Overview
Innovate anywhere with Azure
- Build, manage, and secure apps on any Kubernetes platform and use existing tools such as Visual Studio Code and GitHub with consistent APIs.
- Accelerate app innovation, improve operations with AI and machine learning, and deploy SQL and PostgreSQL on any cloud.
- Enhance multicloud security and compliance with cloud-based threat detection and response, security patches, and policies.
- Meet data residency needs with a range of infrastructure options and simplify edge computing for low-latency apps.
Use cases
Extend management, infrastructure, and services
Hybrid and multicloud management
Bring the latest Azure security and governance services to workloads anywhere with an agentless multicloud connector.
Infrastructure and virtualization
Streamline lifecycle management across VMware, Azure Local, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM).
Applications and data services
Deploy Azure containers, data, and app services in datacenters and at the edge.
CAPABILITIES
Innovate on an adaptive cloud
Deploy Windows Server 2025 directly from Azure with new, unique capabilities enabled by Azure Arc.
Generate customer dashboards, manage instances at scale, and bring modern identity and access management to SQL Server.
Manage and secure Hyper-V datacenters, orchestrate patching, monitor workloads, and govern with Azure Arc
capabilities specifically for System Center.
capabilities specifically for System Center.
Discover the value of preparing your cloud environment for AI with a migration and best practice assessment for
your Azure Arc–connected workloads.
your Azure Arc–connected workloads.
Create a consistent platform for Kubernetes clusters by running Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and third-party
Kubernetes anywhere.
Kubernetes anywhere.
Security
Built-in security and compliance
Microsoft has committed to investing $20 billion in cybersecurity over five years.
We employ more than 8,500 security and threat intelligence experts across 77 countries.
Azure has one of the largest compliance certification portfolios in the industry.
PRICING
Azure Arc pricing
Azure Arc provides select inventory and capabilities for free. There are charges for additional Azure services such as security, observability, and extended security updates.
Related products
Innovate anywhere with Azure adaptive cloud solutions and products
Explore adaptive cloud products and solutions and discover cloud-native and AI technologies that work simultaneously across hybrid, multicloud, edge, and IoT.
CUSTOMER STORIES
Learn from real Azure Arc customers
Leading in cloud-to-edge innovations
See why Microsoft was named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Strategic Cloud
Platform Services (SCPS).
Platform Services (SCPS).
Resources
Azure Arc resources
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- Azure Arc is a bridge that extends the Azure platform to help you build applications and services with the flexibility to run across datacenters, at the edge, and in multicloud environments. It provides a centralized, unified way to manage your entire environment by projecting your existing on-premises, edge, and multicloud resources into Azure Resource Manager so you have a single control plane to manage, govern, and secure your VMs, databases, Kubernetes clusters, and other cloud resources. Azure Arc can also help you deploy both management and PaaS services into your environments, like Microsoft Defender for Cloud or Azure Kubernetes Service.
- Azure Arc works by connecting your on-premises, multicloud, and edge resources to Azure, which creates resources in Azure that represent the actual resources. This allows you to manage virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, and databases as if they are running in Azure, using familiar Azure services and management capabilities, while the workload itself remains in its current environment. Azure Arc offers both agentless and agent-based connections.
- Azure Arc simplifies governance and management by delivering a consistent multicloud and on-premises management platform. It allows you to implement consistent inventory, management, governance, and security for servers across your environment, manage and govern Kubernetes clusters at scale, and run Azure data services on any Kubernetes environment as if it runs in Azure. You can also run traditional license-based products like SQL Server in a pay-as-you-go plan with Azure Arc.
- To get started with Azure Arc, check out Azure Arc Jumpstart, which comes with prebuilt scenarios and demo environments.
Azure Arc lets you manage Windows and Linux physical servers and virtual machines hosted outside of Azure on your corporate network or other cloud provider. The management of hybrid machines in Azure Arc is designed to be consistent with how you manage native Azure virtual machines, using standard Azure constructs such as Azure Policy and applying tags. - See a list of specialized partners.
- Azure Arc–enabled Kubernetes works with any Kubernetes clusters certified by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). This includes clusters running on other public cloud providers (such as GCP or AWS) and clusters running on your on-premises datacenter (such as VMware vSphere or Hyper-V). See a list of supported Kubernetes distributions.
- Azure Arc–enabled Kubernetes delivers configuration management and application deployment from Azure using GitOps. Take a tutorial.
- Azure Arc supports servers running anywhere—on-premises and in any cloud. These include Windows and Linux, physical and virtual, domain-joined and nondomain-joined servers. See a list of supported Windows versions and Linux distributions. Learn more about Azure Arc–enabled servers.
- Azure Arc complies with many compliance certifications specific to global regions and countries, such as the US, the European Union, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, and others. Additionally, Azure Arc meets requirements for industries such as healthcare, government, finance, manufacturing, and other industries. See the full list of compliance offerings here in the Azure Portal compliance offerings center.
- In most cases, the location you select when you create the installation script should be the Azure region geographically closest to your machine's location. Data at rest is stored within the Azure geography containing the region you specify, which may also affect your choice of region if you have data residency requirements. For a list of supported regions with Azure Arc–enabled servers, see the Azure products by region page.
- Azure Arc is offered at no additional cost for basic management of Azure Arc–enabled servers and Kubernetes, though there are charges for add-on Azure management services such as our security and governance services. Most services are typically priced at a per-server, per-month rate. See the Azure Arc pricing page for more details.
- You can learn to use Azure Arc through various resources such as the Microsoft Learn Learning Path called "Bring Azure innovation to your hybrid environments with Azure Arc." Additionally, the Azure Arc Jumpstart project provides technical, hands-on experience scenarios to help you get started.
Next steps
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- [1]The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Azure Arc With Cloud-Based Management Services: Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled by Azure Arc, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, 2025.
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