What is an Azure Landing Zone and Why You Need It?
An Azure landing zone is a predefined architectural framework that is used to set up and manage cloud environments on Microsoft Azure. It is designed to provide a secure, well-architected, and standardized foundation for organizations to build their Azure workloads.
The Azure landing zone provides a set of guidelines, best practices, and templates that can be used to establish a landing zone in a consistent and repeatable way. This includes guidance on topics such as network architecture, security, identity access management, governance, and operations.
Scalable and Modular
There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to technical environments. However, there are several Azure landing zone implementation options available that can help you meet the deployment and operations needs of your growing cloud portfolio.
Scalability:
One of the key benefits of Azure landing zones is their scalability. They allow you to adapt the cloud at scale by providing repeatable environments with consistent configuration and controls, regardless of the workloads or Azure resources deployed to each landing zone instance.
Modularity:
Another important aspect of Azure landing zones is their modularity. They provide an extensible approach to building out your environment, based on a common set of design areas. This means that you can easily scale specific elements of the environment as requirements evolve, while still maintaining a consistent framework and approach.
Platform vs Application Landing Zones:
There are two types of Azure Landing Zones:
Platform Landing Zones:
Platform landing zones are collections of centralized services deployed and operated by a central team or multiple central teams split by function (e.g., networking, identity) that will be used by different workloads and applications. These landing zones typically include key services that benefit from consolidation to increase efficiency and streamline operations. Some examples of such services include networking, identity, and management.
Application Landing Zones:
An application landing zone is a subscription or group of subscriptions deployed specifically for an application or workload. These landing zones are typically placed in management groups, such as ‘corp’ or ‘online,’ beneath the ‘landing zones’ management group to ensure policy controls are correctly applied. There are three main types of application landing zones:
1. Centrally managed:
These landing zones are fully operated by a central IT team, which applies controls and platform tools to both the platform and application landing zones.
2. Technology platforms:
With technology platforms such as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Azure VMware Solution (AVS), the underlying service is often centrally managed, while the applications running on top of the service have delegated responsibilities to application teams. This results in modified controls or access permissions compared to centrally managed landing zones.
3. Workload:
In this scenario, a platform administration team delegates the entire landing zone to a workload team to fully manage and support the environment, while still being controlled by the policies applied from the management groups above that the platform team controls. This might include adding additional policies at the subscription scope and using alternative tooling for deploying, securing, or monitoring workloads that are fully controlled and operated by the workload team.
Whether you’re just starting with your first production application on Azure or operating a complex portfolio of tech platforms and workloads, the Azure landing zone implementation options can be tailored to your needs.
5 Reasons Why You Need an Azure Landing Zones:
1. Improved Security-
When it comes to moving to the cloud, one of the biggest concerns companies have is security. However, with Azure landing zones, you can be confident that your cloud environment will be secure from the outset. Azure landing zones come with pre-configured security controls, network segmentation, and identity management to safeguard your data and applications. This not only helps you meet regulatory requirements, such as compliance with industry standards like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 but also prevents security breaches that could potentially compromise your data.
2. Increased Agility-
Using Azure landing zones also offers the benefit of increased agility. With Azure landing zones, you can swiftly set up your cloud environment and immediately begin using it, allowing you to accelerate your time-to-value and rapidly deploy your applications. The streamlined and efficient setup process can also aid in reducing the costs associated with building a cloud environment from scratch.
3. Better Governance-
When it comes to migrating to the cloud, one of the greatest hurdles that companies face is ensuring that their cloud deployment is in sync with their business objectives and remains consistent over time. Fortunately, Azure landing zones offer a suite of governance controls that help enforce policies and standards across your cloud environment. This ensures that your cloud deployment is consistent with your business goals and objectives. Additionally, the governance controls provide visibility into your cloud environment, enabling you to keep track of your cloud usage and expenditures.
4. Scalability-
As your business expands, it is vital that your cloud environment grows in tandem with it. Azure landing zones are engineered to be scalable, which enables you to effortlessly add or remove resources as necessary. This flexibility ensures that you can respond to the evolving needs of your business and provide your applications with the necessary resources. With Azure landing zones, you can seamlessly scale your cloud environment up or down to meet your evolving requirements, guaranteeing that your cloud environment is continually right-sized for your business.
5. Cost Savings:
One of the major advantages of migrating to the cloud is the potential cost savings it offers. By leveraging Azure landing zones, you can optimize your cloud deployment to achieve maximum cost efficiency. This can enable you to reduce your cloud expenses and boost your return on investment. Azure landing zones deliver a cost-effective solution for businesses seeking to transition to the cloud by providing a secure and effective foundation for your cloud environment. Furthermore, the scalability of Azure landing zones can help you avoid over-provisioning resources, which can lead to unnecessary expenses.
Conclusion:
Azure landing zones are an optimal solution for businesses seeking to migrate to the cloud. They provide a multitude of benefits, including enhanced security, heightened agility, improved governance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Whether you’re in the early stages of your cloud journey or are already making strides, Azure landing zones can help you optimize your cloud investment. They enable you to ensure the safety and efficiency of your cloud environment, as well as align it with your business objectives. If you’re looking to take your cloud migration to the next level, Azure landing zones are the perfect tool to help you get there.
