Deploying XMPie Server Products on Azure Cloud Computing Service

Summary: This article lists the main resource requirements and cost considerations for running XMPie PersonalEffect Server products on Azure Cloud Computing Service.

Audience: Customers who wish to host their servers on the Azure Cloud Computing Service.

Overview

Azure Cloud Computing Service is a cloud computing platform that provides a suite of infrastructure services. The usage of Azure Cloud provides a highly reliable and secured infrastructure for deploying XMPie Server products.

Notice! XMPie supports a dedicated Microsoft SQL server installed on an Azure virtual machine. It does not support Azure SQL managed instance and Azure SQL Database. See What is Azure SQL?

Infrastructure

Azure Cloud Computing Service provide a reliable, secure, and highly-performing infrastructure for the most demanding applications, an infrastructure that matches XMPie server product solution. This service can also deliver a scalable cloud computing platform with high availability and dependability.

The following is a sample configuration of the XMPie StoreFlow deployed on Azure Cloud Services within a VNet with a public and private subnets:

The best security practice scenario is to run a public-facing web application server, while maintaining back-end servers that aren't publicly accessible.

Security

XMPie PersonalEffect deployed on Azure is designed to meet security best practices, such as:

·     Environment isolation – This is achieved by using Azure Private Cloud.

·     Firewall - Azure Firewall provides a complete firewall solution. See What is Azure Firewall.

·     Secure Socket Layer (SSL) - a protocol for data encryption over the internet is supported.

·     The physical security is handled by the service provider.

Minimal System Requirements

XMPie PersonalEffect can be deployed in any of the following configurations:

·     XMPie Turn-Key Systems – A basic XMPie Turn-Key system (excluding print) includes at least two servers: a single production server and a front-end web server.

·     XMPie Enterprise Platforms – The XMPie Enterprise Platforms (excluding print) includes at least three servers: Director, Extension and a front-end web server.

As a minimum requirement, XMPie PersonalEffect runs on top of Dv4 and Dsv4-series. This series provides a balance of compute, memory and network resources. The main features for the series are:

·     Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8370C (Ice Lake) or the Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8272CL (Cascade Lake) processors, running at 3.4 GHz

·     Support for Enhanced Networking

·     Balance of compute, memory, and network resources

The table below represents the Azure Computing Series specifications for each of the PersonalEffect packages (both for Turn-key and Platforms systems). These are the minimum requirements with the corresponding Azure Cloud Service instance types.

The information above can vary and it is true as of July 2022.

Azure Web Services Cost Details

XMPie PersonalEffect deployed on Azure Cloud Services infrastructure includes a few elements to be considered when calculating the total monthly/yearly cost. Azure Cloud Services allows you to pay only for capacity that you actually use.

In order to fully understand the total cost of any XMPie PersonalEffect package deployed on Azure Cloud Services infrastructure, you should be familiar with all Azure elements and services:

·     Sizes for virtual machines in Azure

·     Azure Cloud Services Reserved Instances

·     Availability options for Azure Virtual Machines

·     Azure disks and storage

·     Virtual networks and virtual machines in Azure

·     Azure Virtual Machines security

·     Backup and restore options for virtual machines in Azure

Created by: Mohammad Mansour on July 2022