For organizations that wish to leverage the cloud, it can be difficult to take the first step. Server management, network configuration and other IT operations management (ITOM) tasks require a starkly different approach in the cloud versus on-prem. Because of this, your IT department may lack the understanding and confidence to properly manage your new cloud infrastructure, reducing efficiency and potentially exposing your organization to attackers.
To overcome these challenges, Trianz has developed the Azure Foundational Framework, which aligns both with industry best practices and best practices developed by Microsoft for the Azure platform. Included in the framework are all the foundational components necessary to stand up a secure and reliable hybrid Azure environment, complete with the relevant networks, subnets, Expressroute/VPN and resource segmentation. The architecture is relatively simple and includes a Dev, Test, Production and Shared Services environment, which are deployed in a hub-and-spoke topology, as well as all the relevant networking components such as, VNETs, subnets, NSGs, etc. The deployment of these services can be rapid, even as quickly as a few days. Trianz’s commitment to automation on Azure allows our architects and engineers to deploy the same, reliable environments quickly and without the need for substantial customer SME involvement.
Our Azure Foundational Framework also covers broader network management, role-based access control (RBAC), data governance and Azure best practices—offering a comprehensive plan to implement and manage your new Azure infrastructure. The best part: this framework can be used to automatically provision compliant, optimally pre-configured server instances on Azure, allowing you to get up and running quickly on the platform.
Azure foundational framework benefits
The cloud has prompted a paradigm shift in automation. Previously, virtual environments and servers would be set up manually by an IT engineer, which consumed precious time and reduced the efficiency of your IT department. Now, Trianz can help you eliminate this ITOM work with automated provisioning through the Azure Foundational Framework.
Our Azure Foundational Framework comes with many benefits, including:
Access control – Previously, after server setup, IT engineers would need to manually configure the role-based access control (RBAC) rules for user accounts. This presents a risk of human error when manually replicating existing rules from another server, which may result in over- or under-provisioning of access.
With the Azure Foundational Framework, RBAC is automatically configured before the server goes live. This ensures that every user will get sufficient access while preventing those that are unauthorized from accessing this infrastructure. The framework can also be updated in real-time as you make IAM policy changes, ensuring that servers always receive the most up-to-date IAM configuration possible.
Network topology – With the cloud leveraging virtualization technology, network management can be a difficult task. Virtual networks (Vnets), subnets and Vnet peering are common with cloud network management, and manually configuring these with each new server instance is bound to result in mistakes. This could prevent servers from communicating properly with each other or expose private infrastructure to the wider internet, posing a risk to your business.
Our Azure Foundational Framework uses hub-and-spoke technology to simplify network management. The central hub is used to manage your Azure Vnets (the spokes), giving you a unified management solution for your growing network. By using hub-and-spoke topology, you also separate Security Operations (SecOps), Infrastructure Operations (InfraOps), and development operations (DevOps) workloads, separating concerns between multiple IT teams.
Azure governance – Understanding the minutiae of Azure is extremely challenging, especially for teams unfamiliar with cloud or Microsoft technologies. Part of the Azure Foundational Framework is to ensure our customers have a holistic understanding of the platform, beyond what is technically relevant and possible. We understand stakeholders have valid concerns about security, governance and regulations when undertaking their cloud journey.
To assist our customers with their Azure governance journey, Trianz includes as part of this framework, a two-day workshop that provides an in-depth look at how to best manage your Azure environment. Topics include managing Azure Policies, Azure RBAC, using Azure AD, understanding the various logging and monitoring tools, understanding subscription use and segmentation, and understanding the largest costs within a given environment scenario.
Azure foundational framework development with Trianz
Trianz is a leading cloud framework development firm that has helped hundreds of our Fortune 500 clients automate server provisioning in the cloud. Our experts understand that the future of enterprise computing requires a strong foundation, and our commitment to this product allows our customers to rest easy knowing their environment is best-in-class, from the beginning.
We offer a range of Azure Foundational Framework assessment, development, and implementation services, including:
Creating a foundational framework – While most cloud environments vary more than they are similar, Trianz recognized early the benefits of standardizing cloud environments on the best-practices-aligned architecture, including the relevant services to be deployed first, how they should be deployed and in what quantity. As such, the Azure Foundational Framework that has been developed is standard across customers but can be adjusted based on customer size, the scope of the environment, or other factors. At its core, however, the Azure Foundational Framework includes all relevant workshop sessions and deployment ARM templates necessary to stand the environment up as quickly as possible. Most customers will see their framework deployed in less than a week.
Before deploying the framework, our experts will perform an assessment of your existing environment to determine if adjustments to the automated deployment are necessary. When the assessment is complete, Trianz conducts a two-day workshop with the relevant business and IT stakeholders to review pertinent details about both Azure and governing cloud resources. When the assessment and workshop are complete, the Azure Foundational Framework is deployed.
Implementing, updating and maintaining the framework – After the foundational framework has been fully implemented and tested, you can begin leveraging it in a production capacity. Our experts will help you perform the various tests needed and ensure that the automatically provisioned resources align with both your chosen policies and with industry best practices. Following completion, your Azure Foundational Framework can be used to automatically provision additional resources, including servers, PaaS products, etc.
Azure foundational frameworks with Trianz
The cloud represented a paradigm shift in enterprise computing. Now, automation is the next big paradigm shift, reducing low-level workloads and improving network agility. Our Azure Foundational Framework will allow you to spin up a pre-configured environment that is fully optimized to meet your business’s needs. Get in touch today!
