🚀 Enterprise Azure Landing Zone – DevOps & Cloud Architecture

Microsoft Stack | Azure Landing Zone | GitOps | Kubernetes

Designed & Implemented by Mohamed Amine Hlali
Senior DevOps Engineer | Azure Cloud Architect | Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT)

📌 Project Purpose

This project is a real, enterprise-grade Azure Landing Zone implementation, designed and built from scratch using Microsoft cloud-native services only.

The objective is to demonstrate hands-on expertise in:

  • Azure Landing Zones (real implementation, not theory)
  • Secure enterprise networking (Hub & Spoke)
  • Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
  • AKS (Private Cluster)
  • CI/CD & GitOps (Azure DevOps + Argo CD)
  • Observability & Monitoring (Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Grafana)
  • Container security & governance

⚠️ This is not a demo or tutorial project.
It reflects production-grade architecture and decisions.

🧱 Enterprise Architecture Overview

Enterprise Architecture Diagram

Key architectural principles:

  • Fully private Kubernetes cluster
  • Centralized networking & security
  • GitOps-driven deployments
  • Observability-first design
  • Microsoft Stack only

🏗️ Azure Landing Zone – Design Areas

This Landing Zone follows Microsoft best practices across the core design areas.

🌐 Networking (Hub & Spoke)

Spoke VNet

  • Hub VNet for shared services
  • Spoke VNet dedicated to AKS
  • VNet Peering (Hub ↔ Spoke)
  • Private Endpoint for AKS API Server
  • Azure Firewall for traffic control
  • Azure Bastion for secure administration

Terraform Networking

➡️ All networking components are provisioned using Terraform.

🔐 Security & Governance

Azure Resources

  • Private AKS cluster (no public API exposure)
  • Azure Key Vault for secrets
  • Managed Identity (System Assigned)
  • RBAC between AKS and ACR
  • Least-privilege access model

☸️ Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

AKS Azure AKS Configuration

  • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
  • Private Cluster enabled
  • Managed Node Groups
  • Internal Load Balancer
  • Azure CNI networking
  • Separation between system and workload nodes

📦 Container Platform (ACR)

Azure Container Registry

  • Azure Container Registry (ACR)
  • Secure image storage
  • Integrated with AKS via Managed Identity
  • Image pull permissions via RBAC

⚙️ Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)

Terraform Apply

  • All infrastructure provisioned using Terraform
  • Remote state stored in Azure Storage Account
  • Idempotent and reproducible deployments
  • Clear separation of concerns (networking, AKS, registry, monitoring)

🔄 CI/CD – Azure DevOps Pipeline

Azure DevOps Pipeline

Pipeline stages:

  1. Build .NET Application
  2. Build Docker Image
  3. Trivy Security Scan (CRITICAL – fixable only)
  4. Push image to Azure Container Registry
  5. Update GitOps manifests (Kustomize)
  6. Trigger Argo CD sync

🔐 Container Security – Trivy

Trivy Scan

  • Vulnerability scanning integrated in CI
  • Only CRITICAL fixable vulnerabilities allowed
  • Pipeline fails if security baseline is not met

🔁 GitOps – Argo CD

Argo CD Application

  • Git is the single source of truth
  • Argo CD continuously monitors manifests
  • Automatic synchronization with AKS
  • Visual resource tree & health status
  • Easy rollback and history tracking

🧠 Application (.NET)

Application Page

  • .NET API containerized
  • Deployed on AKS
  • Exposed via Kubernetes Service & Ingress
  • Real traffic handled by the cluster

📊 Observability & Monitoring

Azure Native Monitoring

Azure Metrics Application Insights Application Insights Live

  • Azure Monitor
  • Log Analytics Workspace
  • Application Insights
  • Live metrics & smart detection

Grafana Dashboards

Grafana Dashboard

  • Azure Managed Grafana
  • CPU, Memory, Disk, Network
  • AKS node & workload visibility
  • Real-time dashboards

🚨 Alerting & Notifications

  • Metric-based alerts (CPU, Memory, Failures)
  • Application Insights smart detection
  • Email notifications via Action Groups

➡️ Enables proactive incident detection.

🧩 Microsoft Stack Summary

✔ Azure
✔ AKS
✔ Azure DevOps
✔ Terraform
✔ Azure Container Registry
✔ Azure Monitor
✔ Application Insights
✔ Azure Managed Grafana
✔ Azure Key Vault
✔ Argo CD
✔ Docker

No third-party cloud providers. Microsoft Stack only.

🎯 Why This Project Matters

  • Real Azure Landing Zone implementation
  • Enterprise networking & security
  • GitOps-first Kubernetes deployment
  • Production-grade CI/CD
  • Deep observability & monitoring
  • Designed with senior-level architecture mindset

✅ Conclusion

This project demonstrates how enterprise Azure environments should be designed, focusing on:

  • Security-first networking
  • Infrastructure as Code
  • GitOps-driven operations
  • Observability & governance

🚀 More deep-dive articles coming soon.

👤 Author

Mohamed Amine Hlali
Senior DevOps Engineer | Azure Cloud Architect
Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT)

Focused on designing secure, scalable, and observable Azure platforms using Microsoft technologies.