Azure Landing Zones

An Azure landing zone is a solution environment for hosting applications on Microsoft Azure. It provides a scalable and modular framework that helps streamline cloud adoption by organizing resources, security, and governance for workloads running in Azure. Essentially, it sets the foundation for cloud operations and ensures best practices are embedded from the start.

Azure landing zones are designed to accommodate different organizational needs, technical complexities, and compliance requirements. They help to ensure that your cloud infrastructure is ready to host workloads in a way that aligns with Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework, optimizing both performance and cost.

Types of Azure Landing Zones

Microsoft recommends several types of Azure landing zones, each tailored to specific needs:

  1. Start Small and Expand: This approach is for organizations that want to start with a basic setup and scale up as their needs grow. It allows for starting with foundational management tools and security settings, then scaling with additional capabilities over time.
  2. Enterprise-Scale: Designed for large organizations, this architecture provides comprehensive guidelines and considerations for complex, multi-team environments. It includes more advanced networking, security, and governance structures.

List of Azure Landing Zones Recommended by Microsoft

Microsoft Azure provides several landing zone options under its Cloud Adoption Framework, including:

  1. Azure Setup Guide: This is a basic landing zone that sets up an initial environment suitable for small-scale deployments or initial production workloads.
  2. Terraform Landing Zone: For those who prefer using Terraform, this landing zone uses HashiCorp Terraform to define the deployment and configuration of Azure resources.
  3. Bicep/ARM Templates Landing Zone: This utilizes Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates or Azure Bicep, a domain-specific language (DSL), to help define and deploy Azure resources in a repeatable manner.
  4. Blueprints Landing Zone: Azure Blueprints allow the creation of reusable templates that define a set of standards and requirements for Azure deployments.
  5. Enterprise-Scale Landing Zone: This includes detailed architectural guidance and best practices for deploying a robust, scalable, and secure cloud environment. It covers a wide range of configurations including networking, identity, security, governance, and compliance.

Each of these landing zones can be further customized based on the organization’s specific requirements, ensuring that the infrastructure not only supports current needs but is also future-proof.

Relationship with IaC and PaaS

Azure landing zones are closely related to the concepts of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), both central to efficient cloud infrastructure management and application development in the cloud.

Relationship with IaC (Infrastructure as Code)

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a key component of modern cloud environments. It allows for the management and provisioning of infrastructure through code instead of manual processes. This approach promotes repeatability, reduces human error, and ensures consistent environments across development, testing, and production. Azure landing zones heavily utilize IaC principles:

  • Templates and Scripts: Landing zones often use Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, Bicep scripts, or Terraform configurations to define and deploy the necessary cloud resources automatically. This aligns with the IaC approach where all infrastructure setups are codified.
  • Scalability and Reproducibility: By using IaC within landing zones, organizations can easily replicate their cloud environments in different regions or Azure subscriptions without manual intervention, ensuring that each deployment adheres to the same governance and compliance standards.
  • Automation: The use of IaC tools in landing zones helps in automating the setup and configuration processes, which speeds up deployments and reduces the potential for human error.

Relationship with PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app. Azure landing zones support PaaS implementations in several ways:

  • Pre-configured Services: Landing zones often include configurations for Azure PaaS services like Azure SQL Database, Azure App Service, or Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). These services allow developers to focus on application development without worrying about underlying hardware or operating systems.
  • Security and Compliance: Azure landing zones provide a structured approach to integrate security and compliance best practices into the PaaS deployments, ensuring that applications are secure by default.
  • Networking and Connectivity: Landing zones help set up network components like Azure Virtual Network and connectivity services that are essential for providing secure and reliable access to PaaS services.

By integrating both IaC and PaaS, Azure landing zones provide a robust framework that simplifies cloud adoption. They ensure that infrastructure deployment is automated, repeatable, and consistent, while also providing a rich platform for application development that adheres to enterprise governance and security standards. This combination helps organizations accelerate their cloud journeys while maintaining control and compliance.

Sample Landing Zones for Data Platform

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