Azure Governance & Compliance: Building a Secure Foundation
Comprehensive framework for implementing governance and compliance on Azure across multiple subscriptions.
Azure governance requires a structured approach to manage multiple subscriptions and enforce compliance policies. This guide covers the framework we recommend for enterprise deployments.
Management Group Hierarchy
Organize subscriptions using management groups to create a logical hierarchy. Use management groups to apply policies and role-based access control (RBAC) at scale. Implement a consistent naming convention for management groups and subscriptions.
Azure Policy & Compliance
Use Azure Policy to enforce governance standards across all subscriptions. Create custom policies for organization-specific requirements. Use policy initiatives to group related policies. Implement remediation policies to automatically fix non-compliant resources.
Role-Based Access Control
Implement RBAC to control who can access what resources. Use built-in roles where possible, and create custom roles for specific requirements. Implement Privileged Identity Management (PIM) for just-in-time access to sensitive roles.
Audit & Compliance Monitoring
Use Azure Activity Log to track all management plane activities. Implement Azure Audit to track data plane activities. Use Azure Compliance Manager to track compliance with regulatory frameworks. Generate compliance reports for audits.
Cost Management & Governance
Use Azure Cost Management to track spending across subscriptions. Implement budgets and alerts to control costs. Use Azure Advisor for cost optimization recommendations. Implement chargeback models to allocate costs to business units.