Short answer
An Azure landing zone is the foundation your workloads move into: networking, identity, tagging and a security baseline, designed before any migration waves start. FirstNet designs the landing zone and usually moves a first non-production workload to prove the pattern, typically over 4 to 8 weeks.
In detail
Why it comes first:
- Networking: connectivity and segmentation are in place before production traffic arrives
- Identity: access is tied to Microsoft Entra ID, with MFA and conditional access
- Security baseline: workloads land in an environment that is already secured
- Tagging: applied from the start, so cost tracking and optimisation are useful later
- Budgets: alerts at 50%, 80% and 100% of spend are set by default
Building the landing zone first avoids retrofitting security and cost controls after workloads are already running. Once the pattern is proven, migration waves follow, whether that means lift-and-shift of VMs, a move to platform services, or a mix of both, with FinOps from day one.
FirstNet delivers this as a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider and Solutions Partner, so one team owns both the migration plan and the Azure licensing. After migration, you receive a monthly consumption summary and a quarterly optimisation review, and Reservations or Savings Plans are applied once usage is steady.
Source: FirstNet Cloud Migration & Modernization service page →
Didn’t answer your question?