When you work with Microsoft Azure, you no doubt appreciate the value of great network topology diagrams. Good network infrastructure diagrams provide a visual cue for better communication and understanding of your azure cloud infrastructure at all levels of your organisation, from management down to freshly onboarded engineers and consultants. But should you draw Azure diagrams yourself, or automate the process?

As a cloud professional working with Microsoft Azure, you no doubt appreciate the value of great network topology diagrams. Azure diagrams provide a visual cue for better communication and understanding of your cloud infrastructure at all levels of your organisation, from management down to freshly onboarded engineers and consultants.

If you are building solutions on Microsoft Azure, you'll almost certainly want to know your network has been built in line with your design which often leads to the need to create Azure diagrams.

When you have accurate and up to date network topology diagrams on hand it enables you to visually explain your network infrastructure to both your engineering and operations team and also provide management with an easy to understand representation of what you are building and managing. If you are onboarding new engineers, or engaging external consultants, you can bring them up to speed very quickly with a well laid out Azure network topology diagram.

The problem with traditional diagrams has always been the time it takes to create them. If you use manual drag and drop diagram software or drawing packages like Microsoft Visio the process can take forever which is why up to date Azure network topology diagrams are rarely on hand. Engineers rarely have the time or motivation to sit down and create Azure diagrams. They generally have far more important or pressing issues to work on.

This is where you can leverage Hava to help you create Azure diagrams.

If you are taking on a new client or development project, having access to infrastructure documentation is a massive advantage when trying to understand exactly what is running on your network. Come to think of it, with the complex nature of cloud consoles and network configurations you may be surprised at what you have running in your existing infrastructure.

Back in the day our team provided expert cloud consulting services. When we took on a new client, diagramming the new client's infrastructure was always the first job in the process. It was always, without exception, time consuming, laborious but necessary in establishing exactly what was going on in the client's cloud accounts prior to starting work on improving or redesigning the network infrastructure.

When you are working with Azure cloud computing infrastructure in your role as a DevOps engineer, there are many benefits to creating and maintaining accurate Microsoft Azure diagrams.

You can effectively communicate your Azure network design to both technical DevOps staff, developers and also management where necessary.  If you are onboarding new DevOps engineers, or engaging external consultants, you can bring them up to speed very quickly with a well laid out accurate infrastructure diagram.

If you are taking on a new client, application or project, having access to detailed infrastructure documentation is a massive advantage when trying to understand exactly what is running where. Back in our cloud consulting days, diagramming a new client's infrastructure was always the first job in the on-boarding process. It was often time consuming, laborious but necessary in establishing exactly what was going on prior to starting work on improving or redesigning infrastructure.

One of the diagrams that is automatically generated when you connect your AWS account to Hava is the AWS Container View. 

Network diagrams are only of any practical use if they are up to date. Being able to visualize your cloud network "live" gives you the best chance of identifying problems especially if you are in the middle of an outage or your application is experiencing unexpected performance issues.

AWS network topology diagrams are used for many important tasks. Depending on your role, you will most likely be interested in the elements on the diagram that you are responsible for.

A well laid out Google Cloud diagram is an important tool for managing and communicating the design and implementation of your GCP architecture.