If you have worked with Microsoft Azure for any length of time, you will appreciate the value of great network topology diagrams. Azure 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?

When you are building cloud based applications and networks on AWS, there are many compelling reasons why you would want to accurately diagram and document your AWS infrastructure. Knowing exactly what is running based on the actual resources configured in your AWS environments is probably the number one reason to use an automated AWS infrastructure diagram generator over manually drawing diagrams yourself using a drag and drop process.

With the wide adoption of containers as a method of rapidly deploying software applications to the cloud, the need to visualise workloads has been gaining momentum. The need to see the status of pods and tasks in container clusters is a major benefit when you visualise containerised workloads on an interactive diagram.

Hava has always generated diagrams for traditional compute VPCs and virtual networks and for a long time has also automatically generated AWS ECS Cluster diagrams when clusters are detected in a connected AWS account.

The ability to diagram other containerised workloads, particularly the market leading Kubernetes  has now been added to the core functionality of Hava so you can now view AWS EKS Kubernetes clusters, Azure Kubernetes Clusters (AKS), Google Kubernetes Clusters (GKE) and also stand alone Kubernetes Clusters 

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

If you are building solutions on Microsoft Azure, at some point you'll want to draw some Azure architecture diagrams 

When you have accurate and up to date architecture 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.

Accurate up to date diagrams also let you know that your network has been built in line with your design.

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 draw them, which is why it's better to consider generating them instead. 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. Cloud engineers almost always don't have the time or motivation to sit down and draw Azure architecture diagrams. Who doesn't 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 Azure 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 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.