Expert guidance for designing, assessing, and optimizing Azure workloads using Azure Well Architected. Covers design review checklists, recommendations, design principles, tradeoffs, service guides, workload patterns, and assessment questions. Use when designing AI, HPC, SaaS, AVD workloads, choosin

Azure Well Architected Skill This skill provides expert guidance for designing, assessing, and optimizing Azure workloads using Azure Well Architected. Covers design review checklists, recommendations, design principles, tradeoffs, service guides, workload patterns, and assessment questions. It combines local quick reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities. How to Use This Skill IMPORTANT for Agent : Use the Category Index below to locate relevant sections. For categories with line ranges (e.g., L35 L120 ), use read file with the specified lines. For categories with file links (e.g., [security.md](security.md) ), use read file on the linked reference file IMPORTANT for Agent : If metadata.generated at is more than 3 months old, suggest the user pull the latest version from the repository. If mcp microsoftdocs tools are not available, suggest the user install it: [Installation Guide](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/mcp/blob/main/README.md) This skill requires network access to fetch documentation content: Preferred : Use mcp microsoftdocs:microsoft docs fetch with query string from=learn agent skill . Returns Markdown. Fallback : Use fetch webpage with query string from=learn agent skill&accept=text/markdown . Returns Markdown. Category Index Category Lines Description Design Review Checklists L35 L43 Checklists to review Azure workloads for cost, operations, performance, reliability, and security best practices and identify gaps against Well Architected guidance. Recommendations L44 L117 Guidance on cost, reliability, performance, security, and operational excellence best practices for Azure workloads, including optimization, monitoring, automation, and sustainable cloud operations. Design Principles L118 L133 High level Azure design guidance: cost, performance, reliability, security/Zero Trust, sustainability, operational excellence, capacity resilience, and patterns for AI, HPC, and SaaS workloads. Tradeoffs L134 L143 Guidance on weighing cost, reliability, performance, security, and operations tradeoffs in Azure architectures, including regions/AZ choices and cross pillar design decisions. Service Guides L144 L179 Service specific Azure Well Architected (WAF) guidance: design, configure, secure, and optimize reliability, performance, and cost for core compute, data, and networking services. Workload Patterns L180 L224 Design patterns, reference architectures, and end to end guidance for AI, HPC, mission critical, SaaS, and sustainable workloads on Azure, including platforms, data, ops, security, and governance. Assessment Questions L225 L236 Guided assessments and maturity models to evaluate AI, SaaS, AVD, AVS, and other Azure workloads against WAF pillars: cost, reliability, security, performance, and operations. Design Review Checklists Topic URL Use Cost Optimization design review checklist for Azure https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/checklist Use operational excellence design review checklist https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/checklist Use performance efficiency design review checklist https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/checklist Use reliability design checklist for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/checklist Use the Security design review checklist for workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/security/checklist Recommendations Topic URL Align Azure resource usage with billing increments https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/align usage to billing increments Implement cost data collection and review for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/collect review cost data Use consolidation strategies to reduce Azure costs https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/consolidation Build and maintain a cost model for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/cost model Create a culture of financial responsibility for cloud costs https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/create culture financial responsibility Negotiate and obtain best provider rates for Azure https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/get best rates Reduce Azure workload costs through code optimization https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/optimize code costs Optimize individual component costs in Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/optimize component costs Optimize Azure data storage and management costs https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/optimize data costs Optimize non production and production environment costs https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/optimize environment costs Implement cost optimization for workload data flows https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/optimize flow costs Optimize personnel time for Azure workload operations https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/optimize personnel time Optimize scaling strategies to reduce Azure costs https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/optimize scaling costs Implement spending guardrails for Azure cost optimization https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/cost optimization/set spending guardrails Develop background jobs to offload application workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/design guides/background jobs Create a disaster recovery plan for multi region workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/design guides/disaster recovery Implement transient fault handling in cloud applications https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/design guides/handle transient faults Build workload health models to improve reliability https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/design guides/health modeling Design and operate an incident management practice https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/design guides/incident management Design data partitioning for reliable Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/design guides/partition data Implement continuous integration for Azure release engineering https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/design guides/release engineering continuous integration Design and implement automation in Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/enable automation Formalize development practices for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/formalize development practices Standardize Azure operations with formalized tasks https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/formalize operations tasks Design and run an incident management process for Azure https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/incident response Adopt infrastructure as code for Azure deployments https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/infrastructure as code design Design an observability and monitoring system in Azure https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/observability Implement safe deployment practices for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/safe deployments Implement testing practices for Azure operational excellence https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/testing Standardize development tools and processes for OpEx https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/tools processes Implement CI/CD based workload development supply chains https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/operational excellence/workload supply chain Implement capacity planning for Azure performance efficiency https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/capacity planning Continuously optimize performance efficiency in Azure https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/continuous performance optimize Implement multi layer performance monitoring for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/monitoring Optimize application code and infrastructure performance on Azure https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/optimize code infrastructure Implement data performance optimizations for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/optimize data performance Optimize operational tasks to protect workload performance https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/optimize operational tasks Define and expose performance targets for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/performance targets Implement performance testing for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/performance test Prioritize performance of critical flows in Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/prioritize critical flows Respond to live performance issues in Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/respond live performance issues Optimize scaling and partitioning for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/scale partition Select Azure services to meet workload performance needs https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/performance efficiency/select services Plan disaster recovery strategies for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/disaster recovery Perform failure mode analysis to improve workload reliability https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/failure mode analysis Identify and prioritize workload flows for reliability https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/identify flows Define availability and recovery targets for reliability https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/metrics Implement monitoring strategy for workload reliability https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/monitoring Design redundancy strategies to meet reliability targets https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/redundancy Implement reliability testing strategy for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/reliability test Design reliable scaling strategies for Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/scaling Design self healing and self preservation capabilities in Azure workloads https://learn.microsoft.com/en us/azure/well architected/reliability/self preservation Implement simplicity and efficiency for reliable Azure workloa

azure-well-architected