Chapter 3: Core Azure Architectural Components

In Chapter 2, Benefits of Cloud Computing, you learned the skills to identify the cloud computing benefits, describe the consumption-based model, and identify the differences between capital expenditure and operational expenditure.

This chapter will outline the core architectural components from both a physical and a logical perspective.

From the physical component perspective, we'll look at the data centers that host the cloud computing resources, the global networks connecting them and connecting users to their resources, the global regions that provide the cloud platform resources, and the availability of these resources.

From the logical component perspective, we'll look at all aspects of resource management. Starting with Azure subscriptions, which act as both a mechanism and a boundary for billing and access management, we'll also cover management groups. Next, we'll cover Azure Resource Manager (ARM...

Azure global infrastructure

The key components that make up the Azure global infrastructure are the physical data centers, the edge infrastructure, and the global network, sometimes referred to as premises and pipes.

An Azure physical data center is a secure facility that hosts the physical compute, storage, and networking facilities that provide the Azure cloud computing platform resources.

Edge locations are secure facilities where traffic enters and leaves the Microsoft global network. These locations can provide edge computing resources to be closer to users for improved network latency, allowing fewer network hops through fewer providers, so the traffic can stay on the Microsoft backbone network longer, without transiting the internet if required. We will cover the concept of cold potato routing in Chapter 4, Core Azure Resources, of this book.

The Microsoft global network is one of the largest private networks in the world. It connects data centers to regional gateways...

Azure resource management

In the previous chapter, we looked at the digital transformation methodology; it is this last phase of Secure and Manage that we turn our attention to in this section.

It is important to ensure that any workloads or data running in a cloud computing environment are managed in the same governed, controlled, secure, and protected manner that they would be for a traditional computing model. The following diagram aims to visualize these aspects:

Figure 3.16 – Azure resource management

These areas to consider should include the following:

• Availability through redundancy, replication, and traffic management
• Protection through backup and disaster recovery
• Security through threat protection and security posture management
• Configuration through automation, scripting, and update management
• Governance through access control, compliance, and cost management
• Monitoring through the collection of security incidents...

Hands-on exercises

To support your learning with some practical skills, we will look at the hands-on creation of some of the resources covered in this chapter.

The following resources will be created:

• Exercise 1 – Azure management groups
• Exercise 2 – Azure access assignment
• Exercise 3 – Resource groups
• Exercise 4 – Proximity placement groups
• Exercise 5 – Availability sets

Getting started

To get started with these hands-on exercises, you can create a free Azure account from this URL: https://azure.microsoft.com/free/.

This free Azure account provides the following:

• 12 months of free services
• $200 credit to explore Azure for 30 days
• 25+ services that are always free

Exercise 1 – Azure management groups

In this section, we will look at the steps to create and configure management groups.

To recap from a previous section, Azure management groups, where management groups were covered...

Summary

This chapter, Chapter 3, Core Azure Architectural Components, included complete coverage of the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals exam skills area Describe Cloud Concepts.

We described the physical and logical core architectural components of the Azure cloud computing platforms. From the physical perspective, we looked at the data centers that host the cloud computing resources, the global networks connecting them and connecting users to their resources, the global regions that provide the cloud platform resources, and the availability of these resources.

From the logical component perspective, we looked at all aspects of resource management. Starting with Azure subscriptions, which act as both a mechanism and a boundary for billing and access management, we also covered management groups. Next, we covered ARM and resource groups, which form the basis for access management and governance, the concepts of RBAC, Azure Policy, how they differ, and the scenarios in which to use each...

Further reading

This section provides links to additional exam information and study references:

• Exam AZ-900 – Microsoft Azure fundamentals: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-900
• Exam AZ-900 – skills outline: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VwUY
• Microsoft Learn: Azure Fundamentals – Describe core Azure architectural components: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/azure-architecture-fundamentals
• Azure global infrastructure: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/global-infrastructure
• Azure Edge Zones: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/networking/edge-zones-overview
• Azure reliability: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/features/reliability
• Managing resources: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/

Skills check

Challenge yourself with what you have learned in this chapter:

1. What are the two key components that make up the Azure global infrastructure?
2. What is the difference between an Azure data center and an edge location?
3. What is ExpressRoute?
4. What is the difference between an Azure region and geography?
5. Explain Azure Edge Zones.
6. Explain Sovereign Clouds.
7. What is the Azure availability component that protects against a failure within a data center?
8. What is the Azure availability component that protects against a failure within a region?
9. What is the Azure availability component that protects against a failure across a region?
10. What is the difference between availability sets and Availability Zones?
11. What is a fault domain?
12. What is an update domain?
13. What are proximity placement groups?
14. What does ASR protect against?
15. What are the management scopes?
16. What are Azure management groups?
17. What is an Azure subscription...