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Azure Services Platform

Azure Services Platform

$449.00
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Self-paced • Lifetime updates
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Course access is prepared after purchase and delivered via email
Toolkit Included:
Includes a practical, ready-to-use toolkit containing implementation templates, worksheets, checklists, and decision-support materials used to accelerate real-world application and reduce setup time.
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This curriculum reflects the scope typically addressed across a full consulting engagement or multi-phase internal transformation initiative.

Strategic Assessment and Platform Justification

  • Evaluate total cost of ownership (TCO) trade-offs between on-premises, hybrid, and cloud-native architectures using Azure pricing models and reserved instance commitments.
  • Map business capabilities to Azure service categories (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) based on workload sensitivity, scalability needs, and compliance requirements.
  • Conduct risk-benefit analysis of cloud migration for legacy systems, including dependency mapping and exit strategy implications.
  • Assess vendor lock-in exposure by analyzing integration depth with Azure-specific services versus open standards.
  • Define success metrics for platform adoption, including time-to-market reduction, operational cost variance, and service availability targets.
  • Align Azure adoption with enterprise architecture governance frameworks (e.g., TOGAF, Zachman) and board-level risk appetite.
  • Develop migration sequencing strategies based on business criticality, technical debt, and inter-system dependencies.
  • Quantify resilience improvements using RTO/RPO benchmarks before and after Azure implementation.

Identity, Access, and Governance at Scale

  • Design and enforce role-based access control (RBAC) policies across subscriptions using Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM).
  • Implement conditional access policies balancing security enforcement with user productivity in hybrid work environments.
  • Structure Azure AD tenant architecture (single vs. multi-tenant) based on M&A activity, regulatory boundaries, and data sovereignty.
  • Automate access certification workflows to meet SOX, GDPR, or HIPAA audit requirements.
  • Integrate on-premises identity stores with Azure AD via hybrid identity patterns (password hash sync, passthrough auth, federation).
  • Define and enforce policy guardrails using Azure Policy and Initiative definitions across resource groups and management groups.
  • Monitor and remediate configuration drift using Azure Security Center’s regulatory compliance dashboard.
  • Establish cross-tenant resource access patterns using Azure Lighthouse for managed service providers.

Cloud Networking and Hybrid Connectivity

  • Design hub-and-spoke network topologies using Azure Virtual WAN to optimize traffic flow and reduce egress costs.
  • Select between ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, and Direct Peering based on latency, bandwidth, and SLA requirements.
  • Implement DNS architecture using Azure Private DNS and conditional forwarding for hybrid name resolution.
  • Enforce segmentation using NSGs, Azure Firewall, and DDoS Protection Standard aligned with zero-trust principles.
  • Optimize global application performance using Azure Front Door and Traffic Manager with health probes and failover logic.
  • Plan IP address space allocation across VNETs to prevent overlap and support future mergers or acquisitions.
  • Configure private connectivity to PaaS services using Private Endpoints and service endpoints with network policies.
  • Monitor network performance and troubleshoot bottlenecks using Azure Network Watcher and Connection Troubleshoot.

Data Management and Storage Architecture

  • Select storage tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive) based on data access patterns, retention policies, and cost sensitivity.
  • Design data lifecycle management policies using Azure Blob Storage lifecycle rules to automate tiering and deletion.
  • Implement geo-redundancy strategies (LRS, ZRS, GRS, RA-GRS) balancing durability, recovery time, and cost.
  • Architect multi-region data replication for active-passive and active-active scenarios using Cosmos DB or SQL Data Sync.
  • Enforce data encryption at rest and in transit using customer-managed keys (CMK) and Azure Key Vault integration.
  • Integrate on-premises file shares with Azure File Sync for seamless hybrid access and backup.
  • Design backup and restore workflows using Azure Backup with retention schedules and cross-region vault replication.
  • Assess performance SLAs for managed disks and storage accounts against application IOPS and throughput demands.

Compute and Application Hosting Strategies

  • Compare VM scale sets, App Services, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and Functions for workload fit based on scalability and operational overhead.
  • Optimize VM sizing and autoscaling rules using Azure Monitor metrics and cost-performance trade-off analysis.
  • Implement blue-green or canary deployments in Azure DevOps with traffic routing and rollback procedures.
  • Design containerized application architectures using AKS with node pools, taints, and affinity rules for workload isolation.
  • Manage patching and OS updates using Azure Update Management and Maintenance Control for VMs.
  • Configure high availability for stateful applications using availability zones and managed disk replication.
  • Integrate CI/CD pipelines with Azure Artifacts and container registries while enforcing image scanning policies.
  • Monitor application performance using Application Insights with custom telemetry and failure rate thresholds.

Security, Compliance, and Threat Mitigation

  • Implement defense-in-depth using Azure Security Center recommendations across compute, network, and storage layers.
  • Configure Just-in-Time VM access and adaptive application controls to reduce attack surface.
  • Establish centralized logging and threat detection using Azure Sentinel with custom analytics rules and playbooks.
  • Respond to security incidents using Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and automated remediation workflows.
  • Map Azure controls to compliance standards (NIST, ISO, CIS) using built-in regulatory compliance dashboard.
  • Conduct penetration testing and vulnerability scanning within Microsoft’s scope and approval guidelines.
  • Enforce data loss prevention (DLP) policies using Microsoft Purview integration for sensitive data discovery.
  • Manage secrets and certificates lifecycle using Azure Key Vault with RBAC and audit logging.

Cost Management and Financial Operations

  • Establish chargeback and showback models using Azure Cost Management with tags and resource naming conventions.
  • Forecast cloud spend using historical usage data and growth assumptions with variance tracking.
  • Identify underutilized resources using Azure Advisor recommendations and rightsizing analysis.
  • Negotiate and manage reserved instances and savings plans across subscriptions and enterprise agreements.
  • Monitor cost anomalies using budgets and alerts with root cause analysis workflows.
  • Optimize egress costs by reviewing data transfer patterns and leveraging CDN or caching layers.
  • Align cost governance with FinOps practices, including cross-functional cloud center of excellence (CCoE) roles.
  • Model cost impact of disaster recovery configurations and multi-region deployments.

Monitoring, Operations, and Incident Response

  • Design centralized monitoring architecture using Azure Monitor with Log Analytics workspaces and data ingestion controls.
  • Define critical KPIs and SLOs for applications and infrastructure with alerting thresholds and noise reduction.
  • Create actionable alert rules using metric alerts, log alerts, and smart detection with proper escalation paths.
  • Automate incident response using Azure Automation runbooks triggered by alerts or schedule.
  • Perform root cause analysis using Application Insights transaction traces and dependency maps.
  • Manage configuration drift using Desired State Configuration (DSC) and Azure Automation State Configuration.
  • Implement proactive maintenance windows using Azure Advisor and change tracking.
  • Validate system recoverability through documented runbooks and periodic disaster recovery testing.

Migration Execution and Workload Modernization

  • Assess on-premises workloads using Azure Migrate for dependency mapping, performance profiling, and target recommendation.
  • Plan migration waves using business impact analysis and technical complexity scoring.
  • Execute lift-and-shift migrations using Azure Migrate with replication appliance and cutover scheduling.
  • Refactor applications for cloud-native patterns (microservices, serverless) post-migration to optimize cost and resilience.
  • Validate migrated workloads using performance benchmarks, security scans, and user acceptance testing (UAT).
  • Manage DNS and IP changes during cutover with minimal business disruption using traffic redirection.
  • Decommission legacy systems after data consistency verification and stakeholder sign-off.
  • Document technical debt and optimization backlog for post-migration modernization sprints.
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