Thomas Maurer explains the Azure Local Well-Architected Review Assessment, offering practical advice for organizations to optimize Azure Local deployments through Microsoft’s structured architectural framework.

Azure Local Well-Architected Framework and Review Assessment

Author: Thomas Maurer

As organizations increasingly turn to Azure Local for running both modern and legacy applications in on-premises and edge environments, robust architecture becomes crucial for scalability, reliability, and regulatory compliance. The Azure Local Well-Architected Review Assessment assists in evaluating and improving Azure Local deployments using proven methodologies from Microsoft.

What is Azure Local?

Azure Local is Microsoft’s solution to extend Azure services to customer-owned infrastructure. This enables running Windows and Linux VMs, Azure Virtual Desktop, and containers using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Arc. It also provides support for Azure Arc-enabled services such as Azure Container Apps and Azure Machine Learning AKS compute targets. Core benefits include consistent management, support for data sovereignty, and compliance requirements.

For an overview, you can watch this video walkthrough.

The Well-Architected Review Assessment

The Azure Local Well-Architected Review Assessment leverages the Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF). This framework is grounded in five pillars:

  • Reliability
  • Security
  • Cost Optimization
  • Operational Excellence
  • Performance Efficiency

During the assessment, you answer Yes/No questions that correspond to best practices for Azure Local environments. Based on your responses, you receive a risk score and targeted guidance to address architectural gaps. This process is designed to be actionable, driving improvements in the deployment’s reliability, security, and performance.

When to Use the Assessment

You can conduct the review at any project stage, but it’s most impactful during early design or before deployment. Early assessment helps avoid costly design rework and ensures alignment with architectural best practices from the outset.

Demo and Resources

Key Takeaways

  • Use the Well-Architected Review Assessment to benchmark your Azure Local project across architecture, security, cost, operations, and performance.
  • Answer structured questions to find areas for improvement, with links and documentation for actionable remediation.
  • Leverage the resources provided to guide your architecture development and address gaps for hybrid and edge deployments.
  • Use the assessment early for maximum impact, but it is beneficial at any maturity stage of your project.

Summary

By aligning deployments with the Well-Architected Framework, teams can improve reliability, operational excellence, and cost efficiency—and ensure that both technical and compliance goals are addressed. The Azure Local Well-Architected Review Assessment, along with the provided architectural guidance, empowers organizations to build sustainable, scalable, and secure hybrid Azure solutions.

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