Azure Arc

Azure Arc is Microsoft’s hybrid and multi-cloud management platform that extends Azure’s control plane to any infrastructure—on-premises data centers, edge locations, AWS, Google Cloud, or other environments. It allows organizations to organize, govern, and secure servers, Kubernetes clusters, and data services (SQL Server, PostgreSQL) as if they were native Azure resources. With Azure Arc-enabled servers, you can apply Azure Policy, RBAC, Update Management, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and Azure Monitor to Windows/Linux machines anywhere, while Arc-enabled Kubernetes supports GitOps-based configuration management via Azure Arc-enabled Data Services and Cluster API integrations.

In 2025, Azure Arc has become essential for enterprises running hybrid and distributed workloads. It simplifies governance at scale with inventory, tagging, Azure Resource Manager projection, and unified Log Analytics, while supporting advanced scenarios like VMware vSphere and Azure Stack HCI integration, machine learning on edge via Arc-enabled Machine Learning, and running Azure data services (Azure SQL Managed Instance, PostgreSQL Hyperscale) outside Azure datacenters. Whether you’re modernizing legacy infrastructure, building edge/IoT solutions, or maintaining consistency across multi-cloud environments, Azure Arc delivers a single Azure-native experience with no additional licensing cost for core management features.