Case #
You need to create an Azure architecture diagram for your project. Following a full technical and business assessment of your customer, in the scope of an Azure migration project, you should start with high-level and then detailed logical and physical design of the new Azure infrastructure. Creating one or more visual diagrams to depict the Azure design is of paramount importance, in order to convey fundamental information to the technical and business teams. This article provides high-level guidance on how to design Azure architecture diagrams.
Solution #
Diagramming software #
You can make use of Microsoft Visio Azure stencils as well as alternative diagramming software for your Azure diagrams.
Azure architecture diagram templates #
Make use of the publicly available Azure design diagrams. You can find various freely available Azure design diagrams in Microsoft Visio format at the Azure Architecture Center website: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/. Click on "Browse Azure Architectures".
You should be able to find at least one design blueprint which covers your scenario or at least find the closest match to your scenario and update it with your project's custom requirements. Azure Architecture Center lists all available Azure design architectures by Microsoft product type and by Azure service category, as shown in the example screenshot below. In the below example, we are searching for occurrences of the term "multi-region" in Azure App-Service based deployments.
The Azure Architecture Center is ever-growing with new features being added every month. Check the changelog for more details.
Azure design blueprints #
When creating Azure design blueprints, always follow the Azure Architecture Best Practices Guide, which is available in the Azure Architecture Center. Make use of the Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF) which is part of the Azure Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF). Also make use of Azure Blueprints and Azure Landing Zones when creating your Azure detailed design.
