Azure Landing Zone Overview | Architecture | Accelerator

Azure landing zones are the result of a multi subscription Azure environment that takes scale, security governance, networking, and identity into consideration.

In this blog, we will cover the Azure landing zone, Its architecture, Azure landing zone accelerator.

What Are Azure Landing Zones?

Moving to the cloud provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on how to run the IT environment. The rules and operating model that govern most organizations’ existing IT environments have slowed their ability to innovate and adopt cloud technologies. Organizations have their own set of processes, tools, and dedicated staff to ensure that these environments can support business needs on an ongoing basis.

With the transition to a cloud environment, IT now has access to new tools and processes that help to unclog IT operations. Technology-focused teams and Azure partners can assist organizations in improving agility, cost, and scale by revisiting the operating model.

The Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure’s landing zones is designed to accelerate efforts to modernize, map, or even reimagine the operating model. Azure landing zones aid in the creation of a cloud env that is level with the best tech operations for your specific needs in the cloud.

To create the initial cloud environment, Azure landing zones provide a clear architecture, reference implementations, and code samples. By consistently implementing a set of common design areas, this environment will support all other adoption efforts. These design areas represent how the cloud-based operating model is supported.

Source: Microsoft

Azure landing zone implementation options provide a reference implementation or approach to assist in making decisions about networking, identity, resource organization, governance, operations, and other design areas that affect the environment. The options provide a structure for organizations to follow in order to ensure that all minimal design considerations are made and decisions are reflected consistently across the cloud environment.

Azure Landing Zones Implementation Options

Azure landing zones are designed to meet customers’ specific needs based on today’s requirements, followed by a clear path to customize and mature any personalized landing zone implementation. This begins with selecting an implementation option for a landing zone, which will quickly deploy a starting point for the cloud environment.

Some Azure landing zones are intentionally small in order to encourage skill development and customization. The “start small” implementation options establish an infrastructure-as-code approach and then provide a series of decision guides to the IT team. This method aids in directing the thoughts and decisions that must be made. This iterative approach lays the groundwork in tandem with the cloud adoption strategy, allowing the team to make more concrete decisions as their cloud experience grows.

The “enterprise-scale” implementation option fills in the gaps for organizations with well-defined operating models. This option includes extremely detailed security, governance, and operations solutions. In the reference implementations, these solutions are automated and enforced by Azure Policy and other governance tools. When organizations begin with enterprise-scale, they can reduce the number of decision points and implement a proven cloud operating model more quickly.

Scalable and Modular

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for all technical environments. A few Azure landing zone implementation options can assist you in meeting the deployment and operations requirements of your expanding cloud portfolio.

Scalable: Regardless of the workloads or Azure resources deployed to each landing zone instance, all Azure landing zones support cloud adoption at scale by providing repeatable environments with consistent configuration and controls.

Modular: Based on a common set of design areas, all Azure landing zones provide a modular approach to building out your environment. Each design area is easily extensible to meet the specific requirements of various technology platforms such as Azure SQL Database, Azure Kubernetes Service, and Azure Virtual Desktop.

Whether you’re looking to deploy your first production application to Azure or manage a complex portfolio of tech platforms and workloads, the Azure landing zone implementation options can be tailored to your specific requirements.

Azure Landing Zone Architecture

The Azure landing zone conceptual architecture shown below represents the destination in many organizations’ cloud adoption journeys. It is a mature, scaled-out target architecture designed to assist organizations in running successful cloud environments that drive their business while adhering to best practices for security and governance.

This conceptual architecture represents scale and maturity decisions based on a wealth of lessons learned and feedback from customers who have integrated Azure into their digital estate.

While your specific implementation may differ as a result of specific business decisions or existing investments in tools that must persist in your cloud environment, this conceptual architecture will help set a direction for your organization’s overall approach to designing and implementing a landing zone.

Source: Microsoft

Azure Landing Zone Accelerator

The Azure landing zone accelerator is a ready-made deployment experience for organizations where this conceptual architecture aligns with the operating model and resource structure they intend to use.

The accelerator is an Azure portal-based deployment that will deliver a complete implementation of the conceptual architecture, as well as opinionated configurations for important components like management groups and policies.

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