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Chapter 1 / System Design

System-wide
Architecture Design

First decide the system-wide framework. Aligning availability, responsibility scope, cost, governance, network, and data design up front makes later design decisions clearer.

View the 8 itemsBack to contents
8 Guidelines

The 8 items in this chapter

Check the foundational design decisions without omissions.

1Business SLADecide availability, RTO, and RPO in numbers.
2IaaS/PaaSDecide what you manage yourself and what you leave to Azure.
3Cost managementKeep estimating, visualizing, and optimizing.
4Assessment/ReviewReview designs regularly to find risks early.
5NamingMake environment, role, and purpose clear from the name.
6SubscriptionsSeparate boxes for billing, permissions, and rules.
7NetworkDecide the entry, the path, and internal separation.
8DB/StorageDecide storage, replication, backup, and restore.
Diagram of SLA and recovery targets
Decide allowable downtime, recovery speed, and recovery scope in numbers.
SLA

Turn vague quality into numbers

Instead of "avoid downtime as much as possible," decide availability, RTO, and RPO. With numbers set, you can judge how much redundancy and backup you need.

Decide the availability rate.Decide RTO and RPO.Check overall quality when combining multiple services.
IaaS / PaaS

Separate responsibility scopes

IaaS offers high freedom but a wider management scope. PaaS leaves more to Azure, easing development and operations, though with some constraints.

IaaS can suit migrating existing systems.PaaS can suit new development and standardization.Clarify who manages what and to what extent.
Responsibility boundary of IaaS and PaaS
Choose the model by balancing freedom and operational load.
Cost / Governance

Align cost, review, naming, and governance

Decide rules for cost, review, naming, and permissions up front so you do not struggle later.

Diagram of cost management

Cost management

Estimate, visualize, and adjust as you go.

Diagram of assessment review and naming

Assessment/Review and Naming

Review designs regularly and make roles clear from names.

Diagram of subscription management

Subscription management

Separate billing, permissions, and policies into boxes by purpose.

Diagram of network design

Network configuration

Decide who enters, from where, and by which path.

Diagram of data protection
Decide storage, replication, backup, and restore as a set.
DB / Storage

Plan data through to a restorable state

Storing data is not enough. Deciding replication, backup, and restore testing prepares you for failures and accidental deletion.

Decide critical data and where to store it.Decide replication and backup methods.Regularly test that you can restore.

Numbers and responsibility

  • Decided SLA, RTO, and RPO.
  • Can explain the IaaS/PaaS responsibility scope.
  • Set up cost visualization.

Governance

  • Decided review criteria.
  • Decided naming rules.
  • Separated subscriptions and permissions.

Configuration

  • Designed network paths.
  • Decided data storage and restore methods.
  • Tested the restore procedure.