10 Essential Considerations for Building a Scalable and Secure Azure Landing Zone

An Azure landing zone is a framework used to build a scalable and secure cloud environment on Microsoft Azure. It provides organizations with a way to structure their cloud resources and applications in a standardized way. Building an Azure landing zone can be a complex process, and it is essential to consider several factors before starting. Here are the top ten things to consider when building an Azure landing zone.

1. Define your organization’s cloud strategy: Before building your Azure landing zone, you need to have a clear understanding of your organization’s cloud strategy. This includes defining the goals and objectives for using the cloud, identifying the workloads to move to the cloud, and establishing the security and compliance requirements. Having a clear cloud strategy will help you design and build your Azure landing zone to align with your organization’s goals.
2. Choose the right subscription model: Azure provides several subscription models, including Pay-As-You-Go, Enterprise Agreement, and Cloud Solution Provider. Each model has different pricing and billing options, so it is essential to choose the one that best fits your organization’s needs. Consider factors such as budget, workload requirements, and growth projections when selecting a subscription model.
3. Define your network architecture: Your network architecture is a critical component of your Azure landing zone. It defines the connectivity between your on-premises data center and your Azure environment. You need to consider factors such as network topology, IP addressing, and security requirements when designing your network architecture.
4. Define your identity and access management (IAM) strategy: IAM is crucial for ensuring the security of your Azure landing zone. You need to define your IAM strategy, including user and group management, role-based access control (RBAC), and multi-factor authentication (MFA). IAM policies and procedures should align with your organization’s security and compliance requirements.
5. Choose the right Azure services: Azure provides a wide range of services, including compute, storage, networking, and security services. When building your Azure landing zone, you need to choose the services that best fit your workload requirements. Consider factors such as scalability, availability, and performance when selecting Azure services.
6. Define your deployment strategy: Your deployment strategy defines how you deploy your applications and services to your Azure landing zone. You need to consider factors such as automation, version control, and testing when defining your deployment strategy. Azure provides several deployment options, including Azure Resource Manager templates, Azure DevOps, and Azure CLI.
7. Establish monitoring and alerting: Monitoring and alerting are crucial for ensuring the availability and performance of your Azure landing zone. You need to establish monitoring and alerting policies and procedures, including setting up Azure Monitor, configuring metrics and logs, and defining alert rules. Monitoring and alerting should align with your organization’s service level agreements (SLAs).
8. Define your backup and disaster recovery strategy: Backup and disaster recovery (DR) are critical for ensuring the availability and continuity of your Azure landing zone. You need to define your backup and DR strategy, including selecting the appropriate Azure services, defining recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs), and testing your backup and DR processes regularly.
9. Implement security and compliance controls: Security and compliance are critical for protecting your Azure landing zone and your organization’s data. You need to implement security and compliance controls, including network security groups, Azure Security Center, and compliance certifications such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA.
10. Establish governance and cost management: Governance and cost management are crucial for managing your Azure landing zone effectively. You need to establish governance policies and procedures, including resource tagging, resource groups, and Azure Policy. Cost management involves monitoring and optimizing your Azure spending, including using Azure Cost Management and billing alerts.
11. Conduct a threat modeling exercise for all resources prior to deployment. Threat modeling is an engineering technique that can be used to help identify threats, attacks, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures that could affect an application. Threat modeling consists of defining security requirements, identifying threats, mitigating threats, and validating threat mitigation.

The creation of an Azure landing zone is a meticulous process that requires considerate planning and strategic execution. From defining your organization’s cloud strategy, choosing the appropriate subscription model, to establishing rigorous security, compliance, and governance measures, every decision carries significant implications for operational efficiency, cost management, and overall cyber resilience. Additionally, integrating threat modeling into the deployment strategy fosters a proactive security posture, aiding in the early identification of potential threats and vulnerabilities. By considering these factors comprehensively, organizations can leverage the scalable and secure cloud environment offered by Microsoft Azure to its fullest potential, ultimately steering their digital transformation journey in a direction that aligns seamlessly with their business objectives.