For cloud applications and mission-critical workloads, organizations trust Azure to drive innovation, scale operations, and keep their business competitive. As cloud environments grow more complex, however, companies strive to build secure and reliable cloud infrastructures while maintaining cost-efficiency—but achieving this balance can be daunting. We understand how important it is for our customers to implement better applications through curated guidance based on the needs and demands of their organizations, which is why we’re thrilled to announce Advisor Well-Architected assessment in Azure, now in public preview.
Advisor Well-Architected assessments are self-guided questionnaires that provide tailored, actionable recommendations to optimize Azure resources and align with Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF) principles. The assessments contribute to enhancing system performance, resiliency, security and cost -efficiency while ensuring operational excellence to maximize the returns from cloud infrastructure. And when complemented by the FinOps framework—a set of best practices for optimizing cloud costs, enhancing operational efficiency, and driving business value—your organization can proactively identify cost-saving opportunities, avoid overspending, and ensure that your cloud solutions are both technically sound and financially sustainable.
In this blog we’ll introduce you to the benefits of the Advisor Well-Architected assessment capability and show how assessments can help you achieve optimal infrastructure performance.
What are the business benefits of Advisor Well-Architected assessments?
Advisor Well-Architected assessment provides curated guidance after a comprehensive review of your cloud environments based on your organizational goals. The recommendations produced by this assessment not only help address potential issues before they become critical but also help you design systems to ensure maximum resiliency and availability to support business-critical workloads.
Here are some key benefits:
- Holistic view: The assessments provide a comprehensive view of the workload’s architecture, allowing customers to improve various aspects such as resiliency and performance efficiency.
- Tailored recommendations: Customers receive tailored recommendations based on the Azure Well-Architected Framework to enhance their workloads. These recommendations are actionable and come with supporting links to assist in implementation.
- Continuous improvement: The assessments are designed to be part of a continuous improvement cycle, helping customers to regularly update and optimize their workloads.
- Integration with operational processes: Recommendations can be exported and integrated into the customer’s operational processes, aligning with the workload’s software development lifecycle (SDLC) for ongoing improvements.
- Prioritization of tasks: The assessment helps workload owners and stakeholders to prioritize tasks based on the assessment’s findings, ensuring that the most critical improvements are addressed first.
- Decision tradeoffs: The trade-offs within the Azure Well-Architected Framework represent a strategic benefit, as they encourage a comprehensive approach to designing and managing cloud workloads. By understanding and balancing the interplay between the five pillars, customers are equipped to make informed decisions that align with business objectives.
The assessment experience is your companion in the journey towards excellence in cloud workload optimization. The recommendations help reduce unplanned outages, avoid bloated bills, maintain compliance with industry regulations, detect vulnerabilities, boost performance, and ensure operational excellence, thus optimizing your cloud infrastructure. That makes assessing your workloads not a luxury but essential due diligence to ensure an optimized cloud infrastructure.
What is Azure Well-Architected Framework and how does it interconnect with FinOps?
The Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF) is a design framework that can improve the quality of a workload and spans five pillars of:
- Reliability: Design systems to recover from failures and meet availability targets.
- Security: Protect applications and data from threats with a layered defense approach.
- Cost Optimization: Maximize business value by balancing cost and performance.
- Operational Excellence: Run and monitor systems to deliver business value and continually improve processes.
- Performance Efficiency: Design systems to scale and adapt to changing requirements while maintaining efficiency.
FinOps is a cultural practice and operational framework that brings together technology, finance, and business teams to drive financial accountability and maximize the value of your cloud investments. The FinOps framework and WAF complement each other by aligning financial management and operational excellence in cloud environments.
The FinOps Framework focuses on understanding, optimizing, and managing cloud costs, while WAF provides best practices for building and maintaining efficient, reliable, and cost-effective applications on Azure. Together, they ensure that organizations can achieve financial accountability and technical excellence in their cloud infrastructure.
FinOps comprises four key domains:
- Understand Cloud Usage & Cost: Gather and categorize cloud cost and usage data for comprehensive understanding.
- Quantify Business Value: Connect cloud usage and cost data to the business value it generates.
- Optimize Cloud Usage & Cost: Ensure efficient cloud resource usage and cost-effectiveness.
- Manage the FinOps Practice: Enable continuous improvement in FinOps adoption and organizational alignment.
The "Optimize Cloud Usage & Cost" domain is particularly crucial for the purposes of the Advisor Well-Architected assessment, as it focuses on ensuring efficient use of cloud resources and cost-effectiveness. This aligns with the WAF's cost optimization pillar, which emphasizes designing cloud solutions that maximize value while minimizing expenses. Both frameworks advocate continuous monitoring and adjustments to achieve optimal financial and operational efficiency.
How do I use Advisor Well-Architected assessments?
Running a WAF assessment on Azure Advisor is a simple, straightforward process.
- Sign in to the Azure portal and select Advisor from any page.
- Select New Assessment in the Assessments page
3. Select the subscription, workload (optional attribute), assessment type and enter a name for the assessment. Select Next.
4. Select Create in the Review + Create step. This will redirect you to the MS Learn platform where you can complete the assessment. Refer Use Well-Architected Framework assessments in Azure Advisor for a detailed step by step guide.
View and manage recommendations:
- Navigate to Advisor -> Assessments
- Select the assessment name with a completed status from the list for which you would want to view the recommendations
- The list of recommendations will be visible for users to view and act on.
Take the next step: Start your WAF assessment today
Azure Advisor’s Well-Architected Assessment is a powerful tool to elevate your Azure environment for performance, reliability, security, cost, and operations while maintaining alignment with FinOps principles of accountability and cost effectiveness. By proactively identifying and addressing areas for improvement, you ensure your cloud infrastructure is refined to drive your business forward into the future.
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