focusing on bringing Microsoft's distributed infrastructure solution, Azure Local, directly into Dell's Private Cloud and enterprise storage offerings. The collaboration aims to radically simplify the hybrid cloud experience for businesses facing escalating demands for local data processing, AI at the edge, and strict data sovereignty.

This integration moves Azure Local beyond its initial hardware appliance phase, extending its reach to Dell's core infrastructure products: Dell Private Cloud and Dell PowerStore storage.

Bringing the cloud experience on-premises

Azure Local is Microsoft's solution for running core Azure services, including compute, networking, and containers on customer-owned infrastructure, managed via the central Azure Arc control plane. The goal is to provide a consistent cloud-native experience regardless of where the workload runs.

The deep integration with Dell’s products offers several key benefits to enterprises:

• Unified management: Customers can now manage their public Azure cloud resources, on-premises private data centers, and traditional workloads from a single pane of glass using familiar Azure tools and APIs.

• AI and low latency: The solution is designed to meet strict latency and compliance requirements by keeping compute and data processing locally. This is crucial for local AI inferencing applications in retail, manufacturing execution systems, and pipeline detection, where near-real-time decision-making is necessary.

• Flexible Scaling: The partnership enables independent scaling of compute (via Dell Private Cloud) and enterprise-grade storage (via Dell PowerStore), giving customers cost control and flexibility not always available in a public cloud-only model.

• Data Sovereignty: By deploying Azure Local on Dell hardware, organizations in highly regulated industries like defense, finance, and healthcare can ensure data residency and compliance while still leveraging modern Azure services.

"Microsoft and Dell Technologies share a vision of empowering businesses to achieve more through innovation and collaboration," said Dean Paron, Vice President of Product Management for Azure Edge Infrastructure at Microsoft. "By bringing Microsoft Azure Local to Dell Private Cloud and PowerStore, we're helping customers simplify their IT operations and unlock the full potential of their hybrid cloud strategies."

The Private Cloud Comeback

The announcement is perfectly timed with the "cloud repatriation" trend, where enterprises are moving select workloads back from the public cloud to on-premises environments to gain better cost control and operational flexibility. With nearly 70% of organizations adopting hybrid strategies, the Dell-Microsoft solution offers a fully integrated, automated path to managing this complex IT reality.

Dell confirmed that early access to Azure Local integration with Dell Private Cloud and PowerStore is now available to interested enterprises.