Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Pradeep Ayyappan Nair

Thomas Keane

Ramnath Prasad

Chetan S Shankar

Thomas Charles Knudson

Sandeep Kalarickal

Pavan Gopal Bandla

Chi Zhou

Albert Gordon Greenberg

David A Maltz

Parvez Anandam

Veena Ramachandran

Ranajoy Sanyal

Qingsu Wu

Lihua Yuan

Maksim Libenson

Jason Ward

Rajesh Korada

Mike Kippen

William Bartholomew

Izabella Lankerovich

Doug Kirschner

Ryan Meyer

Karthik Palanivel

David Michael Sauntry

Peter Gregg Miller

Rashid Michael Aga

LiLei Cui

Somak Chattopadhyay

Qin Zhou

Tyler S Wiegers

Sandeep Koushik Sheshadri

Margus Janese

Mario Mett

Percy Fitter

Mark Hennessy

Mohammad Qudeisat

Deepal Jayasinghe

George Chen

Sandeep Kalarickal S

Maisem Ali

Lilei Cui

Tom Keane

Siddhartha Pasumarthy

Shont Miller

Lu Jin

Maria Black

Elaine Lu

Damien Gallot

Christopher Geisbush

Aaron Keith Rosenfeld

Shikhar Suri

Sharda Murthi

Sudharshan Reddy Bommu

Network management of cloud computing environments subject to different data control policies is standardized in a manner that ensures compliance with the data control policies. An execution service remote from a cloud computing environment being managed implements workflows to manage different aspects of the cloud computing environment, including monitoring, incident management, deployment, and/or buildout. The execution service issues requests to perform management actions for network devices in the cloud computing environment. A device access service in the cloud computing environments receives the requests, and, in response to the requests, the device access service obtains access control data to access the network devices and perform the requested management actions for the network devices.

Standardization of network management across cloud computing environments and data control policies

Methods, systems, and computer storage media for providing escorted-access management based on an escort-admin session engine are provided. The escort-admin session engine approves an external administrator's access to a resource instance based on a service team policy, while approving an escort operator to escort the external administrator in an escort-admin session that provides access to the resource. In operation, an external administrator's request for access to a resource is evaluated based on the service team policy that is managed by a service team. The request is approved with access rights to the resource identified in the policy. An escort operator is identified for the external administrator. The escort operator is approved to escort the external administrator for access to the resource during an escort-admin session. The escort-admin session includes an escort operator context referring to the escort operator having access rights based on the access rights approved using the policy.

Access management system with an escort-admin session engine

A JIT service in a cloud computing environment manages just-in-time access to resources in the cloud computing environment for an external device. When JIT access to a resource is requested by a device, the JIT service retrieves a JIT policy for the resource that includes geolocation criteria limiting the geolocation from which JIT access can be automatically granted. The geolocation of the device is evaluated against the geolocation criteria. If the geolocation criteria and any other criteria of the JIT policy are satisfied, the JIT service provisions JIT access to the resource for the device.

Just-in-time access based on geolocation to maintain control of restricted data in cloud computing environments

A JIT service in a cloud computing environment manages just-in-time access to resources in the cloud computing environment for an external device. When JIT access to a resource is requested by a device, the JIT service retrieves a JIT policy for the resource that includes screening criteria limiting automatic granting of JIT access to users who meet the screening criteria. Screening information for a user associated with the request is evaluated against one or more screening requirements set forth by the screening criteria. If the screening criteria and any other criteria of the JIT policy are satisfied, the JIT service provisions JIT access to the resource for the device.

Just-in-time access based on screening criteria to maintain control of restricted data in cloud computing environments

Network buildout of cloud computing environments subject to different data control policies is performed in a manner that ensures compliance with the data control policies. A buildout service is located in a remote cloud computing environment separate from the cloud computing environments at which buildout is being performed. The buildout service implements workflows to manage different aspects of network buildout in the cloud computing environments. The buildout service does not have access to restricted data in the cloud computing environments, including access control data, such that the buildout service cannot directly interact with network devices. The buildout service issues requests for device configuration to hardware proxies in the cloud computing environments. In response to the requests, the hardware proxies obtain access control data to access and configure the network devices.

Network buildout for cloud computing environments with data control policies

Network management of cloud computing environments subject to different data control policies is standardized in a manner that ensures compliance with the data control policies. Executions services and source of truth services are located in a remote cloud computing environment separate from the cloud computing environments being managed. The execution services implement workflows to manage different aspects of the cloud computing environments, including monitoring, incident management, deployment, and buildout. The source of truth services provide network configuration information for the cloud computing environments to allow automated operation of the execution services. The execution services issue requests for management operations to device access services in the cloud computing environments. In response to the requests, the device access services obtain access control data to access the network devices and perform the management operations.

Releases to the production environment of a cloud computing environment are deployed in a manner that maintains control over restricted data and the data plane of the cloud computing environment. A DevOps personnel is tasked with developing the release. However, the DevOps personnel is not authorized to deploy the release to the cloud computing environment because the DevOps personnel does not have access to restricted data in the cloud computing environment or the ability to modify the cloud computing environment to gain access to restricted data. Operating personnel who has access to restricted data and the right to modify the cloud computing environment is notified of the release and given release specifications providing details of the release. If the operator approves the release, the release is transferred to the cloud computing environment. A deployment engine then automatically deploys the release to the production environment of the cloud computing environment.

Maintaining control over restricted data during deployment to cloud computing environments

Monitoring of cloud computing environments subject to different data control policies is performed in a manner that ensures compliance with the data control policies. A monitoring service is located in a remote cloud computing environment separate from the cloud computing environments being monitored. The monitoring service does not have access to restricted data in the cloud computing environments, including access control data, such that the monitoring service cannot directly interact with network devices. The monitoring service issues requests for monitoring data to device access services in the cloud computing environments. In response to the requests, the device access services obtain access control data to access the network devices and obtain the requested data, which is returned to the monitoring service.

Monitoring cloud computing environments with data control policies

Techniques allow DevOps personnel to perform incident management for cloud computing environments in a manner that maintains control over restricted data and the data plane. The DevOps personnel do not have access to restricted data or the ability to modify the cloud computing environment to gain access to restricted data. The incident management techniques include executing automatic operations to resolve an incident and allowing DevOps personnel to execute remote operations without providing the DevOps personnel access. A further incident management technique provides DevOps personnel with just-in-time (JIT) access that is limited to a certain level or type of access and limited in time. Still another technique for incident management is using an escort model, in which an escort session between operating personnel and DevOps personnel is established and connected to the cloud computing environment to allow the DevOps personnel access to the production environment while escorted by the operating personnel.

Incident management to maintain control of restricted data in cloud computing environments

A JIT service in a cloud computing environment manages just-in-time access to resources in the cloud computing environment for DevOps personnel who do not have persistent access to restricted data or the ability to modify the cloud computing environment to gain access to restricted data. When JIT access to a resource is requested by a DevOps device, the JIT service retrieves a JIT policy for the resource that includes screening criteria limiting automatic granting of JIT access to DevOps personnel who meeting the screening criteria. Screening information for the DevOps personnel is evaluated against one or more screening requirements set forth by the screening criteria. If the screening criteria and any other criteria of the JIT policy are satisfied, the JIT service provisions JIT access to the resource for the DevOps device.

A JIT service in a cloud computing environment manages just-in-time access to resources in the cloud computing environment for DevOps personnel who do not have persistent access to restricted data or the ability to modify the cloud computing environment to gain access to restricted data. When JIT access to a resource is requested by a DevOps device, the JIT service retrieves a JIT policy for the resource that includes geolocation criteria limiting the geolocation from which JIT access can be automatically granted. The geolocation of the DevOps device is evaluated against the geolocation criteria. If the geolocation criteria and any other criteria of the JIT policy are satisfied, the JIT service provisions JIT access to the resource for the DevOps device.

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Pradeep Ayyappan Nair