Azure Governance
Microsoft Azure is a comprehensive and scalable platform that allows all your business communications and informational transactions to take place under a single umbrella. With a multitude of applications available, Azure is one of the most powerful cloud platforms on the market today.
But without adequate cloud governance or Azure policies in place, a business may put itself at risk of wasted money, missed opportunity or even lost data and breach threats.
At Syntax, we are experts in all aspects of the Azure environment and understand what it takes to both develop a migration strategy for new adopters and help existing customers to meet their Azure resource requirements.
So, whether it’s getting to grips with authentication and authorisation requirements, management groups, deployment life cycle or compliance regulations, you’ve come to the right place.
Getting started with Azure: Implementation and Management Services
The implementation of Azure should always be carefully planned in line with a business’s requirements and its goals for the future. Key considerations should include not only meeting compliance requirements and cost but also compatibility with other solutions, scalability over time and, of course, security.
From this starting point, it’s then time to set up and configure the Azure environment, establish virtual machines, manage databases, and structure storage accounts.
Once the setup phase is complete Azure governance can be managed and monitored using several tools like Azure Resource Manager and Azure Portal. With Syntax, you don’t need to feel out of your depth when it comes to the implementation and management stage. We will support you every step of the way.
Effective Azure governance requires organisations to add policies and roles to templates, easily creating fully compliant environments. You can also apply group policies to new Azure subscriptions. Our highly trained consultants will help you throughout, helping you ensure that you always have total visibility over all your resources and always have an eye on cost management.
As accredited Microsoft Solutions Partners, we are recognised for our work in a range of Azure management areas. Whether you are looking to take control of your Azure policies, improve your operational management or understand its benefits over other cloud providers, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
To discuss your needs, contact one of our experts today.
Key Information on Azure Governance
Making the Most of Azure Resources
At the heart of Azure governance is policy management and cost management. With the support of Syntax, you can take advantage of built in and custom policies to set clear boundaries in your subscriptions.
Through Azure, businesses can easily and smoothly deploy fully governed environments throughout the organisation. Azure Blueprints give you a clear framework to work with, tailored to your specific needs – and our team of experts will even provide support on implementing naming standards to ensure that Azure resources can be accessed easily.
What is more, you can manage costs by gaining insights into your cloud spending so that you know you are getting the most from your cloud investments.
Cost Management and Azure Cloud Governance
Azure is a cloud computing platform and online portal that provides secure access to cloud services and resources provided by Microsoft. This allows organisations to manage business systems and communications all in one place. Its services range from analytics and storage to networking, virtual computing and much more.
Through Azure cloud governance, businesses can take total control of their business operations and spending, creating a unique support system based around existing and future requirements.
A key benefit of a cloud platform like Azure is that users only pay for resources that are used. However, if managed without a clear framework of policies and an understanding of the environment, costs can quickly escalate, and bills become unpredictable.
Through tools such as Azure Blueprints and System Garden, our expert team at Syntax work with clients to ensure effective Azure governance – based on efficiency, cost management and compliance.
Cloud Governance to Save You Money
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is a desktop and app virtualisation service that resides in the cloud and is accessed by permitted users, allowing them to create cloud computers for authorised personnel to access for greater communication and productivity.
For Azure subscribers, Azure governance services are free. You can create custom dashboards to view and analyse your cloud usage, meaning you can closely monitor your spending. This provides an opportunity to increase efficiency across your business by right sizing your virtual machines as required.
Working with Azure Blueprints
Internal and external regulations are a huge part of modern businesses, and Azure governance ensures that your business is completely compliant across the board. This can include configuring your templates using policies, access controls, resources, and smart deployment.
At Syntax, our team will work with you to get the most out of Azure Blueprints, a tool designed to define a structure of instructions for deployment and configuration. This is tailored to your company’s standards, controls, and regulations.
Once established, the full deployment lifecycle of resources can be deployed using Azure Blueprints. Through Azure, you can manage blueprint updates with versioning control. Take advantage of the most comprehensive set of compliance offerings, including built in compliance blueprints, such as ISO 27001.
If you’re looking for managed security services to take your organisation’s infrastructure to the next level, Syntax are here to help.
Looking for an Azure Resource Manager?
Azure governance is a broad discipline, and making the most of Azure while ensuring complete compliance can be an overwhelming task. Syntax IT Support can get to know your business and help to determine best practices on how to implement your governance strategy and take advantage of the benefits of Azure through comprehensive governance services.
Governance provides you with a framework that determines how your business conducts its operations from responsibilities and objectives. It combines services and capabilities that make it possible to manage all Azure resources at scale, ensuring control guidelines are followed.
The Key Pillars of Azure Governance
There are five key pillars of Azure governance. These are:
– Cost management
– Security baseline
– Resource consistency
– Identity baseline
– Deployment acceleration
We can help you get to grips with Azure governance and get the most from your Microsoft investment to support your business in the long run.
Azure Resource Graph: Developing a Robust Framework and Security Rules
Azure governance combines different services and capabilities, allowing you to manage all your Azure resources and applications at scale, following control guidelines. This works across many different subscriptions and resource groups. Azure governance is based on a combination of identify, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) policies and management groups.
Governance includes the processes and mechanisms used to maintain control of your applications and recourses. They are the strategic priorities in planning your initiatives within your organisation. It allows you to provide access to a growing number of technological benefits while at the same time monitoring security rules and compliance risks.
Azure Resource Graph is a powerful extension to Azure Resource Management, providing efficient resource exploration at scale. It provides the ability to do complex filtering and grouping, while also supporting other popular Azure extensions like Azure Lighthouse.
It offers a single unified endpoint to access Azure services and other Microsoft applications, including Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Intune. It’s no surprise that this secure and resilient application is so popular among businesses of all industries and sizes.
Creating an Azure Policy
Governance provides a cloud security framework of specialised guidelines that encourage security measures for cloud use within Microsoft Azure. Cloud strategy guidelines can be used to outline the policies, tools, configurations, and rules required to secure data and identities in the cloud environment.
These frameworks serve as the foundation of your overall security strategy, ensuring your data is safe, whilst allowing for the flexibility, scalability and growth that makes the cloud such an appealing option for businesses.
Security is an essential factor in any cloud governance plan and should be the first factor considered when creating an Azure policy. The security rules resulting from a security policy are automatically implemented into your environment, and new and existing resources can be audited.
Microsoft Azure Support Services
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, Microsoft Azure and Azure Sentinel SIEM is one of our specialisms. We’re a complete Azure consultancy, offering advice, support and tailored plans to manage your Azure infrastructure, from Azure cost optimisation to deployment management and governance compliance.
Take control of your Azure configuration with consulting and support from Syntax London.
Call the Syntax team today on 020 7307 5008 or fill in our contact form.
