As an Azure Expert MSP, Infopulse provides the execution of the Microsoft cloud adoption projects in accordance with the established practices and processes stated within the Azure Management Framework.
The framework presented below consists of the Management Baseline, Enhanced Managed Baseline, and Platform and Workload Specializations, listing the recommended processes and tools that should be implemented to achieve cloud operational excellence.
Management Baseline
Management Baseline outlines basic processes and tools required to establish resource consistency across Azure and optimize operational management. We recommend implementing all these processes and operations for the best results.
Management Baseline covers the following areas:
- Inventory and Visibility in Azure
- Operational Compliance in Azure
- Protect and Recover in Azure
Inventory and Visibility in Azure
Create an inventory of assets across multiple clouds and develop visibility into the run state of each asset.
Processes
Monitor health of Azure services
Health, performance, and diagnostics for services running in Azure
Log centralization
Central logging for all visibility purposes
Monitoring centralization
Central monitoring of operational data and trends
Subscription monitoring
Monitoring change at the subscription level
Network monitoring
Monitoring network changes and performance
Additional processes
Virtual machine inventory and change tracking
Inventory VMs and monitor changes for guest OS level
Guest OS monitoring
Monitoring changes and performance of VMs
DNS monitoring
Security, performance, and operations of DNS
To set up these processes, the following Azure tools need to be activated and tuned:
- Azure Service Health
- Log Analytics
- Azure Monitor
- Azure Activity Log
- Azure Network Watcher
- DNS Analytics
Operational Compliance in Azure
Establish controls and processes to ensure each state is properly configured and running in a well-governed environment.
Processes
Patch management
Management and scheduling of updates
Policy enforcement
Policy enforcement to ensure environment and guest compliance
Environment configuration
Automated compliance for core services
To set up these processes, the following Azure tools need to be activated and tuned:
- Azure Automation Update Management
- Azure Policy
- Azure Blueprints
Protect and Recover in Azure
Ensure all managed assets are protected and can be recovered using baseline management tooling.
Processes
Protect data
Back up data and virtual machines in the cloud
Protect the environment
Strengthen security and provide advanced threat protection across your hybrid workloads
To set up these processes, the following Azure tools need to be activated and tuned:
- Azure Backup
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- Azure Site Recovery
Enhanced Management Baseline
In addition to the standard Management Baseline processes, we offer the adoption of the additional processes and tools to further improve and streamline the Azure environment management.
The suggested processes include but are not limited to the list below.
Processes
Service change tracking
Tool: Azure Resource Graph
Aim/Potential benefits: Greater visibility into changes to Azure services might help detect negative effects sooner or remediate them faster
IT Service Management (ITSM) integration
Tool: IT Service Management Connector
Aim/Potential Benefits:
- Automated ITSM connection creates awareness sooner.
- Automated tickets creation based on Azure notifications or Alerts
Operations automation
Tool: Azure Automation
Aim/Potential benefits:
- Automate operational compliance for a faster and more accurate response to change.
- Routines automation.
Performance automation
Tool: Azure Automation
Aim/Potential benefits: Automate operational compliance with performance expectations to resolve common resource-specific scaling or sizing issues
Multicloud operations
Tool: Azure Automation Hybrid Runbook Worker
Aim/Potential benefits: Automate operations across multiple clouds (Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services)
Breach notification
Tool: Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Aim/Potential benefits:
- Extend protection to include security-breach recovery triggers.
- Also, an automated response to a security-breach trigger could be developed and implemented.
Platform and Workload Specializations
Platform and Workload specializations are extensions to the standard Management Baseline. We suggest adding these specialized operations for the mission-critical workloads.
The suggested processes include but are not limited to the list below.
Processes
Improve system design
Tool: Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
Aim/Potential benefits: Improving the architectural design of the platform to improve operations
Automate remediation
Tool: Azure Automation
Aim/Potential benefits: Responding to advanced platform data with platform-specific automation
Container performance
Tool: Azure Monitor for containers
Aim/Potential benefits: Monitoring and diagnostics of containers
Platform as a service (PaaS) data performance
Tool: Azure SQL Analytics
Aim/Potential benefits: Monitoring and diagnostics for PaaS databases
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) data performance
Tool: SQL Server Health Check
Aim/Potential benefits: Monitoring and diagnostics for IaaS databases
Application monitoring
Tool: Application Insights
Aim/Potential benefits: Monitoring and diagnostics for applications
Performance, availability, and usage
Tool: Application Insights
Advanced application monitoring with the application dashboard, composite maps, usage, and tracing
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