Azure Policy is a Microsoft Azure service that allows you to create, assign and manage policies to control or verify resources in Azure. These policies ensure that resources in Azure comply with rules and regulations, business standards, and service level agreements. You can enforce these policies using management groups. Azure Policy evaluates and monitors its resources to ensure that they comply with the implemented policies. In this article, we are going to give a general overview of how the service works and the benefits it can bring to the security posture of your business.
The adoption of cloud computing is becoming increasingly widespread, but managing and controlling cloud resources can pose a daunting challenge for organizations.
The common need is to standardize and, in some cases, impose how resources are configured in the cloud environment. All this is done to obtain environments that comply with specific compliance regulations, control security, resource costs and standardize the design of the different architectures.
Obtaining this result, however, is not easy, especially in complex environments such as those of Azure, in which different groups of operators are developed and operated on subscriptions.
In this regard, it is recommended to use a mechanism that is provided natively by the Azure platform, which allows you to pilot governance processes to obtain the desired control, but without impacting speed, a fundamental element in modern IT based on resources in the cloud: Azure Policies.
Azure Policy is a service within Microsoft Azure that allows organizations to create, assign and manage policies. These policies define rules and effects on resources, identities, and groups, with the goal of ensuring compliance and maintaining security. The application of policies occurs in two ways: by reporting the non-compliance so that the team can solve the problem or by directly blocking the distribution.
In the context of Cloud Technical Governance, it is essential to define and apply rules that make it possible to ensure that Azure resources always comply with defined business standards. Thanks to the use of Azure Policies, even increasing the complexity and quantity of services, it is always possible to guarantee advanced control of your Azure environment.
Before delving into Azure Policy, it's important to understand what a security policy is, especially in the cloud context. A cloud computing security policy is a set of rules and guidelines that govern the protection of cloud-based systems and data.
Security policies are a critical part of strong identity and access management (IAM) in the cloud. IAM policies are essential for protecting data, limiting the identities that can access critical applications and resources.
In support of this concept, the Cloud Threat Landscape Report 2022 IBM found that, in 99% of the cases of cloud breaches analyzed by their teams, the identities had excessive privileges.
Azure Policy applies configurations to resources to ensure compliance with business and security standards. Unlike Azure role-based access control (RBAC), which manages user actions (who can access or modify a resource), Azure Policy focuses on the state of resources.
To simplify:
This difference is critical for IT professionals who manage cloud governance at scale. With Azure Policy, you can automatically ensure that resources meet security requirements, cost management standards, and operational baselines.
Azure Policy applies to new resources created and may verify or correct existing resources that do not comply. For example, if a virtual machine lacks diagnostic settings, Azure Policy can report it or resolve the issue through corrective activities. This makes it a powerful tool both for preventing misconfigurations before they occur, and for correcting those that already exist.
Azure Policy works on multiple Azure subscriptions, resource groups and hybrid environments through Azure Arc (a solution that allows you to extend the services and management of the Azure cloud to external infrastructures), ensuring consistent governance regardless of scale. Whether it's managing the workloads of a single team or an entire enterprise deployment, Azure Policy offers automation, visibility, and control.
Let's see in the table below a summary of the scope of the service.
The operating mechanism of Azure Policies is simple.
When a request is made to configure an Azure resource through Azure Resource Manager (ARM), this is intercepted by the layer containing the engine that evaluates the policies. This engine performs an evaluation based on active Azure policies and establishes the legitimacy of the request.
The same mechanism is then repeated periodically or on specific request to assess the compliance status of existing resources.
In Azure there are already many built-in policies ready to be applied, or you can configure them according to your needs. The definition of Azure Policies is done in JSON and follows a very specific structure. You also have the option of creating Initiatives, which are a collection of multiple policies.
When you have the definition of the desired policy, it is possible to assign it to a Management Group, to a subscription and possibly in a more limited way to a specific Resource Group. The same is true for Initiatives. You also have the option to exclude certain resources from applying the policy if necessary.
After the assignment, it is possible to evaluate the state of compliance in detail and, if necessary, to apply remediation actions.
We have created the Infrastructure & Security team, focused on the Azure cloud, to better respond to the needs of our customers who involve us in technical and strategic decisions. In addition to configuring and managing the tenant, we also take care of:
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At the heart of Azure Policy are two main components: policies and initiatives.
Policies in Azure are specific rules or guidelines, while initiatives are collections of policies that help achieve a larger compliance objective.
Let's see below what makes up a slightly more specific policy.
Now let's take a look at the steps for creating and implementing a new policy.
For IT professionals who manage cloud resources, governance often seems like a balance between speed and control.
Misconfigurations, manual processes, and resource deviations can quickly compromise operations, exposing organizations to security, compliance, and cost issues. Azure Policy directly addresses these challenges by automating governance and ensuring that resources are always aligned with business and technical requirements.
By integrating Azure Policy into their governance strategy, IT professionals get a reliable tool to prevent misconfigurations, simplify compliance reporting, and ensure operational excellence. Whether it's managing few resources or a complex hybrid infrastructure, Azure Policy makes governance both practical and scalable.
With Azure Policy, you can move from a reactive approach to proactive control, allowing automation to enforce standards and freeing up time for innovation.
Here's why IT workers should consider it:
Now that we know how the service works and what it can do for us, the time has come to understand how to make the most of the Azure Policy features.
In fact, its ease of use should not be misleading.
If it is true that learning the basics is extremely easy, it is equally true that without the implementation of appropriate practices, the situation can easily degenerate into complicated or unmanageable scenarios that, in addition to wasting precious time, also risk jeopardizing our security posture.
Let's look at some examples to understand how to best use Azure Policy.
It was natural that the evolution of digital infrastructures to the cloud would lead to changes in the way in which an organization must secure its assets and ensure that they are not eyed by unauthorized personnel or malicious agents.
But this change doesn't have to mean greater complexity, and Azure Policy is an essential tool for IT professionals who want to simplify governance, reduce risks, and ensure consistent compliance in cloud and hybrid environments.
Combining proactive application, automated correction, and continuous monitoring, Azure Policy transforms governance into a fluid, automated process.
With support for native Azure resources, on-premise workloads, and multi-cloud implementations through Azure Arc, Azure Policy offers a unified framework for managing the entire IT landscape. Whether it's applying security baselines, managing resource costs, or meeting compliance requirements, the service provides the visibility and control needed to operate securely at scale.
With Azure Policy, IT professionals can stop chasing misconfigurations and focus on what matters most: creating secure, efficient, and compliant cloud solutions that help their business succeed, and nothing more.
Azure Policy is a service included in the Microsoft Azure platform that allows you to define, assign and manage policies to ensure that resources comply with security requirements, business standards and regulations. Unlike systems that simply control user permissions, Azure Policy focuses directly on the state and configuration of resources, ensuring that they are always in line with business expectations and rules.
The main difference is that RBAC determines who can perform certain actions on a resource, such as creating or modifying a storage account, while Azure Policy is responsible for verifying that that resource is properly configured according to business policies, such as ensuring that the storage account is encrypted or labeled. In summary, RBAC manages user permissions, while Azure Policy governs the state of resources.
Every time a resource is created or modified, Azure Policy evaluates the request through the Azure Resource Manager engine. If the defined policies are violated, the system can block the action, report it or intervene with an automatic correction. In addition to this immediate verification, Azure Policy performs periodic evaluations to check that existing resources also comply with the rules, allowing continuous and in-depth control of the Azure environment.
Policies can be applied at various hierarchical levels. You can use them on Management Groups to define rules valid on multiple subscriptions, on individual subscriptions to influence all the resources contained, on Resource Groups to act on specific sets of resources or even on individual resources, to obtain more granular control. This flexibility makes it possible to adapt the application of policies to every governance need, from the business level to the individual project.
A policy consists of a definition, which specifies what to evaluate and what to do if the rule is violated, an effect, which represents the actual action to be taken (such as denying the creation or reporting an anomaly), of any parameters, which make the policy more flexible and reusable in different contexts, and finally of an assignment, which indicates the scope to which the policy applies. As an alternative to individual policies, it is possible to use initiatives, i.e. collections of policies with a common compliance objective.
An initiative is a set of policies grouped together to address larger governance objectives in a coordinated manner. It allows multiple rules to be applied simultaneously on the same scope, for example all the policies necessary to ensure the security of a cloud environment. This approach simplifies management and allows for greater consistency over time.
Yes, Azure Policy not only allows you to detect non-compliances, but also to take action to correct them. Remediation actions can be automated or scheduled and allow, for example, to apply missing configurations or restore correct settings. In this way, policies don't just report problems, they also help to proactively resolve them.
For IT professionals, Azure Policy represents a fundamental ally in managing cloud governance. It allows you to prevent misconfigurations, automate compliance checks, reduce the risk of security breaches or wasted resources, and simplifies the reporting necessary for continuous monitoring. All of this is done while maintaining the operational speed required by modern cloud environments, without compromising security or efficiency.
Yes, Azure provides a large collection of pre-defined, ready-to-use policies that cover common scenarios such as data protection, cost management, and compliance. It is also possible to define custom policies in JSON format to meet more specific needs. In addition, predefined policies can be combined into initiatives for more structured management.
To make the most of Azure Policy, it is recommended to start with audit effects to understand the impact of the policies without immediately imposing restrictions. It is important to clearly define the organizational hierarchy to assign policies to the correct areas, take advantage of parameters to make them more flexible, and use initiatives to manage multiple policies in a unified way. Finally, it is essential to regularly review policies to keep them updated with respect to business and regulatory changes.
The Infra & Security team focuses on the management and evolution of our customers' Microsoft Azure tenants. Besides configuring and managing these tenants, the team is responsible for creating application deployments through DevOps pipelines. It also monitors and manages all security aspects of the tenants and supports Security Operations Centers (SOC).
