The Azure Virtual Datacentre using Infrastructure as Code

Over the last couple of years I have been involved in many conversations with customers around starting their Azure journey. Every customer has different use cases for Azure or specific goals that they want to achieve. Whether you are looking at a DC migration to lift and shift virtual machines, leveraging "As a Service" capabilities in Azure or developing Cloud Native applications having a good foundation within Azure is key to the success of these projects.

At Ignia we developed and offering called "Azure Foundations" that addresses the core building blocks needed to design and implement the Azure Virtual Datacentre. This provides the foundation infrastructure that can be used to start migrating and on-boarding new services and solutions into Microsoft Azure leveraging existing governance and security policies defined within the existing on-premises environment.

The diagram below outlines the areas of focus and pillars that are important to get right from the start. Key decisions from these sections will help form the technical architecture and blueprint of the environment.

The Azure Virtual Datacentre is the execution of the Azure Foundation blueprint using Infrastructure as Code templates to provide repeatable, standardised and extensible infrastructure. Leveraging this approach to the provisioning of cloud infrastructure is one of the first steps in embedding DevOps practices within an organisation.

The execution of both of these pieces enables an organisation to have the required technical, governance and operational areas designed and implemented. The Azure Virtual Datacentre security and governance is addressed but also enables the business to be agile and leverage all the capabilities of the platform.

The diagram below outlines an example architecture across two Azure regions that takes into consideration everything outlined above. In a future post I will break down these areas in more detail outlining the concepts behind this.