Azure Cloud Adoption Framework

Key Stages of the Cloud Adoption Framework

The Azure CAF is organized into six stages, each addressing specific aspects of cloud adoption:

Define Strategy

• Objective: Define business justification and expected outcomes.
• Key Actions:
  • Identify business motivations for cloud adoption (e.g., cost savings, agility, scalability).
  • Establish measurable goals (e.g., ROI, reduced downtime).
  • Build a business case and secure stakeholder buy-in.

Plan

• Objective: Align actionable adoption plans to business outcomes.
• Key Actions:
  • Assess the current IT landscape (applications, infrastructure, and data).
  • Identify skill gaps and training needs.
  • Define migration priorities and success criteria.

Ready

• Objective: Prepare your cloud environment for planned changes.
• Key Actions:
  • Design and implement an Azure Landing Zone.
  • Define governance and compliance policies.
  • Establish identity, security, and networking baselines.

Adopt

• Objective: Migrate and modernize existing workloads.
• Key Paths:
  • Migrate: Lift-and-shift workloads to Azure with minimal modifications.
  • Innovate: Modernize applications using cloud-native technologies (e.g., Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Functions).

Secure

• Objective: Improve security over time.
• Key Actions:
  • Security posture modernization.
  • Incident preparation and response.
  • Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (CIA)
    • Confidentiality ensures that only authorized individuals can access sensitive information. This policy includes measures like encryption and access controls to protect data from unauthorized access.
    • Integrity maintains the accuracy and completeness of data. This principle means protecting data from alterations or tampering by unauthorized users, which ensures that the information remains reliable.
    • Availability ensures that information and resources are accessible to authorized users when needed. This task includes maintaining systems and networks to prevent downtime and ensure continuous access to data.

Govern

• Objective: Maintain control over cloud environments while enabling agility.
• Key Actions:
  • Implement governance frameworks using Azure Policy and Azure Blueprints.
  • Monitor compliance with business and regulatory standards.
  • Define and enforce cost management strategies.

Manage

• Objective: Optimize operations and ensure continuous improvement.
• Key Actions:
  • Implement monitoring and alerting using Azure Monitor.
  • Automate repetitive tasks with Azure Automation.
  • Perform regular reviews to improve performance and cost-efficiency.

References

Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure