fbpx

Generate Azure Diagrams with the Help of Cloudockit

AUTHOR

Pascal Bonheur

February 2020 – Reviewed September 2022

Cloudockit allows you to automatically generate your Azure Architecture diagrams in editable formats with Visio, Draw.io, and Lucidchart. Stop wasting time and effort manually creating and updating your diagrams. Cloudockit will do the work for you!

How does it work?

Once you connect your Microsoft Azure environment with our software, Cloudockit can scan your whole cloud architecture and outline it automatically into a complete and editable Azure diagram.

The steps are simple: You log into your Azure Subscription and Cloudockit will leverage the Azure native API to retrieve all your resources and the links between them.

Quickly understand the dependencies between your Microsoft Azure components

Here are some benefits of gaining a general perspective of your Azure environment:

    • Having an overview of all the dependencies
    • Easily narrowing down the vision for a more detailed look
    • Viewing the Virtual Network and the Subnet used by a specific Virtual Machine
    • Finding immediately all the information you are looking for

Cloudockit generates Azure diagrams targeted at specific audiences

Based on your valued feedback, Cloudockit has been fine-tuning its diagramming software since 2013. Our team understands your needs better than ever.

We know that diagrams need to be tailored to specific audiences: no single diagram will answer everyone’s needs. Therefore, instead of creating a single generic diagram, Cloudockit builds different types of diagrams targeted at different reader profiles.

Below, you will find our 5 most popular Azure architecture diagrams.

Virtual Machine Azure Diagram

The diagram below shows Virtual Machines and dependencies with Networking components (Virtual Network, Network Interface Cards, etc.) and storage (Storage Account, Managed Disks, etc.).

App Services Diagram

This Azure network diagram is handy for developers working with App Services. They can see the dependencies with components like SQL Databases, Storages, Event Hubs, Service Bus, Cosmos DB, etc.

Resource Groups Azure Diagram

Compared to the previous Azure architecture diagrams, which are organized per type of Workload, this one uses the logical grouping provided by Resource Groups. You simply generate a tab per resource group.

Global Diagrams

Cloudockit also generates global diagrams that contain everything in your Azure subscription. The global Azure network diagram shows an overview of all the resources in your Azure subscription. It is also a good starting point if you have a messy environment you want to clean up. Cloudockit automatically generates two types of global diagrams: one with all the details and the other with a high-level overview.

Cloudockit’s Azure diagram generator will save you time and money

Try it for free

Compatible with Visio, Draw.io, and Lucidchart

Cloudockit is compatible with diagrams.net, Lucidchart, and Visio, the three most popular diagramming tools on the market. We leverage plenty of their built-in features as we firmly believe you should not waste time learning to use new diagramming tools.

We also give you the option of generating your diagrams as PDF files which can be easily shared with team members or management.

Leverage Azure Diagrams Advanced Features

Use Shapes Data

Cloudockit automatically embeds data into the Shapes it generates. You can use this data to see each component’s details and generate rules in Visio.

A good example would be to create a rule where you show a Red icon for virtual machines in the stopped state, and a green icon for virtual machines in the running state.

Use layering

Cloudockit lets you choose the information you want to display: you can group elements and select the layers you would like to show. For example, if you find the architecture diagrams are too challenging to read because of the NSG icons, you can hide the layer and improve your workflow.

Use Scheduling

You probably do not want to manually start a diagram generation every single time you change something in your Azure environment.

That is where Cloudockit’s built-in Scheduling feature comes in handy! Simply create a new Automation Profile. Choose when you want to schedule the generation of your architecture diagrams, and you are all set!

Use Tags

Cloudockit allows you to choose a tag to represent your business Application. It will automatically create Visio Azure diagrams, using a Tab for each Azure Application, without the need for a script.

Cloudockit also lets you extract the Business Application based on Regex, the resource names, or resource group names.

Keep your Azure Diagrams Close to the Documentation

A diagram is an excellent way to visualize your Azure components. However, you can also greatly benefit from solid technical reports to better understand and monitor your cloud infrastructure—especially if they include diagrams.

    • Easily obtain all details relevant to your cloud and on-prem applications and components, like load balancers, VMs, virtual networks, EC2, Azure SQL, etc. in a Word, PDF and/or HTLM document containing diagrams
    • Visualize your detailed cloud spending for every resource
    • Pinpoint misconfigurations and potential security or compliance issues
    • Track the changes in your cloud infrastructure since your last document generation
    • Customize your documentation with your own branding

As you can see, technical documentation no longer has to be a tedious, rigid and time-consuming manual process. Let your staff focus on what provides the most value.

Learn more

Here’s a sample of a technical report containing cloud architecture diagrams: