The architecture of Azure Governance

The architecture of Azure Governance encompasses a set of services and components that work together to enable effective management, control, and compliance in the Azure cloud environment. Here is an overview of the key elements:

1. Azure Management Groups: Management Groups provide a hierarchical structure for organizing and managing subscriptions. They allow centralized policy assignment and access control across multiple subscriptions.
2. Azure Subscriptions: Subscriptions are containers for Azure resources and services. They serve as the unit of ownership and billing in Azure. Each subscription can have its own policies, access controls, and resource limits.
3. Azure Policy: Azure Policy helps enforce compliance by defining and applying rules and guidelines for resource configurations. It ensures that resources deployed within Azure adhere to specific standards, regulatory requirements, or organizational policies.
4. Azure Blueprints: Azure Blueprints enable the rapid deployment of cloud environments based on predefined templates. Blueprints include a set of artifacts, such as resource groups, policies, and role assignments, that can be easily deployed and managed.
5. Azure Resource Manager: Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is the management layer that handles the creation, update, and deletion of Azure resources. It provides a unified API and control plane for managing resources across subscriptions.
6. Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): RBAC allows fine-grained access control by assigning roles to users, groups, or applications. It ensures that only authorized individuals can perform specific actions on Azure resources.
7. Azure Cost Management + Billing: This service provides cost transparency and optimization capabilities. It helps track resource usage, monitor spending, and implement cost control measures to optimize cloud costs.
8. Azure Monitor: Azure Monitor provides comprehensive monitoring and insights into the performance and health of Azure resources. It enables organizations to track metrics, set alerts, and gain visibility into the operational state of their Azure environment.
9. Azure Security Center: Azure Security Center offers unified security management and threat protection across Azure resources. It provides security recommendations, threat detection, and advanced analytics to help organizations protect their cloud infrastructure.

These components work together to establish a governance framework that ensures compliance, security, cost optimization, and efficient management of Azure resources within an organization’s cloud environment.