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Management Design Area for Azure Environments​

This design area establishes a foundation for operations management across your Azure, hybrid, or multicloud environments. It complements the broader Manage methodology of the Cloud Adoption Framework, and should be used to build a consistent and scalable operational baseline.

Design Area Review​

  • Involved roles or functions: Led by central IT or cloud operations, especially security architects. The cloud platform team and Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) are typically responsible for defining and implementing operational requirements. Advanced scenarios might also involve cloud governance roles.
  • Scope: Define and implement consistent operations management tooling across all workloads. The resulting configuration, referred to as the operations baseline, enables visibility, compliance, protection, and recovery capabilities across your environment.
  • Out of scope: This area does not include advanced workload-specific or platform-specific management (e.g., SAP, AVS). These are handled via the extended guidance in the Cloud Adoption Framework’s Manage methodology and the Azure Well-Architected Review.

Design Area Overview​

To ensure stable, secure, and scalable operations in the cloud, you need a management baseline that addresses:

Operations Baseline​

ScopeContext
Inventory & VisibilityImplement centralized inventory tools (e.g., Azure Resource Graph, Azure Monitor, Azure Policy) to manage cloud sprawl. These tools must scale with your environment.
Operational ComplianceEnforce patching, configuration consistency (via tools like Azure Automanage, Guest Configuration), and regular optimization. Use Azure Advisor for optimization insights.
Protect & RecoverDefine DR and BCDR policies based on RTO/RPO objectives. Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, and cross-region replication are baseline components.

Advanced Operations​

Use these categories to explore further operational layers beyond the baseline:

ScopeContext
Platform ManagementCentralize operations for shared services (e.g., SQL, Azure Virtual Desktop). Use Azure Lighthouse for multi-subscription visibility and custom monitoring dashboards for platform services.
Workload ManagementIdentify and escalate unique workload needs to potential platform-wide tooling enhancements. For example, recurring backup patterns in AI/ML workloads might suggest a shared pipeline. Reference Operational Excellence from the Well-Architected Framework.
CapabilityAzure-native Tools
Inventory & TaggingAzure Resource Graph, Azure Policy, Azure Tagging Strategy
Monitoring & AlertsAzure Monitor, Log Analytics, Azure Application Insights
Configuration ManagementAzure Automanage, Azure Guest Configuration, Azure Policy
ComplianceDefender for Cloud, Azure Blueprints
Backup & RecoveryAzure Backup, Azure Site Recovery
Advanced VisibilityAzure Lighthouse, Azure Arc, Azure Monitor Workbooks

For more implementation guidance, review the Manage landing zone documentation.

Next Steps​

  • Review your organization’s current state of management tooling.
  • Align your operational tooling with the baseline above.
  • Document any advanced workload or platform needs.
  • Ensure all operations align with governance and identity decisions already made.

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