Overview of Well-Architected for Industry

  • Article

Well-Architected for Industry is a set of guiding principles that you can use to improve the quality of your industry cloud workloads. It applies the existing Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework principles to Microsoft Cloud for industry solutions, which consist of the following five pillars of architecture excellence:

Incorporating these pillars helps produce high-quality, stable, and efficient industry cloud architecture.

The following diagram gives a high-level overview of Well-Architected for Industry assets that support these pillars:

A diagram showing the Well-Architected Framework pillars and associated Well-Architected for Industry assets.

Well-Architected for Industry contains six supporting elements:

  • Reference architecture: Reference architecture for Microsoft Cloud for industry solutions, tailored to each solution play
  • Design principles: Design principles to guide solution building with Microsoft Cloud for industry solutions
  • Best practices: Design, deployment, and operational best practices
  • Checklists: Checklists to assess industry cloud workload design, deployment, and operation
  • Documentation: Technical documentation references
  • Partner solutions, support, and services offers: Documentation on integrated third-party solutions, technical guidance, and related support and service offers

Microsoft Cloud industry building blocks

At the heart of Microsoft Cloud industry solutions are four key building blocks. These blocks enable organizations to build, deploy, and manage intelligent applications and services that drive innovation, improve efficiency, and enhance customer experiences.

A diagram showing the four key building blocks for Microsoft Cloud industry solutions.

Microsoft Cloud solutions are built on a layered architecture that provides a solid foundation for businesses to use the full potential of digital transformation. The base layer of the architecture includes identity, security, management, and compliance, which are fundamental features inherited from Microsoft Cloud. These features help organizations to secure and manage their operations, comply with regulations, and maintain the integrity of their data.

The second layer consists of Azure, which offers infrastructure as a service (IaaS) or platform as a service (PaaS) offerings that provides businesses scalability, reliability, and flexibility. On top of that is Microsoft 365, a comprehensive productivity suite designed for frontline workers, and Dynamics 365, a suite of customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications.

Finally, Power Platform provides low-code or no-code applications that allow businesses to build custom apps and workflows without extensive coding experience. Together, these layers construct the Microsoft Cloud industry solutions.

Division of responsibility

Industry cloud solutions encompass Azure, Power Platform, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365 building blocks. These building blocks contain IaaS, PaaS, and software as a service (SaaS) components. These components can also have integration points with on-premises components. Each of the five pillars of Well-Architected for Industry (operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization) will scope for the customers or shared responsibility areas when assessing industry cloud workloads.

A diagram showing the division of responsibility.

The following table describes the division of responsibility between Microsoft and customers based on the type of service.

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 Secure the underlying infrastructure, such as physical servers, network devices, and data centers. Secure their applications and data, including data encryption, access control, and compliance with industry regulations. Azure Virtual Network (VNet), Azure Virtual Machines (VMs)
PaaS Secure the platform, such as the runtime environment, middleware, and development tools. Secure their applications and data, ensure that they are properly configured and secured, and the data is properly encrypted, stored, and backed up. Power Platform, Azure Health Data Services, Azure Storage Services, Azure Analytics Services, Azure Logic Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
SaaS Secure the entire software application and the data it processes, including access control, data encryption, and security testing. Ensure that their users are properly trained and educated on how to use the SaaS application securely, and that their actions don't compromise the security of the application or the data it processes. Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365