Overview of the operational excellence pillar

The operational excellence pillar of Well-Architected for Industry ensures that a cloud solution is able to operate efficiently and effectively over time.

The operational excellence pillar includes the following key areas:

  1. Monitoring: Implement monitoring tools and processes to detect issues and allow for proactive management of the cloud solution.
  2. Automation: Implement automation tools and processes to reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and reduce the risk of human error.
  3. Release engineering: Adopt release management strategies to build systems that allow your teams to turn ideas into production-delivered software with as little friction as possible.

The following table summarizes the division of responsibility of the operational excellence pillar for each service type:

Type of service Microsoft responsibility Customer responsibility Some components used in Microsoft Cloud industry solutions
On-premises N/A Responsible for the whole stack. On-premises data gateway
IaaS Ensure the reliability and availability of the underlying infrastructure, including physical servers, storage, and networking components. Manage the operating system, applications, and data that run on top of the infrastructure. Includes tasks such as configuring virtual machines, managing patches and updates, and monitoring system performance. Azure Virtual Network (VNet), Azure Virtual Machines (VMs)
PaaS Ensure the reliability and availability of the underlying platform, including the runtime environment, databases, and messaging system. Manage the applications and services that run on top of the platform. Includes tasks such as deploying code, configuring integrations, and monitoring application performance. Power Platform, Azure Health Data Services, Azure Storage Services, Azure Analytics Services, Azure Logic Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
SaaS Ensure the reliability and availability of the entire software application and associated services. Manage user accounts and access controls. Includes tasks such as configuring user roles and permissions, monitoring user activity, and managing authentication and authorization mechanisms. Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365

See also