Azure Cloud Setup

Microsoft Azure is a leading enterprise cloud platform, offering deep integration with Microsoft's ecosystem, robust hybrid cloud capabilities, and a global network of data centres. Setting up Azure correctly from day one is critical for security, compliance, and cost management. At SoniNow, we design and deploy Azure environments that align with the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) and Well-Architected Framework, ensuring your infrastructure is enterprise-grade, compliant, and operationally ready.

Virtual Machine Setup

Azure Virtual Machines provide on-demand, scalable compute resources with support for Windows and Linux workloads. Getting the configuration right determines both performance and cost.

VM Sizing and Series Selection

We evaluate your workload characteristics to select the optimal VM series. General-purpose D-series (D4s v5) VMs suit most web servers and small databases. Memory-optimised E-series VMs handle in-memory analytics and SAP workloads, while compute-optimised F-series VMs are ideal for batch processing and gaming. For GPU-intensive tasks like machine learning training, NC-series or ND-series VMs provide NVIDIA GPU acceleration.

Availability and Resilience

Production workloads demand high availability. We configure Availability Sets (fault domains and update domains) for legacy applications, and Availability Zones for modern, latency-sensitive deployments across physically separate data centres within a region. For mission-critical applications, we pair Azure VM disaster recovery with Azure Site Recovery to replicate workloads to a secondary region with RPOs measured in seconds.

Managed Disks and Ephemeral OS Disks

We use Azure Managed Disks — SSD (Premium, Standard) or Ultra Disk — depending on IOPS requirements. Ephemeral OS disks are recommended for stateless workloads (e.g., Azure Batch nodes) to reduce storage costs and improve reimage times. Disks are encrypted at rest using Azure Storage Service Encryption (SSE) and, for sensitive data, Azure Disk Encryption (BitLocker for Windows, DM-Crypt for Linux).

Azure Active Directory

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is the foundation of identity and access management for any Azure environment. Proper configuration ensures secure access for users, applications, and workloads.

Identity Architecture

We design a hybrid identity strategy using Azure AD Connect or Microsoft Entra Connect Sync to synchronise on-premises Active Directory with Azure AD. This enables single sign-on (SSO) across cloud and on-premises resources, unified conditional access policies, and seamless migration paths. For organisations without on-premises AD, we build cloud-native Azure AD environments with custom domain verification and self-service password reset.

Conditional Access and Zero Trust

Azure AD Conditional Access policies are the cornerstone of a Zero Trust security model. We implement policies such as:

• Requiring MFA for all administrative roles
• Blocking legacy authentication protocols
• Granting access only from compliant devices (Intune-managed or hybrid-joined)
• Location-based and risk-based conditional access using Azure AD Identity Protection

Privileged Identity Management

Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM) provides just-in-time (JIT) privileged access, reducing standing admin rights. We configure activation workflows with approval gates, time-bound role assignments, and audit logging for all privileged operations.

Storage Solutions

Azure Storage offers massively scalable, secure, and durable storage for blobs, files, queues, and tables. We design storage architectures tailored to your data access patterns.

Blob Storage and Tiers

Azure Blob Storage supports three access tiers: Hot (frequent access), Cool (infrequent, 30+ days), and Archive (rarely accessed, 180+ days). Lifecycle management policies automate transitions between tiers, reducing costs without manual intervention. For high-throughput analytics workloads, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 provides hierarchical namespace and POSIX-compliant access controls on top of Blob Storage.

Azure Files and NetApp Files

Azure Files provides fully managed SMB and NFS file shares, suitable for lift-and-shift migrations of legacy file servers. For enterprise-grade performance with sub-millisecond latency, Azure NetApp Files delivers up to 4.5 GB/s of throughput per volume and supports multiple NFS and SMB protocols concurrently.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

We configure Azure Backup for VM-consistent backups with retention policies tailored to your compliance requirements. Azure Site Recovery replicates workloads to a secondary region for DR, with automated failover and failback testing.

Networking and Virtual Networks

Azure Virtual Network (VNet) is the building block for private network connectivity in Azure. A well-designed network topology secures traffic and enables seamless hybrid connectivity.

VNet Design and Subnetting

We design VNets with a hierarchical address space that allows for future growth and avoids overlapping CIDR ranges with on-premises networks. Subnets are carved for tiers — web, application, database, and management — with Network Security Groups (NSGs) applied at each subnet boundary. Azure Bastion provides secure RDP/SSH access without exposing public IP addresses.

Connectivity and Hybrid Networking

Azure VPN Gateway (policy-based or route-based) connects on-premises networks to Azure over IPSec tunnels. Azure ExpressRoute provides dedicated, private connectivity with bandwidth from 50 Mbps to 10 Gbps, bypassing the public internet. We use Azure Virtual WAN for large-scale branch-to-branch and branch-to-Azure connectivity.

Azure Firewall and DDoS Protection

Azure Firewall is a managed, stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and auto-scaling. We deploy it with application FQDN rules, network rules, and threat intelligence-based filtering. Azure DDoS Protection (Standard tier) provides adaptive tuning and always-on traffic monitoring to mitigate volumetric DDoS attacks.

Governance and Cost Management

Azure's management and governance tools help keep your environment secure, compliant, and cost-effective at scale.

Azure Policy enforces organisational rules — such as restricting VM SKUs, requiring tags, or mandating HTTPS-only storage accounts. Azure Blueprints package policies, role assignments, and resource templates for repeatable subscription deployment. For cost management, Microsoft Cost Management provides budgets, anomaly alerts, and recommendations for rightsizing and reserved instances.

From a single VM to a multi-subscription enterprise landing zone, SoniNow delivers Azure cloud setups that are secure, governed, and optimised for your business outcomes.