Microsoft Azure stands as a beacon of innovation and flexibility in the cloud services industry. Azure subscriptions offer a wide range of services and resources to organisations of all sizes, making them a preferred choice for businesses looking to harness the power of the cloud. However, as companies grow and evolve, the question that often arises is whether Azure subscriptions can be optimised by consolidating or merging. With its array of services and resources, managing multiple Azure subscriptions can become a complex task as organisations grow and expand, particularly when it comes to managing various subscriptions across different regions. This complexity often leads to questions about migration to Azure is a wise decision. Let us understand this from the basics.
What are Azure Subscriptions? An overview
An Azure subscription is a logical container that holds the Azure services and resources associated with it. Each subscription has its own billing and management settings, making them a vital component in efficiently managing Azure resources. Every Azure subscription is tied to the account used to create it, and the same account is also used for billing. Resources can be supplied as instances of various Azure products and services under a single subscription.
The three main types of plans are: Free version, Pay-as-you-go and Member offers. Usually, organisations have multiple subscriptions for billing reasons, as each subscription generates its own set of billing reports and invoices. However, dividing subscriptions can be used to separate the development and testing environments from the production environment.
The individual who establishes an Azure subscription becomes the global administrator of that subscription, with complete control over the entire subscription, but only for that specific subscription. Separate subscriptions are used to create a clear separation of responsibilities for Azure services.
Multiple subscriptions with various access management policies and invoicing procedures can be added to a given Azure account, with the following defined boundaries:
- Billing: The billing requirements for accessing resources are defined by this subscription type. Azure will assign each subscription a unique billing, allowing us to create multiple subscriptions tailored to our business needs.
- Access Control: To separate the subscriptions, by applying different management policies, we can construct an access control border at the subscription level to represent diverse organisational structures
Azure has a fee structure for the services it provides to businesses. Each business is assigned an Azure AD Tenant, which enables them to create Azure Accounts and various subscriptions for different services. These terms are defined as follows:
- Organisation– The particular entity that intends to use Azure resources. The domain names used to identify this entity are –
- Tenant – A Tenant ID identifies and authorises a specific Azure AD instance; organisations are assigned the Azure AD Tenant after completing the Azure registration process. Azure Active Directory provides a single platform for managing accounts, groups, permissions, and users.
- Accounts– All accounts created to use Azure’s services are stored in the Azure AD Tenant.
Accounts, tenants, and subscriptions are related in the following manner:
- Multiple tenants might be found in a single company.
- Each tenant can have several subscriptions and accounts.
- One account can use many different subscriptions.
- The Azure AD Tenant determines the account that can utilise a given subscription.
Is Merging Azure Subscriptions a Possibility?
Growing businesses often find themselves operating with multiple Azure subscriptions that could span across different departments, geographic locations, or phases of a project. Managing multiple subscriptions requires monitoring, billing management, and resource allocation for each one separately. This challenge leads organisations to explore the possibility of merging their subscriptions for cost optimisation.
Azure subscriptions can be managed and organised effectively, but merging them into a single subscription with all resources seamlessly combined is not a native Azure feature. Instead, Microsoft provides tools such as Azure Management Groups and the Azure Account Centre to simplify management and billing processes when managing multiple subscriptions.
Resource Migration:
To achieve a more comprehensive merging of subscriptions, you may need to manually migrate resources from one subscription to another. This process involves systematically moving resources, configurations, and data from one subscription to another, ensuring minimal disruption to operations. To do this, navigate to the resource or resource group that needs to be transferred, select ”Move,” and choose the target subscription. Note that not all resources can be moved, and some may require specific criteria to be met.
Using Azure Management Groups:
Azure provides a feature known as “Azure Management Groups” that allows organisations to group and manage multiple subscriptions as a single entity. While this doesn’t technically merge the subscriptions into one, it simplifies the management process by enabling the application of policies and access controls across multiple subscriptions simultaneously.
Azure Account Centre:
If the objective is to consolidate subscriptions for billing purposes, the Azure Account Centre is the go-to tool. This platform enables users to consolidate multiple subscriptions under a single billing entity, simplifying the management of finances and invoices. However, do note that merging subscriptions where resources from one subscription seamlessly become part of another is not a built-in feature in Azure. Each subscription will continue to operate independently of the others.
Choose Kloudify for Azure:
Azure’s flexibility and scalability continue to make it a top choice for businesses, and understanding how to manage subscriptions efficiently is a pivotal step in maximising the benefits obtained from a Microsoft Azure subscription. To navigate the complexities of Azure subscription management and optimisation successfully, choose an expert like Kloudify Technology Australia. Why? Our team specialises in Azure cloud solutions and can provide tailored strategies and support to streamline your Azure implementation, making your growing business future-ready. Contact us today to get started.
