The Azure Cloud Native Architecture Mapbook: Explore Microsoft Cloud's infrastructure, application, data, and security architecture

In my opinion when a book is filled with spelling errors, acronyms not spelled out for the first time and other nonsense I wonder about the technical accuracy. I couldn’t make it past page 8 without encountering errors in this book. Get an editor. Have the editor actually look at your text and diagrams before publishing. If you did employ an editor, fire them and get a new one.

Have you ever taken a browse through the available resources in Azure and noticed that there appear to be many solutions for similar problem domains? Have you ever wondered which resources work well together for a particular solution, and the criteria for choosing them? The Azure Cloud Native Architecture Mapbook takes a hearty swing at providing some answers. Although primarily targeted at Azure Architects, the book is also very useful for the developer. The book is broken into 3 sections and 8 total chapters. 1. The first section focuses on Solutions and Infrastructure and is approximately 50% of the book. I was initially surprised that the first chapter started with an overview of various architect roles but, as the author stated, he has seen turf wars between roles that can be avoided by understanding the broader picture. For me, the most useful part of the first chapter was the introduction to the Azure architecture maps - I found these to be a very useful visual aid that helps quickly identify the available services and components for a solution and how they relate. The remainder of the section dives into various Solution Architectures, approaches to Infrastructure Design, and how to approach Infrastructure Deployment using Infrastructure as Code. Each solution starts with a Map, which is then explored to a level where you can feel confident in choosing the correct service for the problem at hand. Following on, a number of concrete use cases are discussed that help assist in the creation of reference architectures for various scenarios. 2. The second section focuses on patterns for building distributed architectures, focusing on application, data and security. Each of high-level topics has a chapter dedicated to it and revisits the Maps from section 1, drilling down into specific areas and then discussing relevant design patterns. I found this approach useful as, instead of proposing a "one-size-fits-no-one" style solution, each case is discussed and the reasons for choosing one approach versus another is analyzed. This helps the reader construct a solution tailored to their needs. 3. The final section is shorter than the other two and summaries the architectures discussed earlier, but presents them in the context of uses cases drawn from many industries. This section is full of links to external Microsoft Azure Architecture documentation that explores the industry scenarios in more depth. Overall, I found the book to be a great standalone resource that also acts as a gateway to the documentation on Microsoft's architecture site. I will refer to it often as I build my solutions.

The book is a complete map of azure services, which drives you to the selection of the more adequate services for your needs and constraints. Maps are explained with examples and look at Azure Services from several perspectives, so that solutions arise as intersection points of choices performed in various maps. I found particularly useful the chapters on infrastructures. However, the map book is complete and contains also detailed maps about application, security, and data services. While there are interesting zoom-in on several technical details, examples are described mainly from a Solution Architect perspective. The book is not for beginners, but for people that already know at least the language of modern cloud technology, some concepts are explained with enough detail, but others like microservices and Kubernetes are not and it is assumed that the reader already knows them. About 70-00 pages more for giving a better description of all technologies described in the maps would have improved the book, a lot. This is the only reason why I give 4 stars instead of 5.

This book provides sage advice I feel is rather uncommon in today's culture of attention span deficits. I guess I’ve read so many “simple example” books that it is just so refreshing to see wisdom from industry veterans like Stephane Eyskens and Ed Price being shared in this format. As an old-school application architect committed to lifetime learning and career progression, I believe this book definitely helps me keep up to date. There is so much information here and I can tell the authors must have worked incredibly hard to go above and beyond with all this material. I think this book is best suited for mid-level developers that really want to take their knowledge to the next level; probably not for beginners. The recipes for how to move from vision to a structured strategy, to an organized solution are made available. The mysteries of all those specialized services in the cloud are explored. This content really helps developers grasp the broader picture to leverage modern cloud capabilities, not just replicate old, familiar, habits. To me, this knowledge is exactly what employers are looking for in their search for candidates that match requisites for high-paying full-stack developer jobs. Unfortunately, work got a bit busy here, and I still have a couple of chapters remaining to finish. However, I’m just so impressed that these guys were willing and able to share this level of knowledge that I want to write this review now. Thank-you for inspiring me to up my game!

Very impressive. This is one of those rare books that manages to cover a broad range of services while diving deep into specific technologies. If you want to quickly get a high level overview over different Azure storage options, the maps are an extremely effective way to gaining a quick understanding of what Azure has to offer (see reference picture). The corresponding text to the maps is clear and simple, and allows you to determine if the technology should be further investigate your particular scenario. I would recommend this book for senior developers, architects, and designers. The practical scenarios are, as the should be, used to support the maps and provide context. They are not to gain a deep understanding; that would require a volume of books. My only warning would be to recognize the title: Azure Cloud Native. This is not targeted for legacy or hybrid application development but for building distributed, modern applications. There is great insight into Kubernetes, Durable Functions, DAPR, and other technologies more suited for microservice architecture.

Didn’t come in a plastic tight sleeve.

Although the target may be Architects and Developers even a beginner could get great insights from the Map-based approach. The Cloud service models map provides a great way to get an overall "picture" of azure services and how they relate to each other. Even for the experienced Engineer or Developer, sections like "Using a simple approach to an IaC factory" contain concise and actionable guidance. Beginners should realize "The Azure Cloud Native Architecture Mapbook" is quite comprehensive, so this could be a reference they get more out of as they learn. I am already leveraging "The Azure Cloud Native Architecture Mapbook" in my day-to-day work.

The Azure Cloud Native Architecture MapBook is a tome about Azure services. What I liked about the book: • Responsibilities of a Solutions Architect • Covers IaaS, PaaS and Data platforms • High level overviews of each of the services • Some hands-on examples about applications/data/infrastructure What is missing from the book: • In-depth treatments of any of the services What can be improved in this book • Further references or recommendations to books, labs, documentation, etc. for in-depth understanding of a service Summary This book is catered towards technical folks who need to understand the high level capabilities of Azure and the services within as well as how some of them may fit together to deliver a solution.

The book is so informative. I would have loved coloured pictures in the printed version.