Azure, Azure Every Day

Advantages of Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Deployment Model

Steve Hughes Feb 06, 2018

Advantages of Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Deployment Model

Are you just starting out with Azure and wonder: What is Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Deployment Model? Or what’s the difference between ARM and Classic? Whether you’re just starting out with Azure or have been using it for some time, but you’re still using Classic, I’m here to give you 6 reasons why you should be using ARM.

1. ARM lets you deploy, manage and monitor all the Azure resources for an application, or a solution, as a group. This can include almost every resource within Azure.

2. As you do ARM template deployment, you will be able to deploy as a unit, but not just once. You’ll have the ability to deploy multiple times through the lifecycle of your application, as well as manage that deployment process.

3. Access control. Access to the resources can be managed as a unit. As you begin to think about separation of duties, compliance or specific rules around that application, you can apply access controls and those rules apply to the entire solution.

4. Resources can be tagged. This is a great feature when you have a lot of components that you support using Azure (as we do). You’ll need a tag to note that these things are logically grouped together. We tag resources for the reason we are using them or the purpose of billing or just to identify them within the list of resources we are using.

5. Templates. Why do templates matter? This is one of the most robust features of all the resources. JSON templates can be created to configure your entire pattern. So, if you’re doing a standard roll out, this allows you to create a template, parametrize it and you can deploy your resources as a group.

6. You can define the dependencies to make sure it’s deployed in the correct order. Keeping this all straight can be one of the hardest things to do. Definitely look at ARM to help with this.

Here’s a bonus 7^th reason to use ARM. More than likely, Classic will be going away. No predictions on when or how this will look, but we do know almost every new thing in Azure will be going to ARM first. So, if you’re new to Azure and want to take advantage of the newest technology, use ARM.