Azure Governance Managed Service
The Governance Managed Service sits at the heart of any operating model for Azure. This service provides best practice expertise focused on minimising risks, controlling budgets, accelerating deployments and getting the best experience from the Azure platform.
Stay in control with our unique governance service
Managing governance within Azure requires in-depth experience and understanding of best practices. In addition to creating a tailored governance model at the outset, it is essential to ensure that the governance guardrails are proactively managed and in a continual state of improvement.
Our Governance Managed Service addresses security baselines, cost management, identity management, resource consistency, and deployment acceleration. We begin by implementing the minimum viable product (MVP) policies recommended in Azure’s Cloud Adoption Framework and on a monthly basis we review operations, spend and policies to drive improvement and maturity.
Now available to buy direct from Azure Marketplace
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A trusted Microsoft Partner
As a Microsoft Azure Expert MSP you can count on us to get the job done. We've met a stringent set of requirements to become one of only nine UK organisations to hold this accreditation, intended to give customers confidence when selecting a partner to help them meet their digital transformation goals.
Our Azure Governance Managed Service provides
Cost control
Set up spend alerts, gain forecasts and we’ll advise every month on how you can optimise your spend.
Azure discounts
Get access to unlimited CSP subscriptions that provide an aggregate discount based on spend.
Access to tools
Access to cost management tools and a monthly audit capability. We’ll also configure a number of features within Azure.
A best practice approach
Unlimited access to the Azure Engineering team for basic services as part of the Foundation Basic Support package.
Seamless policy implementation
We’ll create policies that are measuring and tracking adherence to your goals. If there is a breach of policy we’ll advise and support the resolution.
A Cloud Governance team
We’ll form part of your team. Monthly you will receive an audit report and have a review call to discuss issues and proposed improvements.
Constant improvement
This service will mature weekly as we bring new suggestions to your team. Monthly we will meet and track actions and improvement initiatives.
Accelerated deployments
Access and an allowance to utilise the DevOps team, meaning we can script and automate infrastructure as part of your deployments.
Secure Azure resources
Implement a security baseline and ensure when an Azure service is deployed no new security risks are introduced.
CSP Subscriptions
We will provide you with CSP subscriptions in-line with the governance design which provides a greater level of flexibility and management than other methods. There is no upfront commitment and you can benefit from discounts based on the consumption of services within Azure. A CSP includes:
- True cloud pay-as-you-go economics
- Ability to license hybrid and cloud services
- A simple single bill that combines Support, Security, Management and Cloud
- Discount based on total consumption across our CSP subscriptions
- Management of Microsoft relationship and administration of any SLA refunds
Billing Management and Analytics
We will configure the Azure Cost Management platform which provides you with a wealth of information on Azure best practices including Cost Management, Right Sizing and Security Advisories.
We will continually review your deployment and feedback vital information to the management teams. This service can also integrate into our Service Desk team triggering and triaging alerts on spend threshold breaches and new advisories.
Monthly Azure Audit Report and Review
The continued governance of the Azure environment is key to ensuring best practices are followed and audited. We will provide a monthly audit report on the Hub and x1 Project Subscription containing the following information:
- Data Centre Location/Data Residency
- Deployed Azure Components
- Best Practice Adherence
- Storage Account Review: Configuration & Advisories
- Virtual Machines: Configuration & Advisories
- Containers: Configuration & Advisories
- Azure Data Platforms: Configuration & Advisories
- Networking: Configuration & Advisories
Architecture Guidance and Validation
Get access to our accredited Azure Engineers who will provide hands-on validation and design guidance for Azure deployments. We will also provide a best practice, reference architecture through the use of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Serverless constructs.
We understand that a key requirement of an infrastructure partner is to work closely with customers to help to define the optimal infrastructure and automation options for your applications. We have a track record of successfully delivering this level of consultancy, designing, deploying and managing end-to-end infrastructure projects.
DevOps Automation Scripting
The N4Stack DevOps team are able to support projects wanting to drive greater levels of automation and support a desire to operate an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) model. An IaC model is our preferred default for customers and to encourage this behaviour we have included 12 hours per annum development time, which can be invested in creating new automation scripts to improve the speed of delivery for projects.
Our DevOps team will leverage services within Azure and typically use a combination of Terraform and Ansible to build new automated workflows.
Governance Model Improvement
As project teams deliver change at increasing velocity, new resources are being launched, changes are constant and numerous Azure service updates are released every day. Therefore, customers Azure environments are subject to constant flux and with new service updates comes new opportunities. Ensuring the initial Governance MVP develops and improves to a matured model is key for success.
The Governance Managed Service aims to drive this improvement with monthly reports and in-flight policy changes to adapt the framework as issues and opportunities arise.
Foundation Basic Support
This Azure package is designed for customers who need minimal day to day support from N4Stack either because they are yet to deploy production services or have considerable experience and resources in house. Foundation Basic provides Incident Management support for the below services, plus management of SLA service issues with Microsoft:
- Subscriptions
- Management Groups
- Role Based Access Control
- Azure Policies
- Azure Blueprints
- Virtual Networking
- Azure Control Panel
- ExpressRoute
- VPN Gateway (Azure side)
- Azure Active Directory
- Multi Factor Authentication*
- Active Directory Domain Services**
* MFA users will require Premium AD licences
** Azure ADDS PaaS Service Only
Microsoft Azure 101: The Beginner’s Guide to Azure
The Microsoft Azure cloud platform and its range of 200+ products and services have the potential to transform your business, take you steps ahead of your competitors and delight your customers. But navigating cloud security and costs can be a minefield if you don’t understand the platform or have the in-house expertise.
In this guide, you will discover what you need to know about the world of Azure.
