Abstract
This document focuses on the resiliency aspect of Azure. It provides guidance on designing
resilient applications on Azure and provides sample application design patterns for varied levels
of resilience. The audience for this document is anyone moving applications from on-premises to
Azure, or building applications on Azure, including CTOs, CIOs, Cloud Solution Architects, Business
Continuity and Disaster Recovery Administrators, Application Developers and Operations team
members. For more information and guidance, see the resiliency resources page at the Microsoft
Azure Well-Architected Framework.
Introduction
Azure is a rapidly growing cloud computing platform that provides an ever-expanding suite of cloud services. These include analytics, computing, database, mobile, networking, storage, and web services. It integrates tools, templates, and managed services that work together to make it easier to build and manage enterprise, mobile, web, and Internet of Things (IoT) apps faster, using the tools, applications, and frameworks you choose. The cloud enables these exciting technologies.
Azure is built on trust. The Azure approach to trust is based on the following foundational principles:
• Security
Azure leverages leading security technologies to help organizations manage and control
user identity and access, which are central elements in securing your environment.
• Compliance
Through rigorous and widely recognized formal standards that are certified by
independent third parties, Microsoft helps organizations comply with constantly shifting
requirements and regulations.
• Privacy
You have control over where your data is located, who can access it, and on what terms.
You can access your own customer data at any time and for any reason.
Resiliency
Microsoft Azure helps you to avoid many potential disasters and quickly recover if your organization gets hit by disaster.
• Intellectual Property (IP) protection
Trust in the cloud also encompasses clarity and confidence that your intellectual property will be protected against frivolous infringement claims. Microsoft Azure IP Advantage and the Shared Innovation Initiative can offer that assurance.
In a distributed system, failures can happen. Hardware can malfunction. The network can have transient failures. Rarely, an entire service or region may experience a disruption. It is important to plan for any failures through continuous monitoring and regular tests. This document describes a process for achieving resiliency, using a structured approach over the lifetime of an application, from design and implementation to deployment and operations.
