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Resource Management Organization

Setting up and scaling applications in Azure doesn’t have to be a headache, it can be an exciting opportunity to optimize and streamline your operations! But to truly harness the power of Azure, governance plays a vital role. Strong governance ensures your resources are managed effectively, securely, and in alignment with organizational policies. It helps maintain control as you scale, preventing chaos, overspending, or security vulnerabilities. This is where Azure Management Groups come into play.

Azure Management Groups is a top-level container designed to help you organize your Azure resources efficiently. They allow you to group and manage subscriptions. Streamline resource provisioning across your organization. Whether you’re managing multiple subscriptions for different departments or coordinating operations across regions, Azure Management Groups give you the power to implement consistent governance and control access with ease.

Azure Management Groups:

• Top Level Container (Root Directory)
• Manage multiple Subscriptions
• Hierarchical structure
• Enforce policies

Whether you're juggling multiple departments, navigating regional requirements, or simply trying to make sense of how to manage resources effectively, Azure Management Groups are here to simplify it all. They provide powerful tools for applying policies, managing inheritance, and ensuring your account scales seamlessly while staying secure and cost-efficient. Ready to dive in and take control of your Azure infrastructure? Let’s explore how to make it happen!

Policy Inheritance Management Groups & Subscriptions

Azure Management Groups function with a hierarchical structure, accommodating thousands of management groups and subscriptions within a single directory. Subscriptions act as containers for resources and services, often tied to specific billing profiles. The policy inheritance feature simplifies governance by cascading policies from higher levels to all nested groups and subscriptions. This ensures consistent adherence to organizational standards without requiring manual configuration for each individual resource.

For instance, compliance policies set at the root management group level are inherited by the nested management groups and all linked subscriptions, reducing the need to configure policies individually for each resource. This cascading mechanism not only saves time but also ensures consistency across your Azure environment. However, organizations must carefully design their hierarchy to avoid unnecessary conflicts or rigidity in policy application. When adjustments are made at higher levels, they can ripple through the structure, affecting all dependent groups and subscriptions

Despite the numerous benefits Azure Management Groups provide, they do come with certain limitations that organizations need to consider:

Management Group Limitations

• Depth limitation: Management Groups have a maximum depth of six levels within a single directory.
• Subscription association: A subscription can only belong to a single management group, limiting flexibility in resource grouping.
• Policy application scope: Policies applied at the management group level may not always cover all granular scenarios, requiring additional configurations.
• Hierarchy rigidity: Structural changes in higher levels of the hierarchy can affect cascading policies and require careful adjustment.
• Dependency on Microsoft Entra ID: Management Groups rely on Microsoft Entra ID for permissions and governance, making disruptions in Entra ID impact management group functionality.

Ex. Nested Management Groups

• Root Management Group (Organization Root)
  • Management Group: Global Operations
    • Subscription: North America Production
    • Subscription: Europe Production
    • Subscription: Asia Pacific Production
  • Management Group: Development & Testing         
    • Subscription: North America Dev/Test
    • Subscription: Europe Dev/Test
    • Subscription: Asia Pacific Dev/Test
  • Management Group: Corporate Services
    • Subscription: Finance Systems
    • Subscription: HR Systems
    • Subscription: IT Administration

How Billing Profiles Work

Billing profiles in Azure are a crucial component for managing and organizing payment details and invoices. They allow organizations to centralize billing across multiple subscriptions, ensuring clear financial oversight. Each billing profile is tied to an invoice section, making it possible to accurately allocate costs to different departments or projects. This segmentation is particularly useful for larger enterprises with diverse operational needs. Additionally, billing profiles allow for the customization of payment methods and invoice settings. Organizations can assign different payment options to specific profiles, making it easier to manage international operations or specialized projects. These profiles also support detailed tracking of resource consumption and costs, offering businesses transparency in their financial operations.

By leveraging billing profiles, companies can integrate budget controls and spending limits, reducing the risk of cost overruns. They can also enable alerts and notifications to monitor expenditures in real-time. Such features are vital for maintaining compliance with financial regulations and internal policies.

Things to Consider

To begin creating and managing your own Azure management groups, follow these steps:

• Access the Azure portal and type in the top search bar "Management Groups."
• Set up a root management group if one does not already exist in your organization. The root group serves as the top-level container for organizing all subscriptions.
• Create additional management groups to reflect your organizational structure, such as separating groups by regions, departments, or project categories.
• Assign subscriptions to the appropriate management groups to ensure proper governance and resource oversight.
• Apply policies and Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) at the management group level to standardize governance across multiple subscriptions.

Step-by-Step Guide: Creating and Managing Azure Management Groups

A picture of a Management Group in Azure Portal.

Steps to Create a Management Group

1. Access the Azure Portal: Log in to the Azure portal in the top search bar type “Management Groups.”
2. Set Up a Root Management Group: If a root management group does not exist, set one up. This serves as the top-level container for organizing all subscriptions.
3. Click on the “Create” button.
4. Next, Create a Unique “Management group ID” and “Management group display name.”
5. Click the “submit” button.

Congratulations! You have successfully created a Management Group. Your Management Group should reflect your organizational structure by creating management groups based on regions, departments, or project categories. When assigning subscriptions, link the relevant subscriptions to the appropriate management groups to ensure proper governance and resource oversight. Implement policies and role-based access controls (RBAC) at the management group level to standardize governance across all subscriptions.

Picture of newly added subscription to Management Group.

Optional: Creating a Subscription & Placing It in a Management Group

1. Navigate to the Azure portal then login.
2. In the home directory, select the “Subscription” (key icon).
3. Choose "Add" to create a new subscription.
4. Provide the necessary details, such as subscription type, payment method, and billing inform
5. Once the subscription is created, navigate back to the "Management Groups" section. Select the desired management group and use the "Add Subscription" option to place it within the group.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you’ve laid a solid foundation for organizing resources and ensuring effective governance within Azure. Management groups allow you to structure your subscriptions to match your organizational hierarchy, streamline management, and maintain consistency in policy enforcement. As you proceed, consider refining your approach by implementing role-based access control (RBAC) and applying policies at the management group level to enhance security and operational efficiency. For a deeper dive into Azure governance, resource organization strategies, and subscription management best practices, explore the resources linked below. These materials provide comprehensive insights to help you optimize your cloud environment and align it with established frameworks.

Hyperlinks

• Organize your resources with management groups - Azure Governance - Azure governance | Microsoft Learn
• Govern overview - Cloud Adoption Framework | Microsoft Learn
• Azure Management Overview - Azure Governance - Azure governance | Microsoft Learn
• Manage your Azure subscriptions at scale with management groups - Azure Governance - Azure governance | Microsoft Learn
• General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR Overview