Microsoft has announced a new set of principles called “Well-Architected for Industry” that provides prescriptive guidance to improve the quality of industry solution deployments. The framework consists of five pillars of architectural excellence including reliability, cost optimization, operational excellence, performance efficiency, and security. The guiding principles can be used to improve the quality of industry cloud workloads.
The framework is intended to provide substantial benefits to partners and customers. For instance, a partner hired to configure Microsoft Sustainability Manager can leverage the framework to design reliable and scalable architecture to build their customer’s carbon emission calculations and reporting workloads. By incorporating security practices, the partner can ensure robust data protection and compliance with industry standards. Additionally, the framework’s performance optimization guidance enables the partner to enhance the application’s responsiveness and user experience.
The Well-Architected for Industry framework is starting with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. It is a comprehensive and extensible solution that brings together a set of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) capabilities from Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and solutions from our global ecosystem of partners. Microsoft Sustainability Manager, a Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability solution, is being expanded to give customers fuller visibility into their environmental impact across carbon, water, and waste. New capabilities will help customers create a comprehensive ESG data estate and prepare them to meet new reporting requirements. The Well-Architected for Industry framework provides context-relevant implementation guidance to support the entire solution development lifecycle starting from design and architecting to operational monitoring. Project Managers, Solution Architects, Developers, operational team members, and System Administrators can benefit by applying these pillars to their workloads.
Another one Microsoft starts with is the Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services provides capabilities to manage financial services data at scale and makes it easier for financial services organizations to deliver differentiated experiences, empower employees, and combat financial crime. It also facilitates security, compliance, and interoperability. The Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services is an end-to-end solution designed for even the most complex control frameworks and regulatory requirements. By integrating existing and new capabilities in Microsoft 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services unlocks unprecedented value. With Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, financial institutions and insurers of all sizes can optimize costs, reduce time to value, enhance collaboration, and use data and AI to deliver more impactful business outcomes—whether transforming customer and client experiences, empowering employees, managing risk, or modernizing core systems. The security, compliance, and scale of the Microsoft Cloud, combined with our global partner ecosystem, provide a trusted foundation for efficient operations today and sustainable growth tomorrow.
The five pillars of architectural excellence in the “Well-Architected for Industry” framework are:
- Reliability: The ability of a system to recover from failures and continue to function.
- Cost Optimization: The ability to run systems efficiently and cost-effectively.
- Operational Excellence: The ability to operate and monitor systems to deliver business value and to continually improve supporting processes and procedures.
- Performance Efficiency: The ability to use computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements and to maintain that efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.
- Security: The ability to protect information, systems, and assets while delivering business value through risk assessments and mitigation strategies.
These pillars provide prescriptive guidance to improve the quality of industry solution deployments.