Understanding Azure Policy: A Quick Guide to Definitions, Assignments, Exemptions, Policies, and Initiatives

Azure Policy is a powerful tool that helps enforce governance and compliance across your cloud environment. It ensures your resources meet specific rules and requirements, reducing the risk of misconfigurations or security gaps. Here's a quick overview of its key components:

1. Definitions

These are the building blocks of Azure Policy. Definitions describe the conditions a resource must meet to comply. There are built-in and custom definitions, allowing you to use pre-configured policies or tailor them to your organization's needs.

2. Assignments

Assignments apply a policy definition to a specific scope (like a subscription or resource group). This is where you enforce policies by evaluating resources within the assigned scope.

3. Exemptions

Exemptions provide flexibility by allowing specific resources to be excluded from a policy assignment. They are useful in cases where compliance isn’t immediately possible.

4. Policies vs. Initiatives

• Policy: A single rule that enforces specific compliance requirements, like denying the creation of unencrypted resources.
• Initiative: A collection of multiple policies, helping achieve broader compliance goals, such as security best practices or regulatory standards.

Want to dive deeper? Read the full blog post here for a comprehensive explanation: ?? Understanding Azure Policy: Definitions, Assignments, Exemptions, Policies, and Initiatives

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