Build a Security Foundation on Azure That Scales With Your Business
Microsoft Azure provides a powerful but complex security ecosystem — from Entra ID and Defender for Cloud to Sentinel and Azure Policy. RLM helps enterprises design, implement, and operationalize the Azure Security Framework so that identity, data, network, and workload protection work together as a unified security program.
What RLM Delivers on Azure Security Framework
Azure security is not a single product — it's a framework of interconnected services spanning identity, network, data, and workload protection. Most organizations activate a fraction of Azure's security capabilities, leaving critical gaps. RLM advises on the architecture, tooling, and operational model to build a comprehensive Azure security posture.
Entra ID & Zero Trust
Design and harden your Azure identity layer — Entra ID (Azure AD), Conditional Access policies, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), and the Zero Trust architecture that makes identity the new security perimeter.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Activate and tune Defender for Cloud across your Azure subscriptions — Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), workload protection plans, regulatory compliance dashboards, and the security recommendations that prioritize real risk.
Microsoft Sentinel
Deploy and operationalize Sentinel as your cloud-native SIEM — data connector configuration, analytics rules, automated playbooks, and the detection engineering that turns telemetry into actionable security operations.
Azure Policy & Blueprints
Establish guardrails at scale with Azure Policy, Management Groups, and Blueprints — enforcing security baselines, preventing misconfigurations at deployment, and maintaining compliance across subscriptions and resource groups.
Network Security Architecture
Design the Azure network security model — Network Security Groups, Azure Firewall, DDoS Protection, Private Link, and the hub-spoke topology that segments workloads and controls east-west traffic.
Data Protection & Key Management
Protect data at rest and in transit — Azure Key Vault, Azure Information Protection, Microsoft Purview, encryption policies, and the classification framework that ensures sensitive data stays inside your control boundary.
How We Approach Azure Security Framework
A structured advisory process that assesses your current Azure security posture, designs the target architecture, and builds the governance model to sustain it — tailored to your compliance requirements and operational maturity.
Azure Security Posture Assessment
We assess your current Azure environment — subscription structure, Entra ID configuration, Defender for Cloud coverage, network segmentation, and compliance posture against Azure Security Benchmark, CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations, and your applicable regulatory frameworks.
Landing Zone & Governance Design
We design the Azure Landing Zone architecture — Management Group hierarchy, subscription topology, Azure Policy assignments, and the role-based access control (RBAC) model that establishes security guardrails for every team and workload deployed into the environment.
Identity & Access Hardening
We design the Entra ID security configuration — Conditional Access policy matrix, PIM activation workflows, break-glass account procedures, application registration governance, and the identity protection policies that detect and respond to credential-based attacks.
Detection & Response Operations
We deploy the security operations layer — Sentinel workspace architecture, data connector strategy, analytics rule library, automated investigation playbooks, and the incident response workflows that connect Azure-native detection to your SOC team's operational model.
Continuous Compliance & Optimization
We establish the ongoing governance model — Secure Score monitoring, regulatory compliance tracking, policy drift detection, and the quarterly review cadence that keeps your Azure security posture aligned with evolving threats and new Azure capabilities.
Azure Security Framework Evaluation Criteria
These are the dimensions that consistently separate mature Azure security programs from incomplete ones — and the questions RLM will help you answer as you build or evolve your framework.
Identity as the Perimeter
In Azure, identity is the primary control plane. Evaluate the maturity of your Entra ID deployment — Conditional Access coverage, PIM adoption, MFA enforcement, and the application consent governance that prevents OAuth-based attacks.
Defender for Cloud Coverage
Defender for Cloud spans CSPM and workload protection, but plans must be selectively enabled per resource type. Evaluate which Defender plans are active, which subscriptions are covered, and whether security recommendations are being actioned or ignored.
Policy-as-Code Maturity
Azure Policy prevents misconfigurations before they're deployed. Evaluate your policy coverage — built-in vs. custom policies, audit vs. deny enforcement modes, and whether policy exemptions are tracked and reviewed on a regular cadence.
Sentinel Operational Depth
Deploying Sentinel is not the same as operationalizing it. Evaluate data connector coverage, analytics rule quality, false positive tuning, automated playbook maturity, and whether mean-time-to-detect and mean-time-to-respond metrics are tracked and improving.
Network Segmentation
Flat Azure networks are a common finding. Evaluate your hub-spoke architecture, NSG rule hygiene, Azure Firewall deployment, Private Link adoption for PaaS services, and whether east-west traffic between workloads is inspected and controlled.
Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Visibility
Most enterprises run more than Azure. Evaluate whether your security tooling provides consistent visibility across Azure, on-premises, and other cloud environments — particularly for identity, workload protection, and compliance reporting.
"RLM helped us build a security program that satisfied our board and our auditors — without locking us into a single vendor's roadmap. Their independence is the whole point."
We stay involved through implementation, because selection is the easy half.
Where This Matters Most
Sector-specific considerations we see repeatedly in security engagements.
A Sample of the Security Providers We Evaluate
RLM is vendor neutral. These are among 600+ providers in our evaluation set — inclusion here is not an endorsement, and we are paid by the provider you choose, not by any provider in particular. How that works →
Thinking About Azure Security Framework?
Start with a no-cost conversation with an RLM security advisor — we'll assess your current Azure security framework, identify the gaps, and build a roadmap to close them.
Talk to a Security Advisor