If an Azure Landing Zone is your perfectly dialled-in espresso shot, then extending it to hybrid and multicloud environments is like adding a splash of milk and foam—smooth integration, but balance is everything.
Enterprises rarely live in a single-cloud world anymore, and Microsoft’s Azure Landing Zone (ALZ) blueprint is evolving to embrace this complexity with hybrid and multicloud patterns.

As cloud estates span data centres, AWS, and private clusters, it’s no longer enough for ALZ design areas to stop at the Azure boundary. In this post, we’ll unpack how to seamlessly extend the ALZ approach beyond Azure—while keeping consistent governance, security, and observability in the mix, and respecting the special conditions of Sovereign Landing Zones (SLZs).

What is Hybrid and Multicloud Extension of an ALZ?

Hybrid and multicloud extension refers to applying Azure Landing Zone design principles and controls to resources that sit outside Azure, such as on-premises servers or workloads hosted in AWS or Google Cloud.

The Azure Landing Zone concept—rooted in the Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF)—includes governance, operations, networking, and identity. Extending these patterns ensures non‑Azure resources are equally governed, monitored, and secured under a unified control plane.

Microsoft achieves this through services such as:

• Azure Arc – Extends Azure Resource Manager (ARM) to physical or virtual resources hosted anywhere.
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud connectors – Bring AWS and GCP accounts under unified security posture management.
• Microsoft Entra ID – Provides consistent identity and Conditional Access across platforms.
• Automation & DevOps Pipelines – Landing Zone accelerators built with Bicep or Terraform can enforce governance continuously.
• Sovereign Landing Zones (SLZs) – Variants of ALZ optimised for compliance, regulatory restrictions, and regional data sovereignty, particularly relevant for defence and public organisations.

How It Works

Extending ALZ beyond Azure involves connecting external resources to the Azure control plane via Azure Arc, applying existing management groups, policies, and role assignments to them, and orchestrating deployments through automation pipelines.

Architecture Overview

Design Area Alignment

Real‑World Impact

For most enterprise environments, hybrid isn’t a transition—it’s the new default.

Take a state government agency required to meet local data residency and IRAP compliance. They operate on Azure Australia Central, host sensitive datasets on an on‑premises secure enclave, and leverage AWS for public‑facing digital services.
By enabling Azure Arc, Defender multicloud connectors, and unified Entra ID, the agency enforces consistent governance through a single ALZ hierarchy while maintaining jurisdictional controls per SLZ mandates.

Their compliance posture—aligned with Australian Government ISM and DTA Hosting Certification—is visible in one place, enabling continuous compliance without separate operational silos.

Implementation Examples

Azure Portal: High-Level Steps

1. In Azure Portal, go to Azure Arc → Servers → Add.
2. Download and install the Arc agent on any non‑Azure machine.
3. The resource appears in your subscription under the correct management group.
4. Enable Defender for Servers or Defender for Containers for extended protection.
5. Apply Azure Policy guest configuration for ongoing compliance.
6. Deploy automation pipelines (e.g., Bicep via GitHub Actions) to enforce governance continuously.

Bicep Example

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param arcServerName string
param location string = resourceGroup().location
param policyAssignmentName string
param policyDefinitionId string
param policyScope string = resourceGroup().id

resource arcServer 'Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines@2022-08-11' = {
  name: arcServerName
  location: location
  properties: {
    osName: 'Linux'
    osVersion: 'Ubuntu20.04'
  }
}

resource policyAssignment 'Microsoft.Authorization/policyAssignments@2022-06-01' = {
  name: policyAssignmentName
  properties: {
    displayName: 'Arc Server Security Baseline'
    policyDefinitionId: policyDefinitionId
    scope: policyScope
  }
}

module platformAutomation '../modules/alz-pipelines.bicep' = {
  name: 'deploy-pipelines'
  params: {
    mgScope: subscription().id
  }
}

This sample ties Arc registration and policy assignment together, then references a reusable ALZ automation module for deployment pipelines.

Sovereign Cloud Integration Examples

For Sovereign Landing Zones, especially in Azure Australia Central, Azure Government, or Azure China, there are additional steps:

• Use private or restricted connectivity for all Arc agent communications—via Private Link or approved egress proxies.
• Deploy monitoring and Defender instances within each sovereign region to maintain data residency.
• Configure regional Log Analytics workspaces and local Sentinel instances to avoid telemetry export breaches.
• Align resource tagging and policy definitions with your compliance framework—e.g., IRAP, ISO 27001, or Essential Eight maturity goals.

Gotchas & Edge Cases

• Latency and agent dependencies: Arc‑enabled servers need outbound connectivity to regional Azure endpoints—tricky in sovereign or air‑gapped environments.
• RBAC and PIM gaps: Temporary elevation or mismatched role definitions can break automation. Sync identity definitions and enforce PIM controls.
• Disconnected or restricted SLZs: Some configuration scripts assume public Azure endpoints; pre‑validate management URLs for sovereign clouds.
• Policy drift: Multicloud connectors may introduce lag in policy or Defender posture reporting.
• Automation scope: When deploying landing zones via pipelines, ensure identity permissions span hybrid management groups and subscriptions.

Best Practices

• Centralise policy at management group level – Create a contoso-hybrid node under your ALZ hierarchy for hybrid assets.
• Enforce least privilege through Entra ID and PIM, including workload identities for automation accounts.
• Use Arc for Servers, Kubernetes, and SQL to maximise telemetry and control plane reach.
• Deploy landing zone accelerators via CI/CD pipelines, using the official ALZ Bicep modules or Terraform equivalents.
• Segment sovereign workloads into their own subscriptions, mapped to regional constraints.
• Operate monitoring regionally – Keep logs and data within sovereign or regulated regions.
• Continuously review Defender connectors and APIs to align with provider updates.

Learn More

• Azure Landing Zone architecture
• Azure Arc overview
• Defender for Cloud multicloud connectors
• Azure Policy Guest Configuration
• ALZ Bicep Accelerator GitHub repo
• Sovereign Landing Zone Design
• Azure Australia Central regions
• Microsoft Compliance offerings