Shijimol Ambi Karthikeyan - Demystifying the Azure Well-Architected Framework: Guiding Principles and Design Best Practices for Azure Workloads

Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the author in this book is available to readers on GitHub via the books product page, located at www.apress.com/978-1-4842-7118-6. For more detailed information, please visit www.apress.com/source-code.

This Apress imprint is published by the registered company APress Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.

The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.

Cloud-first applications have become the norm rather than the exception in todays cloud-first, mobile-first world. Azure is leading the pack among the cloud platforms in terms of portfolio of services, global coverage, and availability of enterprise adoption frameworks. Azure Well-Architected Framework provides best-practice guidance to customers on how to design, build, operate, and manage the lifecycle of applications in the cloud so as to derive the optimal outcome.

Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF) is based on five pillars: cost optimization, performance efficiency, operational excellence, reliability, and security. This book will deep dive into these five pillars of WAF and provide practical guidance on adopting them for your Azure workloads. The book starts with an introduction chapter on WAF, its relevance, and an overview of the five encompassing elements. The subsequent chapters will deep dive into each of the WAF pillars in detail. The book also covers some of the common cloud workload use cases and the considerations while adopting WAF for the respective architectures. The concepts are explained in a simple and concise manner that can be comprehended by Azure cloud teams irrespective of their level of expertise.

First, I would like to thank my parents for everything I have ever accomplished in my life, including this book. My mother, Ambi R., always inspired me to work toward my goals no matter how unrealistic others perceived them to be. My father, Karthikeyan M., taught me that it is equally important to slow down at times and take in life as it is. They are no longer around, but their love and blessings keep me going.

The last year has been unprecedented and taught us new ways of living our lives during a pandemic. I cannot thank enough my support system, my family and friends, who helped me brave this storm and inspired me to take up the endeavor of writing this book amid multiple challenges. Special shout-out to my daughter, Sanjana Sujai, for inspiring me to be the best version of myself every day. I am thankful to the mentors in my professional life (there are too many to name) for their constant support and encouragement. Last but not least, I would like to thank the entire team at Apress for their support during the publishing process.