As organizations migrate to the cloud, there can be a lot of
confusion and misconceptions. Cloud governance and compliance
is all about a set of rules that you need to comply with, while you are creating, migrating, or managing resources in the cloud. These rules vary from organization to organization.
For example, a government organization may have strict rules
that they need to follow when they run a business in the cloud. On the other hand, a private company will have liberal rules compared to the government one. Ideally, these rules are no different than the ones you have on-premises;
the only difference is that in the cloud you will be using Microsoft Azure as the platform instead of your on-premises servers.
A lack of rules or controls will create issues with your data privacy, security, and cost, as well as efficiency.
With on-premises, you controlled the entire infrastructure, and the perimeter was secured using firewalls and other security devices. In the cloud, you won’t have complete control over the network, so you need to be aware of the vulnerabilities and the best practices or offerings provided by Azure to resolve them.
Common rules that are followed in organizations are related to data residency, compliance policies like PCI-DSS if you are dealing with customer credit card information, budgeting for cost optimization, and security services to ensure that there are no vulnerabilities that
can be exploited by hackers.
Compliance and governance cannot be achieved in a single day;
this is a continuous process. The policies and procedures need to be tweaked and evolved as you notice room for improvement. Also, sometimes you need to expand the rules to accommodate
new services.
Concisely, cloud compliance is all about setting up rules by which you will be continuously monitoring and amending relevant controls for cost optimization, improving efficiency, and eradicating security risks.
How to get a cloud subscription in Microsoft Azure
You can get a Microsoft Azure subscription from multiple channels. You might not be eligible for all the subscriptions listed here; the eligibility is dependent on the terms and conditions of the respective
offers. Here below I have numbered these channels.
Enterprise Agreements (EAs). EA customers will sign an agreement with Microsoft or Microsoft Partners and make an up-front
monetary commitment to Azure. All usage incurred will be charged against the monetary commitment; when the commitment expires, the customer will start receiving invoices. You can make the prepayment again
and continue using the services. The advantage of using EAs is that they offer more discounts than other offers as the customer is paying the amount up front.
If your organization is looking for massive deployments in Azure and requires 99.95 percent monthly SLA, then an EA is the best option.
Web Direct. In web direct, customers can directly go to the Azure website and purchase a new subscription. If you prefer, you can sign up for a Free Trial subscription and upgrade if you are interested in continuing the service. You won’t be charged until you upgrade the subscription from Free Trial to Pay-As-You-Go. Once you upgrade, as the name implies, you will be charged as per the charges mentioned in the Azure public-facing
documents. There are no discounts available for you in this case, and you will require a credit card to sign up for this subscription.
Reseller Using the Open Licensing program, customers can buy tokens from resellers and sign up for an Azure-in-Open subscription. As a customer, you can buy a token for any amount you need; the charges incurred will be taken from this amount. When the amount is exhausted, you need to buy a new token and refill your account to avoid service
interruption. This works like a prepaid cellular plan.
Microsoft Partners. You can purchase an Azure subscription from partners, and they can help you with the cloud transformation. The partners will be your first point of contact for any Azure-related concerns as the agreement is signed between the partner and the customer.
These types of subscriptions are called cloud solution provider (CSP) subscriptions, and every month you’ll receive an invoice from your partner based on your usage.
Microsoft doesn’t play any role in the invoice generation as you don’t have any direct billing relationship with Microsoft. CSP subscriptions offer more discounts compared to the Pay-As-You-Go subscriptions and are ideal for organizations that don’t have the budget to make the up-front
monetary commitment for an EA.
Subscription Metering
All offers provided by Azure are meant for unique needs and requirements. For people who want to test the services there is a Free Trial, for students there is Azure for Students, and finally for enterprise deployments we have different paid subscription offers like EA, Pay As You Go, etc., which provide service level agreements (SLAs). The most commonly used
subscription types are these:
Free subscription
Pay-As-You-Go
Enterprise Agreement
Azure for Students
With Azure Free Subscription You can get a $200 credit to spend on any Azure service for the first 30 days. You have to upgrade your Free Trial if you exhaust your credits or when you complete the trial period (whichever happens first).
Along with the credit, you will get selected popular Azure services free for the first 12 months and 25+ services always free. However, this benefit will be applied only if you upgrade to a paid subscription. Signing up for a Free Trial will require a credit card; this is only for the
verification purposes, and you will not be charged unless you upgrade to the paid subscription.
Azure Pay-As-You-Go Subscription Once you upgrade your Free Trial subscription, your subscription will be converted to a Pay-As-You-Go(PAYG) subscription. In PAYG, you will be receiving invoices monthly based on your consumption. However, this will not be from the first to the last of the month; the billing cycle is dependent on what
date you started the PAYG usage. PAYG is ideal for individuals to small businesses; even some large organizations use PAYG. However, there are no discounts applied like with EAs.
Azure Enterprise Agreement Customers can buy cloud services and software licenses under one single agreement. These customers are also eligible for discounts on services, licenses, and software assurance. The targeted audience for this is enterprise organizations.
Customers need to pay the cost upfront to Microsoft as a monetary commitment, and the consumption will be deducted from this prepayment.
Azure for Students As the name suggests, this subscription is ideal for students who want test or develop solutions in Azure for learning purposes. Students will receive $100 as a credit that is valid for 12 months. Along with the credit, there will be free services that users can leverage. Students need to verify their student status using a university email address to activate this subscription. Also, Azure for Students doesn’t require a
credit card.