Inviso empowers state and local government with Azure Local

Modernizing state and local government infrastructure with Azure Local

We recently partnered with a large state and local government to modernize its IT infrastructure using Azure Local on Cisco UCS. By designing and deploying a nine-node Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) cluster, hybrid-managed through Azure Arc, the project enabled seamless integration with Azure services while keeping critical workloads close to home.

The migration allowed the government to move approximately 600 virtual machines from VMware to a secure, cost-optimized, and centrally managed compute infrastructure. This transformation delivered improved performance, simplified operations, and provides a solid foundation for future cloud-enabled services.

In this blog, we’ll explore what Azure Local is, why it’s a compelling replacement for VMware in government IT, and the value delivered by Inviso’s HCI deployment.

What is Azure Local?

Azure Local allows organizations to run Azure-consistent environments on-premises using Microsoft-validated hardware. It combines Hyper-V compute, Storage Spaces Direct storage, and Failover Clustering to deliver a scalable, highly available infrastructure that supports 1–16 nodes per cluster.

Fully integrated with Azure Arc, Azure Local provides a unified control plane to manage on-premises, edge, and cloud workloads. Organizations can run Windows and Linux virtual machines, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and Azure Virtual Desktop, while leveraging Azure services like Backup, Site Recovery, Monitor, and Security Center.

For government agencies with strict data sovereignty and compliance requirements, Azure Local keeps workloads close to home while providing cloud-like consistency and control.

Why replace VMware with Azure Local?

Replacing VMware with Azure Local provides several key advantages for state and local governments such as:

• Unified Cloud-On-Prem experience: Azure Local delivers a common platform using Azure Arc, enabling across-cloud/premises governance, monitoring, and policy—without rearchitecting applications.
• Cost predictability and licensing flexibility: Pay per-core subscription model via Azure, or use existing Windows Server Datacenter licenses with Software Assurance—sidestepping VMware’s rising costs under Broadcom.
• Familiar admin ecosystem: Built on Hyper-V and Storage Spaces – familiar to Windows Server and Hyper-V admins. Integrates with Active Directory, Group Policy, System Center, and PowerShell.
• First-Class Azure services On-premises: Natively supports AKS, Azure Virtual Desktop, IaaS services, backup and DR—all controlled from a unified portal.
• Edge and compliance ready: Ideal for sovereignty requirements: Data stays local; unaffected by WAN outage; perfect for government agencies.

Government use case and benefits

Azure Local is particularly well-suited for state and local government organizations:

• Azure Government: Regional deployment supported in US‑Gov Virginia—optimized for compliance and regulated workloads.
• Proven adoption: Partnerships with Cisco and Microsoft demonstrate how Azure Local can consolidate and modernize government data centers while maintaining secure, cost-effective operations.
• Efficiency and compliance: Reports from local councils show that Azure Stack HCI adoption simplifies hybrid architecture, reduces costs, and streamlines management.

Building the 9-Node HCI cluster

For this project, we deployed a nine-node HCI cluster using validated Cisco UCS hardware. Each node runs the Azure Local operating system, contributing to a clustered compute and storage pool via Storage Spaces Direct, and is registered to Azure through Arc for centralized hybrid management.

IT teams manage the environment using familiar tools like the Azure Portal, Windows Admin Center, PowerShell/CLI, and ARM/Bicep templates, with orchestration and updates handled by Update Manager. Local workloads remain operational during WAN outages, thanks to disconnected operation, and automatically sync with Azure when connectivity is restored.

This design ensures high performance, reliability, and simplified management while providing the flexibility to scale up to 16 nodes in the future.

Key outcomes

The deployment of this nine-node cluster delivered tangible results for the government, transforming IT operations with enhanced performance, centralized management, and built-in resilience. Key outcomes from the project include:

Delivering government-grade hybrid Infrastructure with Azure Local

Our design and deployment of a 9‑node Azure Local HCI cluster delivered a government-grade hybrid solution—achieving modernization goals without sacrificing cost-control, compliance, or operational simplicity. This architecture showcases Azure Local as a compelling direct replacement for VMware environments—built on consistent Azure & Edge principles, ensuring agility, control, and future readiness.

A key success metric for any large infrastructure migration starts with a Well-Architected Review

At Inviso, we view a Well-Architected Review as an essential prerequisite for any large-scale migration—now including Azure Local with Microsoft’s newly released assessment. This review guides you through a comprehensive set of Yes/No questions mapped to the five pillars of the Well-Architected Framework (WAF).The assessment produces a clear maturity and risk score, accompanied by actionable recommendations and resource links that help strengthen your architecture before you begin your migration journey. You can learn more about this assessment at the link here.