Describe the purpose of Azure Arc

  • 3 minutes

Managing hybrid and multi-cloud environments can rapidly get complicated. Azure provides a host of tools to provision, configure, and monitor Azure resources. What about the on-premises resources in a hybrid configuration or the cloud resources in a multi-cloud configuration?

In utilizing Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Arc lets you extend your Azure compliance and monitoring to your hybrid and multi-cloud configurations. Azure Arc simplifies governance and management by delivering a consistent multi-cloud and on-premises management platform.

Azure Arc provides a centralized, unified way to:

  • Manage your entire environment together by projecting your existing non-Azure resources into ARM.
  • Manage multi-cloud and hybrid virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, and databases as if they are running in Azure.
  • Use familiar Azure services and management capabilities, regardless of where they live.
  • Continue using traditional ITOps while introducing DevOps practices to support new cloud and native patterns in your environment.
  • Configure custom locations as an abstraction layer on top of Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters and cluster extensions.

What can Azure Arc do outside of Azure?

Currently, Azure Arc allows you to manage the following resource types hosted outside of Azure:

  • Servers
  • Kubernetes clusters
  • Azure data services
  • SQL Server
  • Virtual machines (preview)