Is my Azure Cloud Architecture the root of all my Azure Issues?

Do you have Azure issues? Many businesses do, and the root of all these problems is often a faulty Azure cloud architecture. Your Azure architecture is critical to performance, but it is often overlooked when analysing issues.

What are the most common architecture issues, and how do you triage and fix them?

Azure cloud architecture overview

Azure offers a range of services with many different deployment options. Because there are so many options there are a large number of ways that this can be plumbed in wrong. This then gives rise to problems that are hard to find and diagnose without specialist knowledge.

Azure provides a cost-effective way for businesses to procure their IT infrastructure in a flexible way. This moves it from a large CapEx bill to an OpEx bill. This makes it a good choice for software providers as they can scale to meet demand. 

Root causes of Azure issues

One of the most common root causes of Azure issues is incorrect Azure cloud architecture. When Azure resources are not implemented or configured correctly, it can lead to Azure resources being overkill for the required workload or if the opposite is true Azure service outages.

For example, an incorrect Azure cloud architecture can result in over-provisioning of Azure resources, which can lead to wasted spend and unused Azure services. If the deployment is only provisioned for the medium range of traffic, then in busy periods outages or platform slow down can occur for users. To avoid these issues, it is important to carefully plan and design Azure architecture, and to configure Azure resources correctly.

Troubleshooting Azure issues

We encourage you to use this as a starting point when troubleshooting your own Azure issues. All of these issues relate back to the Azure implementation and its architecture.

Issues can be caused by a number of factors, including underutilized resources, incorrect configuration settings, or inefficient code.

Underutilized resources - If you scope all of your deployments for their peak demand then you will overpay and underuse your resources. Most businesses we work with go for halfway house or implement limited scaling capability in their Azure environments

Incorrect configuration settings - There are so many settings and configuration options for each of the Azure services that this can be a bit of a minefield. Especially when moving applications from Development to test to live environments.

Inefficient code - The Azure architecture and your customs application should work together and one should take account of the other. If you have legacy code bases or components that there is not the time or money to upgrade or replace then these can cause issues in the cloud. 

To troubleshoot these types of issues:

• Identify the root cause by checking your application and service logs for any errors
• Check your resource usage to ensure that you are not overloading your deployment
• Adjust your architecture and recheck

If you are still seeing performance issues and you are not sure why, contact Microsoft support for further assistance. If you provide them with the results of your initial investigation it will speed up the process.

Azure is a powerful platform that you can use to build your applications. But it's like building a house if you get the foundations (Architecture) wrong then everything you build from it is compromised.

Azure best practice

When building / deploying applications in Azure there are three main areas to consider to drive cost efficiency and performance:

• It's important to design a scalable and resilient architecture. This means taking into consideration things like autoscaling, load balancing, and backup/recovery strategies.
• Choose the right Azure services for the job. There is a wide range of services available, and not all are suitable for every task.
• Manage Azure costs effectively by monitoring usage levels and using tools like Azure Resource Manager to control spending.

By avoiding these common issues, you can build high-performance, cost-effective applications in Azure with confidence that they will behave as expected.

To get an in-depth overview at how your Azure architecture can be the root of your problems, please read our article on the subject here.

Or take a test drive and find out how CloudOps can help you fix Azure issues now and ongoing.