Managed Microsoft Azure

Service scope

Service constraints: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/azure-subscription-service-limits
System requirements: Service selection dictates system requirements; consult online pages for details.

User support

Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
Support response times: The Initial Response Time varies with both the support plan and the Business Impact of the request (also known as Severity). For a breakdown of initial response times by several level and business impact, please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/response/
Weekend support availability varies depending on your Azure support plan. For more information, please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/
User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Phone support: Yes
Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support: Web chat
Web chat support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Web chat accessibility testing: Microsoft commitment to accessibility can be found here - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trust-center/compliance/accessibility#accessibility

Accessibility Conformance Reports can be found here including details of support and administration accessibility details - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/conformance-reports
Microsoft is committed to developing technology that empowers everyone, including people with disabilities. Microsoft has a Disability Answer Desk where customers with disabilities get support with Microsoft Office, Windows, and other products. Microsoft also has Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACR) which describe how products and services support recognized global accessibility standards.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Accessibility/disability-answer-desk
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/conformance-reports
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/accessibility/accessibility-testing
Onsite support: Onsite support
Support levels: Microsoft provides four (4) Azure support plan options, which includes various levels of technical account management and cloud support engineering. The support options and cost include the following:
- BASIC (included for all Azure customers)
- DEVELOPER
- STANDARD
- PROFESSIONAL DIRECT
- UNIFIED SUPPORT
For more information, visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/ and https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/unifiedsupport/overview
Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started: Microsoft provides all Azure customers with 24/7 self-help resources, including Microsoft Learn, Azure Portal how-to videos, documentation, and community support. For more information, visit:
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/videos/
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/community/
Service documentation: Yes
Documentation formats: HTML

PDF
End-of-contract data extraction: As a customer, you maintain ownership of your data—the content, personal and other data you provide for storing and hosting in Azure services. Microsoft will not store or process customer data outside the geography you specify, except for certain non-regional services. You are also in control of any additional geographies where you decide to deploy your solutions or replicate your data.
Azure has established internal records-retention requirements for back-end data. You are responsible for identifying your own record retention requirements. For records that are stored in Azure, you are responsible for extracting your data and retaining your content outside of Azure for a customer-specified retention period.
Azure allows you to export data and audit reports from the product. The exports are saved locally to retain the information for a customer-defined retention time period.
For more information on protection of customer data, visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/protection-customer-data
End-of-contract process: Microsoft is governed by strict standards and follows specific processes for removing cloud customer data from systems under our control, overwriting storage resources before reuse, and purging or destroying decommissioned hardware. In our Online Service Terms, Microsoft contractually commits to specific processes when a customer leaves a cloud service or the subscription expires. This includes deleting customer data from systems under our control.

Please see Data Protection Addendum for full and up to date details about how Microsoft manages your data. https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Microsoft-Products-and-Services-Data-Protection-Addendum-DPA?lang=1

Using the service

Web browser interface: Yes
Using the web interface: Azure provides several web interfaces that allow users to interact with the platform, manage resources, and build applications. These interfaces include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Azure Portal - provides a unified view of all your Azure resources; users can create, configure, and manage various services, virtual machines, databases, etc.
- Azure Cloud Shell: interactive, browser-based shell environment that allows users to manage Azure resources using either Bash or PowerShell; provides a command-line interface directly within the Azure Portal, eliminating the need to install any local tools
Web interface accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Web interface accessibility testing: Azure Portal supports all success criteria defined at WCAG 2.1 AA and WCAG 2.1 A. The WCAG 2.1 AA criteria include requirements such as ensuring that the color contrast of text is 4.5:1, navigation elements are consistent, headings are used in a logical order, captions are provided for live audio and video media, web forms have accurate labels, and content is available on both vertical and horizontal device orientation. Microsoft's accessibility conformance reports are accessible at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/conformance-reports
API: Yes
What users can and can't do using the API: Azure users can set up services and make changes via Microsoft’s API using Azure API Management. To set up a service, users can sign in to the Azure portal, navigate to your API Management instance, and create a resource from the Azure portal menu. Detailed instructions for setting up services are available at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/get-started-create-service-instance
From the API Management section of the Azure Portal, users can make changes using by selecting "Add API" and following the steps listed at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/add-api-manually
There are some limitations when using Azure API Management. For instance, the maximum number of subscription (API Keys) per service instance is 500. Additional API import restrictions are available at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/api-management-api-import-restrictions
API automation tools: Ansible

Chef

OpenStack

SaltStack

Terraform

Puppet
API documentation: Yes
API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)

HTML

Other
Command line interface: Yes
Command line interface compatibility: Linux or Unix

Windows

MacOS
Using the command line interface: The Azure Command-Line Interface (Azure CLI) allows users to interact with Azure services and manage their Azure resources in many ways, including the following:
- Create, update, delete, and manage Azure resources (e.g., virtual machines, storage accounts, web apps, databases, and networks)
- Automate routine tasks (e.g., deploying applications, scaling resources, and configuring networks)
- Integrate with other tools and services (e.g., with Azure DevOps for CI/CD pipelines)
- Using multiple shell environments (e.g., Windows Command Prompt, Bash, PowerShell)
- Learning and understanding Azure services

For more information on Azure CLI's features and capabilities, visit:
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/use-azure-cli-successfully

Scaling

Scaling available: Yes
Scaling type: Automatic

Manual
Independence of resources: Prometheus metrics are collected from Kubernetes clusters including Azure Kubernetes service (AKS) and use industry standard tools for analyzing and alerting such as PromQL and Grafana.
Usage notifications: Yes
Usage reporting: API

Email

Analytics

Infrastructure or application metrics: Yes
Metrics types: CPU

Disk

Memory

Network

Number of active instances
Reporting types: API access

Real-time dashboards

Resellers

Supplier type: Reseller (no extras)
Organisation whose services are being resold: Microsoft

Staff security

Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom

European Economic Area (EEA)

Other locations
User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
Datacentre security standards: Supplier-defined controls
Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0

Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402

Physical access control, complying with another standard

Encryption of all physical media

Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
Data sanitisation process: Yes
Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation

Deleted data can’t be directly accessed

Hardware containing data is completely destroyed
Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Backup and recovery

Backup and recovery: Yes
What’s backed up: Files

Folders

System state

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) - Windows or Linux

Azure Managed Disks

Azure File shares

Databases running on Azure VMs (SQL Server or SAP HANA)

Azure PostgreSQL databases

Azure Blobs (blob storage)

Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible server backup
Backup controls: Role-Based Access Controls (RBACs) allow users to segregate duties within their team and give specific permissions to perform backup tasks. Azure Backup has three built-in roles (Backup Contributor, Backup Operator, and Backup Reader), with the ability to create custom roles.
Azure Backup Policy has two components: Schedule (when to take backup) and Retention (how long to retain backup). You can define the policy based on the type of data that's being backed up, RTO/RPO requirements, operational or regulatory compliance needs and workload type (for example, VM, database, files). For more information, visit: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/guidance-best-practices#backup-policy-considerations
Datacentre setup: Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
Scheduling backups: Users schedule backups through a web interface
Backup recovery: Users can recover backups themselves, for example through a web interface

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: Private network or public sector network

TLS (version 1.2 or above)

IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Other
Other protection between networks: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/explore/trusted-cloud/privacy/
Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Other
Other protection within supplier network: Microsoft provides several options that can be utilised for securing data in transit internally within the Azure network and externally across the Internet to the end user. These include communication through Virtual Private Networks (utilizing IPsec/IKE encryption), Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or later (via Azure components such as Application Gateway or Azure Front Door), protocols directly on Azure virtual machines (such as Windows IPsec or SMB), and more.
Additionally, "encryption by default" using MACsec (an IEEE standard at the data-link layer) is enabled for all Azure traffic traveling between Azure datacentres to ensure confidentiality and integrity of customer data.

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability: Microsoft provides detailed service level agreement (SLA) metrics for all Azure components and services. To review SLAs for individual Azure services, visit https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Service-Level-Agreements-SLA-for-Online-Services
Approach to resilience: Many Azure regions provide availability zones, which are separated groups of datacentres within a region. Availability zones are close enough to have low-latency connections to other availability zones. They're connected by a high-performance network with a round-trip latency of less than 2ms. However, availability zones are far enough apart to reduce the likelihood that more than one will be affected by local outages or weather. Availability zones have independent power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. They're designed so that if one zone experiences an outage, then regional services, capacity, and high availability are supported by the remaining zones. They help your data stay synchronised and accessible when things go wrong. Datacentre locations are selected by using rigorous vulnerability risk assessment criteria.

Furthermore, you have the ability to build high availability into application architecture by co-locating your computer, storage, networking, and data resources within a zone and replicating in other zones. Azure services that support availability zones fall into two categories:
- Zonal services: you pin the resource to a specific zone (e.g.,, virtual machines, managed disks, standard IP addresses), or
- Zone-redundant services: platform replicates automatically across zones (e.g., zone-redundant storage, SQL database)
Outage reporting: Azure Service Health provides you with a customisable dashboard that tracks the health of your Azure services in the regions where you use them. In this dashboard, you can track active events like ongoing service issues, upcoming planned maintenance, or relevant health advisories. When events become inactive, they get placed in your health history for up to 90 days. Finally, you can use the Service Health dashboard to create and manage service health alerts that proactively notify you when service issues affect you. Service Health tracks four types of health events that may impact your resources:
- Service issues: Problems in the Azure services that affect you right now.
- Planned maintenance: Upcoming maintenance that can affect the availability of your services in the future.
- Health advisories: Changes in Azure services that require your attention. Examples include deprecation of Azure features or upgrade requirements (e.g., upgrade to a supported PHP framework).
- Security advisories: Security-related notifications or violations that may affect the availability of your Azure services.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-health/resource-health-overview

- https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status

https://ms.portal.azure.com/#view/Microsoft_Azure_Health/AzureHealthBrowseBlade/~/serviceIssues

Microsoft Azure support also posts notifications on Twitter/X about service-related issues.

Identity and authentication

User authentication: 2-factor authentication

Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)

Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google apps)

Limited access network (for example PSN)

Dedicated link (for example VPN)

Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Data is encrypted at rest, and customers can control their own encryption keys in Azure Key Vault. Access to customer data is not needed to resolve customer support requests. Microsoft engineers rely on logs for customer support. Azure has controls to restrict access to customer data for support and troubleshooting scenarios. i.e. Just-in-Time (JIT) access provisions restrict access to production systems to Microsoft engineers who are authorised to be in that role and were granted temporary access credentials. As part of the support workflow, Microsoft Purview Customer Lockbox puts customers in charge of approving or denying access to customer data.
Access restriction testing frequency: Less than once a year
Management access authentication: 2-factor authentication

Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)

Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)

Limited access network (for example PSN)

Dedicated link (for example VPN)

Username or password
Devices users manage the service through: Directly from any device which may also be used for normal business (for example web browsing or viewing external email)

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
How long user audit data is stored for: User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for: User-defined
How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: The Certification Body of Schellman & Company, LLC
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: November 28, 2023 for Certificate version 13. Original registration date: November 29, 2011
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A
ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
CSA STAR certification: Yes
CSA STAR accreditation date: CSA STAR Certification in 2013
CSA STAR certification level: Level 2: CSA STAR Attestation
What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover: N/A
PCI certification: Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: Coalfire, an independent Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) company
PCI DSS accreditation date: March 15, 2021
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: N/A
Cyber essentials: Yes
Cyber essentials plus: Yes
Other security certifications: Yes
Any other security certifications: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/regulatory/offering-home?view=o365-worldwide

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
Security governance certified: Yes
Security governance standards: CSA CCM version 3.0

ISO/IEC 27001

Other
Other security governance standards: Azure adheres to numerous, rigorous security and compliance standards, including CSA CCM version 3.0, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, FedRAMP, and HITRUST, among others. For more on specific Azure compliance, visit:
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/compliance/
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/explore/trusted-cloud/compliance/
- https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/
Information security policies and processes: An Information Security Policy exists to provide Microsoft staff and contractor staff with a current set of clear and concise Information Security Policies including their roles and responsibilities related to information assets and security. These policies provide direction for the appropriate protection of Microsoft 365. The Information Security Policy has been created as a component of an overall Information Security Management System (ISMS) for Microsoft 365.
https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/

Azure uses the Microsoft Security Policy (MSP) to govern its information systems, which include the following components:
- Infrastructure: Physical and hardware components (facilities, equipment, and networks)
- Software: Programs and operating software (systems, applications, and utilities)
- People: Personnel involved in Azure operation (developers, operators, users, and managers)
- Procedures: Programmed and manual procedures involved in the operation of Azure systems
- Data: Information generated, collected, and processed by Azure systems (transaction streams, files, databases, and tables)

Microsoft's risk management aligns to the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. ERM enables the overall enterprise risk management process and works with management across the enterprise to identify and ensure accountability for Microsoft's most significant risks.

For more information, visit: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/assurance/assurance-governance

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Configuration and change management approach: Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Microsoft Change Management Standard, the Azure Software Change and Release Management SOP, Azure Hardware Change and Release Management SOP.
All changes to the Azure production environment, except pre-approved changes, must go through peer review, oversight committee review, or cross-group review approval. All changes are tracked and documented within the appropriate automated change tracking system. The Azure team updates the Azure SOPs at least annually through a formal review process. Annually, the CST-SE, part of Microsoft Information Risk Management Council (IRMC) has governance for Microsoft’s security policies, conducts a line-by-line review of MSP and MSPP. https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/viewpage/FedRAMP
Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach: Azure uses integrated deployment systems to manage the distribution and installation of security updates for Microsoft software. Azure is able to draw on resources of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). The MSRC identifies, monitors, responds to, and resolves security incidents and cloud vulnerabilities 24x7x365.
Vulnerability scanning is performed on server operating systems, databases, and network devices. The vulnerability scans are performed on a quarterly basis at a minimum. Azure contracts with independent assessors to perform penetration testing of the Azure boundary. Red-team exercises are also routinely performed and the results are used to make security improvements.
Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach: Service teams configure active monitoring tools in accordance with these requirements. Active monitoring tools include the Microsoft Monitoring Agent (MMA) and System Centre Operations Manager.
Azure continuously monitors and detects risk in your organisation, even when devices aren’t connected to the network. Azure uses adaptive machine learning (ML) to detect anomalies and risk detections.
When compromises happen, a security incident management process is coordinated to respond. Microsoft investigates risky users and Azure Monitor activity logs to confirm the compromise and contain.
For a breakdown of initial response times by several level and business impact, please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/response/
Incident management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Incident management approach: A security incident management process for a coordinated response to incidents is used. Unauthorised access to customer data stored on its equipment or facilities, or unauthorised access to equipment or facilities resulting in loss, disclosure, or alteration of customer data, the following actions are taken:
- Promptly notifies the customer of the security incident.
- Promptly investigates the security incident and provides customers detailed information about the security incident.
- Takes reasonable and prompt steps to mitigate the effects and minimise any damage resulting from the security incident.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice: Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Separation between users

Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: Yes
Who implements virtualisation: Supplier
Virtualisation technologies used: Other
Other virtualisation technology used: VMware, Hyper-V, Oracle VM, Red Hat Virtualisation, KVM hypervisor
How shared infrastructure is kept separate: - Tenant Level Isolation: Each Azure subscription associated with one Microsoft Entra directory. Users, groups, and applications from that directory can manage resources in Azure. A Microsoft Entra tenant is isolated using security boundaries so no customer can access or compromise co-tenants.
- Azure Virtual Network (VNet): Azure VNet ensure that each customer’s private network traffic is logically isolated from traffic belonging to other customers.
- Isolated VM Sizes: Azure offers isolated VM sizes that are dedicated to a single customer. Utilising an isolated size guarantees virtual machines is the only one running on specific server instance.

Energy efficiency

Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
Description of energy efficient datacentres: Microsoft datacenters adhere to EU Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in Data Centres by implementing best practices and measures.
Power Utilisation Effectiveness (PUE): The EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres uses PUE as a key metric to assess the overall efficiency of a data centre. PUE represents the ratio of total data centre input power to IT load power. The lower the PUE value, the higher the efficiency of the facility. The ultimate goal is to achieve a PUE close to 1.0, indicating a perfectly efficient data centre where almost all power is delivered to IT equipment.
Monitoring and Improvement: By regularly monitoring PUE, data centre operators identify areas of inefficiency and implement targeted energy-saving measures.
Adoption of Best Practices: The Code of Conduct encourages data center operators and owners to adopt best practices that reduce energy consumption and promote sustainability. These best practices are outlined in a document that is revised annually to include latest technological developments.
Assessment Framework: The Code of Conduct provides auditors with the necessary tools to assess if data centers apply the Practices correctly. This allows market players to complete disclosures for Taxonomy alignment as part of their non-financial reporting without any ambiguity.

Social Value

Fighting climate change
Covid-19 recovery
Wellbeing

Fighting climate change

By adopting cloud-based SaaS products, organisations can remove on-premises infrastructure and reduce their carbon footprint.

Covid-19 recovery

Advanced security management helps organisations better protect themselves against increasing cyber threats, giving peace of mind and reducing risk - to support long-term success from attacks that could case reputational and costly damage.

Wellbeing

Through automations and system integration, staff benefit from reduced time-consuming manual tasks and their time can be better spent on beneficial activities that bring better work satisfaction. With enhanced security protection, staff also have greater peace of mind and less workplace stress.

Pricing

Price: £1 to £10,000 a unit an hour
Discount for educational organisations: No
Free trial available: No

Features

Benefits

Service documents

Framework

Service ID

Contact

Service scope

User support

Onboarding and offboarding

Using the service

Scaling

Analytics

Resellers

Staff security

Asset protection

Backup and recovery

Data-in-transit protection

Availability and resilience

Identity and authentication

Audit information for users

Standards and certifications

Security governance

Operational security

Secure development

Separation between users

Energy efficiency

Pricing

Service documents

Cookies on Digital Marketplace

Managed Microsoft Azure

Features

Benefits

Pricing

Service documents

Framework

Service ID

Contact

Service scope

User support

Onboarding and offboarding

Using the service

Scaling

Analytics

Resellers

Staff security

Asset protection

Backup and recovery

Data-in-transit protection

Availability and resilience

Identity and authentication

Audit information for users

Standards and certifications

Security governance

Operational security

Secure development

Separation between users

Energy efficiency

Social Value

Pricing

Service documents