Hire Azure architect talent who understand the Microsoft ecosystem integration advantage. An Azure architect designs: Azure landing zones that inherit identity from Entra ID, networking that connects to on-premises via ExpressRoute, governance that aligns with Microsoft's Cloud Adoption Framework, and workload placement that leverages Azure-native services (Fabric, Cosmos DB, AKS) rather than cloud-portable alternatives.
Azure architecture requires: CAF implementation — management groups, subscriptions, resource groups following Microsoft best practices. Networking — hub-spoke with Azure Firewall, private endpoints, DNS zones, ExpressRoute. Identity — Entra ID federation, conditional access, PIM, service principal governance. Data platform — Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, {tl("Fabric","microsoft-fabric")}, Synapse architecture decisions.