Micrsoft Azure Core Architectural Components
Tags: devops, cloud, tutorial, beginners
Published: 2024-06-07 00:55:22

Table of Contents <a name="contents"></a>
[Introduction] (#intro)
[Core Architectural Components of Azure] (#components)

### Introduction <a name="intro"></a>
Architecture is a term used to describe the art of designing. It is the organization of a system in such a way that users can easily access and navigate. The core architectural components of Azure cloud refer to the structural organization of the different parts of Azure cloud platform such that it is not just easy to understand and use but also easy to track and manage resources provisioned and deployed. Understanding how Azure environment is organized is vital as that will aid easy navigation of the platform and of course awesome user experience and value for money.

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### Core Architectural Components of Azure <a name="components"></a>
<p>There are many components of Azure but here we will focus on the core or fundamental architectural components and also take a look at subscription. The core architectural components of Azure include.

- _Resource Group_

- _Resources_

- _Azure Resource Manager (ARM)_
- _Regions_

- _Availability Zones_

#### Subscription
Azure components are only accessible to Azure account holders, hence the need to talk about subscription. Azure account is subscription-based and require a credit card to sign up. You must have a payment plan inputted through a dollar credit card before completing the account creation process. There is option for pay-as-you-go subscription where you pay only for what you use each month with no form of commitment and cancellation can be done at any time. However, there are some variants of free 12 months subscription for beginners and students. This also require you to input the card details, but you will not be charged until you upgrade to a paid plan.  After you have crossed the huddles of creating account and subscription, you can now access the various components and services that Azure offer. Go to https://portal.azure.com/ to sign up.


#### Resource Group
<p>This is a logical container you create for all resources that you want to put together as a group. It is a placeholder that holds related resources together. it can be likened to a folder used to put files together. A resource group can contain resources from multiple regions. Flexible to create and can be created during or before resources creation. It is a component Azure put in place to aid ease of resources management and organization. Resources that are pooled together in a resource group share same life cycle. For instance, deleting a resource group automatically delete all resources therein. while life cycle is key in placing resource in a resource group, it should be noted that what make the most sense to the organization is the main factor. 

#### Resources
Resources are individual services that Azure offer. There are many of them. So, whatever your need, there is a resource available to meet it. You only provision the resources you need. The resources could be an infrastructure, a platform or a software.  virtual machines, databases, networking, web apps, storage, o365 are a few examples of Azure resources. 


#### Azure Resource Manager (ARM)
This is an inbuilt system or service responsible for managing and deploying resources.  ARM provides a management layer which make it possible for creation, updating and deleting of resources. Management features like access control, locks, and tags are used to secure and organize resources after deployment. ARM works at the back end to ensure optimal performance of resources.  It is more like working behind the scenes to ensure that resources provisioned or deployed are working maximally and are available on demand.

####Regions
<p>They are areas within Azure geography located in different parts of the world where data centers are found. They are intentionally chosen locations and each region has a least three availability zones containing data centers. It is mandatory to choose at least one region for any resource deployed. It is best to choose a region closest to the users.

#### Availability Zones
They are exact locations within a region comprising of one or more data centers. They are independent of one another in terms of facilities- space, power, cooling, networking etc. but serve as back up for each other. Deploying resources in more than one availability zones helps to ensure the benefit of redundancy and reliability. if for any reason there is a crash in one availability zone, the second one picks up automatically and nothing is lost. It is highly recommended that resources be provisioned in 2 or more availability zones.

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