Resource groups can be categorized in three categories, core, platform and application. It is recommended to organize resources in these categories on a Azure Resource group level:
- Core
- Platform
- Application
In a cloud environment, including IaaS systems, there are core and platform azure resources needed which are shared among the different application deployments. These core and platform system components need to be available before systems can be added. For these core components, an additional Azure Resource Groups needs to be created. All other deployments will depend on it. Platform components are cloud resources which are central managed and controlled for all resources in the Azure EA. Often it contains ‘legacy’ like resources as network configuration.
The application resources are grouped from the view of as a service. A service which will contain business functionality which is as small as possible, that small that it still provides value as a single standalone instance. Not smaller not bigger. (see Clemens Vaster description below).
- All artifacts in a resource group have the same version.
- Azure Resources in the Application category can be deployed without external dependencies on other Application category resource groups.
- The only dependency an Application category resource can have is on resources in the core and platform resource categories. Most Application type resources will have one-way dependency on platform and core type resources.
- By grouping resources in a resource group based on business functionality the delivery of this business value can be done decoupled without having to take care or wait for other dependencies.
- Application type Resource groups will have a single owner.
- All resources in a resource group will have the same life-cycle.
This decoupling makes the delivery and evolution of the business value easier, faster and in a much more comfortable way.
Platform and Core resources will have a different life-cycle and no dependency on application type resources. Core components contain functionality which are needed by multiple applications. Often called infrastructure or services for applications. These components are in the same azure subscription as the application components. Cloud services like Message Bus, API Management are core resources. A good example of a core service is a directory service which need to provisioned before VM’s can be joined to the domain. Also, a network configuration needs to be pre-configured and is part of the platform. Different resource groups are created per categories. Core and Platform categorized resources will be created and managed by generic teams while resources in the application category are created and managed by teams and business units.