An Azure infrastructure described entirely in code, with virtual desktops, monitoring and budget guardrails.

The context

Environments had to be built from nothing, and had to be reproducible rather than clicked together in a portal: same networks, same rules, same monitoring every time. Remote access to Windows desktops was also needed, and billing drift had to be avoided on a usage-based cloud.

What we delivered

  • Terraform infrastructure as code written from scratch: virtual machines, networks and filtering rules versioned alongside the rest of the project
  • Azure Virtual Desktop workstations, giving remote access without shipping hardware
  • Centralised monitoring through Log Analytics, with alert rules on host health and load
  • Azure budget alerts, to catch cost drift before the invoice
  • Post-installation configuration of Windows hosts automated with Ansible playbooks over WinRM

Outcomes

  • A complete environment can be recreated from code, with no manual configuration in the Azure portal
  • Host health and load visible in one place, with alerts raised before saturation
  • Billing drift flagged by budget alerts rather than discovered at month end

Tech stack

Microsoft Azure · Azure Virtual Desktop · Terraform · Ansible · Log Analytics · PowerShell · Shell