©️2025 Created by Anuradha Samaranayake
The Cloud Prescription for Healthy Azure Environment
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The Cloud Prescription
A Prescription for a Healthy Azure Environment
Today I want to write about the health of your infrastructure.
We often talk about the cloud like it is a building made of bricks and cement. But if you work with Azure every day, you know that isn't true. An Azure subscription is more like a living body. It grows, it breathes, it eats (money), and if you don't take care of it, it gets sick.
Sometimes it catches a cold. Other times, it breaks a leg. If you ignore the small aches and pains, they can turn into a serious emergency.
So, put on your white coat. It is time to play doctor. We are going to do a full body check-up of your Azure environment and write a simple prescription to make it feel better.
The Diagnostic Tools: Your Medical Bag
Before we give any medicine, we need to know what is wrong. In a hospital, doctors use X-rays and thermometers. In Azure, we have our own special tools to check the patient's vitals.
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1. The General Practitioner (Azure Advisor)
Follows you 24/7. Tells you basic things like "You are spending too much money. + Much More"
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2. The Heart Monitor (Azure Monitor + Insights)
Tracks the heartbeat (CPU/Memory). Tells you if your patient is stressed.
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3. The X-Ray Machine (Log Analytics)
Lets you look under the skin (logs) to find the break deep inside.
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4. The Hospital Bill (Cost Management)
The painful part. Tells you exactly how expensive your patient's lifestyle is.
Current Patient Vitals
🟢 Heart Rate
STABLE
🟡 Blood Pressure (Cost)
HIGH
🔴 Immunity (Security)
COMPROMISED
🟡 Energy (Performance)
LOW
Now that we have our tools, let's look at the 6 most common sicknesses I see in the clinic today.
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Ailment #1: "Heavy Wallet" Disease (Cost Bloat)
Symptoms
Your monthly bill is huge. It hurts to look at it. You are paying for big, powerful servers that are mostly sitting around doing nothing. It is like paying for a 24-hour gym membership but only going once a month.
The Cause
We call this "Over-Provisioning." Maybe you created a huge server for a test last year and forgot to delete it. Now, it is just eating your money.
The Prescription
- The Diet Plan (Right-Sizing): You need to cut the fat. Look at your "heart monitor" (Azure Monitor). If a server is only using 10% of its power, shrink it down.
- Buy Vitamins in Bulk (Reserved Instances): If you know you need a server for 1 or 3 years, pay for it in advance. It is much cheaper—up to 72% off.
- Clean the Appendix (Delete Old Files): Look for old hard disks (Managed Disks) that aren't attached to any computer. Remove them immediately.
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Ailment #2: Weak Immune System (Security Risks)
Symptoms
Your "Secure Score" is red. Bad guys are trying to guess your passwords. You have left important doors (Ports) open to the internet.
The Cause
Poor hygiene. In the medical world, we wash our hands to stop the flu. In the cloud, we close ports and use strong logins. If you don't do this, your environment will catch a virus.
The Prescription
- Wash Your Hands (MFA): Multi-Factor Authentication is the soap of the internet. It stops 99.9% of attacks. If you do one thing today, turn this on.
- Wear a Mask (Network Security Groups): Don't let your servers breathe the same air as the open internet. Use NSGs to block traffic. Only let friends in.
- Get Your Shots (Patching): An old operating system is like an open wound. Use Azure Update Manager to keep your servers up to date with the latest vaccines.
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Ailment #3: Chronic Fatigue
Symptoms: Website feels tired. Pages load slowly. Users complain system is "sluggish".
The Cause: Bad circulation. Data isn't moving fast enough, or the heart (CPU) is working too hard.
The Prescription:
- ● Adrenaline Shot (Auto-Scaling): Automatically add computers when stressed.
- ● Better Blood Flow (CDN): Keep data close to users, like giving your app an energy drink.
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Ailment #5: Blurry Vision
Symptoms: Something goes wrong, and you have no idea why. You are clicking blindly.
The Cause: You aren't wearing your glasses. You haven't turned on the lights (Logging).
The Prescription:
- ● Prescription Glasses (App Insights): Watches every click inside your code.
- ● The Hearing Aid (Alerts): Azure taps you on the shoulder when something starts to go wrong.
🚑 Ailment #4: Fainting Spells (Reliability Issues)
Symptoms: The fear that if one computer breaks, everything stops. You wake up in a cold sweat.
The Cause: You have no backup plan. You are walking a tightrope without a safety net.
Without Redundancy
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Datacenter 1
💥 FAILURE
APP DEAD
With Availability Zones
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Zone 1
OFFLINE
➜
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Zone 2
ACTIVE
➜
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Zone 3
READY
The Prescription
- The Spare Pair of Glasses (Redundancy): Use Availability Zones. If one building loses power, the other one takes over.
- The Ambulance (Site Recovery): If a whole region goes offline due to a hurricane, this tool wakes up a copy of your environment in a different region. It saves the life of your business.
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Ailment #6: Messy Room Syndrome (Bad Governance)
Symptoms
You have resources named test-vm-final-v2, temp-storage-bob, and do-not-delete. No one knows who owns what. It looks like a teenager's bedroom.
The Cause
Lack of rules. You let anyone create anything, anywhere.
The Prescription
- House Rules (Azure Policy): Set strict rules. For example, "Nobody is allowed to build expensive servers."
- The Label Maker (Tagging): Tag everything. If a server belongs to "Marketing", put a sticker on it. This helps you figure out who to bill.