Azure Blueprints
Umesh Khandelwal
VP, Lead Engineer at Wells Fargo | AI Enthusiast | Lifelong Learner
Azure Blueprints simplify deployments by packaging artifacts, such as Azure Resource Manager templates, Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC), and policies, in a single blueprint definition.
Blueprints are a declarative way to orchestrate the deployment of various resource templates and other artifacts such as:
The Azure Blueprints service is backed by the globally distributed?Azure Cosmos DB. Blueprint objects are replicated to multiple Azure regions. This replication provides low latency, high availability, and consistent access to your blueprint objects, regardless of which region Azure Blueprints deploys your resources to.
How it's different from ARM templates
Nearly everything that you want to include for deployment in Azure Blueprints can be accomplished with an ARM template. However, an ARM template is a document that doesn't exist natively in Azure - each is stored either locally or in source control or in?Templates (preview).
The template gets used for deployments of one or more Azure resources, but once those resources deploy there's no active connection or relationship to the template.
With Azure Blueprints, the relationship between the blueprint definition (what?should be?deployed) and the blueprint assignment (what?was?deployed) is preserved. This connection supports improved tracking and auditing of deployments.
Azure Blueprints can also upgrade several subscriptions at once that are governed by the same blueprint.
How it's different from Azure Policy
A?policy?is a default allow and explicit deny system focused on resource properties during deployment and for already existing resources. It supports cloud governance by validating that resources within a subscription adhere to requirements and standards.
Including a policy in a blueprint enables the creation of the right pattern or design during assignment of the blueprint. The policy inclusion makes sure that only approved or expected changes can be made to the environment to protect ongoing compliance to the intent of the blueprint.
A policy can be included as one of many?artifacts?in a blueprint definition. Blueprints also support using parameters with policies and initiatives.