Understanding Azure Policy
Introduction
Azure Policy is a powerful tool that can help you improve the security, compliance, and cost-efficiency of your Azure environment. While it is a very effective service, it can be very complex and hard to understand. In this article, we explain what Azure Policy is and how it works to help you better understand it.
What is Azure Policy?
Azure Policy is a governance service that helps you enforce organizational standards and best practices across your Azure resources. It does this by defining policies that specify the desired state of your resources, and then enforcing those policies through a variety of mechanisms. Azure Policy is a cloud-based service, so you don’t need to install any software on your local machines. You can manage Azure policies through the Azure portal, the Azure CLI, or the Azure PowerShell command-line tool.
How does Azure Policy work?
Azure Policy works by defining policies that specify the desired state of your resources. These policies are written in a declarative language, which means that you specify the desired state of your resources, and Azure Policy will figure out how to enforce that state. For example, you could define a policy that requires that all virtual machines be encrypted with a certain encryption algorithm. Azure Policy would then enforce this policy by checking the encryption status of all virtual machines in your subscription. If a virtual machine is not encrypted, Azure Policy would take action to encrypt the virtual machine.
What are the different types of Azure policies?
Azure policies can be divided into two main types: built-in policies and custom policies. Built-in policies are pre-defined policies that are provided by Microsoft. These policies cover a wide range of topics, including security, compliance, and cost optimization. Custom policies are policies that you create yourself. Custom policies can be used to enforce any desired state of your resources.
Conclusion
Azure Policy is a powerful tool that can help you improve the security, compliance, and cost-efficiency of your Azure environment. If you are looking for a way to enforce organizational standards and best practices across your Azure resources, Azure Policy is a great tool to consider.
