Microsoft Ignite Session ID: BRK183
November 20, 2025
Brendan Burns, Corporate Vice President, Azure, Microsoft
Steven Bucher, Product Manager, Azure Arc, Microsoft
Azure brings unified management to on-premises and multi-cloud environments. Learn how Azure Arc delivers consistent governance, security, and operations across Azure, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments—while enabling System Center customers to adopt a cloud-native management experience. Whether modernizing Windows/Linux or building cloud-native apps, equip yourself with tools and agents to bridge datacenter and cloud.
TL;DR Summary
Azure Arc unifies hybrid and multi‑cloud management across Azure, on‑premises, and other clouds.
- Challenges Addressed:
- Complexity and inefficiency of managing multiple environments
- Fragmented visibility and compliance risks
- Difficulty in patching and maintaining security across distributed sites
- Customer Example: Energy delivery company using Arc to manage servers and hybrid environments consistently.
- Foundation: Built on Azure Resource Manager (ARM), extending ARM capabilities (policy, access control, inventory, governance) to non‑Azure resources.
- Key Capabilities/Demos:
- Centralized management & security: Single pane of glass for servers across Azure, AWS, VMware, on‑prem.
- Update Manager: Unified patching across clouds (including AWS) with scheduled maintenance windows.
- Resiliency: Policies for WinRE/SafeOS to prevent reboot loops and improve recovery.
- Secure Access: SSH over Arc — fast, identity‑based access without public IP exposure.
- Simplified Enrollment: New machine enrollment workflow (preview) bundles services like Log Analytics, Defender CSPM, and Defender for Servers for easy
- Vision: Consistent operations, governance, and agility from edge → multi‑cloud → Azure.
Chapters:
0:00 – Energy sector example illustrating hybrid IT operations using Azure Arc
00:03:44 – Connecting on-prem and external servers via Azure Arc for consistent management
00:14:31 – Overview of services enabled through machine enrollment—monitoring, policies, update management
00:18:22 – Shift to application deployment and introduction of Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager for Arc
00:23:56 – Scaling clusters in preparation for Black Friday using pull requests
00:25:05 – Advantages of Azure Managed Flux over open-source Flux
00:33:00 – Deploying AWS Cloud Formation Template for Permissions
00:33:20 – Viewing and Managing AWS Resources via Azure Arc
00:41:45 – Resources and Community: Azure Arc Blog and Customer Meetup