Microsoft Events hosts Brendan Burns and Steven Bucher in an advanced Ignite 2025 session on Azure Arc, demonstrating hybrid/multi-cloud management, security, and application operations for modern IT environments.

Azure Arc: Unified Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Management

Presented by Brendan Burns and Steven Bucher at Microsoft Ignite 2025 (Session BRK183)

Overview

Azure Arc enables organizations to apply Azure's management, governance, and security model across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud resources, including Windows/Linux servers and Kubernetes clusters. This session equips IT professionals and developers with practical tools and agent-based approaches to unify datacenter and cloud workloads.

Key Topics

• Hybrid IT Operations:
  • Energy sector example: Demonstrates hybrid management workflows using Azure Arc
  • Connecting on-premises and external servers to Azure Arc for unified management
• Cloud-Native Management for System Center Users:
  • Transition from System Center to cloud-native models with Azure Arc
  • Tooling for modernization and consistent governance
• Machine Enrollment and Operations:
  • Enable monitoring, policy enforcement, and update management through Arc's enrollment capabilities
• Application Deployment and Kubernetes Integration:
  • Shift to application deployment with Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager for Arc resources
  • Scaling strategies using pull requests for cluster management pre-peak events (e.g., Black Friday)
• Configuration Management:
  • Azure Managed Flux: Advantages over the open-source version for automated GitOps workflows
• AWS Cross-Cloud Integration:
  • Deploy AWS CloudFormation templates for cross-cloud permissions and governance
  • View and manage AWS cloud resources via Azure Arc portal
• Resources, Community, and Further Learning:
  • Azure Arc Blog, Customer Meetups, and Microsoft Ignite on-demand sessions

Technical Features

• Consistent policy and security management across heterogeneous environments
• Centralized update and monitoring tools
• Application deployment automation via Kubernetes Fleet Manager
• GitOps support through Azure Managed Flux
• Multi-cloud governance: Enabling control of AWS resources with Azure Arc

Additional Resources

• Migration Planning Portal
• Microsoft Ignite On-Demand Sessions
• Azure Arc Blog and customer meetup channels

Speakers

• Brendan Burns (Microsoft)
• Steven Bucher (Microsoft)

For professionals modernizing IT estates, Azure Arc offers an extensible platform for unified hybrid/multi-cloud operations and secure application management.