[AF 2.1] Build Sheet: Cloud-Native Identity for Azure Files
Named groups, real NTFS ACLs, the manifest tag, and the Conditional Access exclusion: the full identity build for an Azure file share with no domain controller.
Aaron
[AF 2] Identity: Who Your File Server Trusts Now
The identity source you pick for Azure Files is a one-per-account authority decision, and the right answer changed in May 2026. The four paths, the device matrix, and the MFA limitation nobody mentions.
[AF 1.1] Build Sheet: Your First Azure File Share
From an empty subscription to a mounted drive letter with Kerberos sign-in, no domain controller required. The starter build for anyone who has never touched Azure Files.
[AF 1] Azure Files: The File Server Question, Re-Asked
The honest answer to "can Azure Files replace my file server" changed in 2026. Here is what the platform actually is now, and the three deployment postures I defend.
[LZ 8.1] Standing Up the Operating Loop
Cost views and budgets by tag, the subscription-vending checklist, the add-a-spoke runbook, and the monthly health and drift checks. The operating loop made concrete, and the final build sheet of the series.
[LZ 8] Grows by Placement, Not Rebuild
The foundation is built; now it is operated and grown. Day-two cost management where the mandatory tags finally pay off, the where-does-new-X-go framework, and the series-closing argument that a real foundation grows by placement, not by rebuild.
[LZ 7.1] Standing Up the Policy Guardrails
Tags and locations assigned in audit, scanned, then promoted to deny; tag inheritance via Modify with remediation; the gateway subnet exempted; the crown jewels protected from deletion; and a test that a non-compliant resource is blocked and a compliant one accepted.
[LZ 7] Where the Tree Starts Saying No
The management-group tree has organized, scoped, and inherited, but it has not yet refused anything. Policy is the enforcement layer: audit before deny, mandatory tags and inheritance, exemptions as designed carve-outs, and the tree finally saying no.
