In today’s fast-paced digital world, businesses rely heavily on the efficiency and reliability of their advertising platforms to reach their target audience. Enter Azure AD – an ad platform architecture that takes things to a whole new level.
With its geographically distributed infrastructure, failover capabilities, and top-notch security measures, Azure AD ensures uninterrupted operations and high availability. But that’s not all.
This powerhouse also offers read-write consistency, data replication across multiple datacenters, and a plethora of features that guarantee seamless and secure ad experiences for both advertisers and consumers. Intrigued?
Stay tuned as we explore the fascinating world of Azure AD and unleash its immense potential.
Contents
- 1 ad platform architecture
- 2 Geographically Distributed And Highly Monitored Architecture
- 3 Scalable And Continuously Available Components
- 4 Geo-Redundant Durability For Data Replication
- 5 Improved Performance Through Routing Requests To Closest Datacenter
- 6 Read-Write Consistency And Failover Capabilities
- 7 Independent And Quick Traffic Shifting Between Datacenters
- 8 Single-Master Design With Primary And Secondary Replicas
- 9 High Availability, Security, And Monitoring Measures
ad platform architecture
Ad platform architecture is the design and structure of Azure AD, a platform developed by Microsoft for secure access management to Azure services and resources. Azure AD’s architecture is geographically distributed, consisting of extensively monitored components that have automated rerouting, failover, and recovery capabilities.
It is scalable and continuously available, with data tiers partitioned for efficient management. The primary replica receives write operations and replicates them to secondary replicas in different datacenters, ensuring geo-redundant durability.
Directory reads are serviced from the secondary replicas, improving performance by routing requests to the closest datacenter. For read-write consistency, writes are directed to the primary replica, while secondary replicas handle read requests.
The architecture enables continuous availability through independent, geographically distributed datacenters, allowing quick traffic shifting between them and performing maintenance activities without downtime. Azure AD utilizes a single-master design, where each partition has a primary replica, and secondary replicas handle read operations.
Writes can be shifted to another replica in case of failure. To ensure data durability, writes are committed to at least two datacenters.
With a Zero Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Azure AD prevents data loss during failovers. The gateway service manages load balancing and automatic failover if any unhealthy servers are detected.
The directory model is designed for eventual consistency, providing read-write consistency for applications targeting secondary replicas. The Microsoft Graph API service handles application writes and maintains affinity to a secondary replica for read-write consistency.
A distributed cache is used in the secondary replica datacenter, generating tokens for subsequent operations within the same logical session. Requests need to be routed to the same Azure AD datacenter to continue a logical session, ensuring data consistency.
Writes made during a logical session are immediately replicated to the secondary replica used for reads. Azure AD implements daily backups of directory data and can restore data in case of service-wide issues.
Soft deletes are used for selected object types, enabling administrators to undo accidental deletions within 30 days. The service continuously analyzes and reports key service health metrics and success criteria, with monitoring and alerting systems in place to detect and mitigate any issues promptly.
Moreover, Azure AD ensures high availability and security through multi-factor authentication, auditing, and a just-in-time elevation system for temporary access during operational tasks. Overall, the ad platform architecture of Azure AD combines scalability, availability, durability, and security to support the secure management of access to Azure services and resources.
Key Points:
- Azure AD is a geographically distributed platform designed for secure access management to Azure services and resources.
- The architecture ensures continuous availability through data replication and failover capabilities.
- Directory reads are serviced from secondary replicas to improve performance.
- Azure AD utilizes a single-master design with primary and secondary replicas.
- The platform prevents data loss during failovers with a Zero Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
- High availability and security are achieved through multi-factor authentication, auditing, and just-in-time elevation system.
Sources
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/architecture
https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/topics/infrastructure/2020/building-twitters-ad-platform-architecture-for-the-future
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/identity/identity-start-here
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/modern-application-development/
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1. Azure AD utilizes a single-master design with a primary replica for each partition to ensure efficient data management and distribution.
2. The AD platform implements a distributed cache in the secondary replica datacenter, allowing for faster access to frequently accessed data.
3. A token is generated for subsequent operations within the same logical session, ensuring consistent data access by routing requests to the same Azure AD datacenter.
4. The AD platform conducts daily backups of directory data, enabling restoration of data in case of service-wide issues or accidental deletions.
5. Multi-factor authentication and auditing features are utilized to ensure secure operations and protect sensitive data within the AD platform.
Geographically Distributed And Highly Monitored Architecture
Azure AD’s ad platform architecture is built on a geographically distributed system that ensures high availability and resilience. The architecture incorporates extensive monitoring, automated rerouting, failover, and recovery capabilities, guaranteeing continuous operation even in the event of failures or outages.
Key features of the architecture include:
- Geographical distribution: The architecture spans multiple datacenters across different regions, enabling users to access services and resources from anywhere in the world. – Extensive monitoring: The ad platform architecture employs robust monitoring systems to constantly track the performance and health of the system.
This ensures that any issues or abnormalities are quickly detected and addressed before they have a significant impact on user experience.
- Automated rerouting: In the event of failures or disruptions in one datacenter, the architecture automatically reroutes traffic to alternative healthy datacenters. This ensures uninterrupted access to Azure services and resources.
- Failover and recovery capabilities: The system is designed to handle failures and recover from them seamlessly. Automated failover mechanisms enable the ad platform to shift traffic to healthy datacenters, minimizing downtime and ensuring continuous availability.
Scalable And Continuously Available Components
To support the growing demands of Azure services and resources, the ad platform architecture employs scalable and continuously available components. These components are designed to handle large workloads and provide a consistent experience to users.
Key aspects of the architecture’s scalability and availability include:
- Data tier partitions: The ad platform’s data is divided into partitions, allowing for efficient distribution of workload and ensuring optimal performance. Each partition consists of multiple replicas for redundancy and durability.
- Primary replica: The primary replica receives write operations and replicates them to secondary replicas in different datacenters. This geo-redundancy ensures the durability of data and helps prevent data loss in case of failures.
- Continuous availability: With independent and geographically distributed datacenters, the ad platform architecture ensures continuous availability. Traffic can be quickly shifted between datacenters, enabling maintenance activities without causing downtime for users.
- Daily data backups: The ad platform implements daily backups of directory data, providing an added layer of protection against potential data loss or service-wide issues. This backup capability ensures that data can be restored if needed.
Geo-Redundant Durability For Data Replication
Data replication is a crucial aspect of the ad platform architecture. It ensures the durability and accessibility of data even in the face of failures or disasters.
The architecture employs geo-redundant techniques to replicate data across multiple datacenters.
Key considerations for achieving geo-redundant durability include:
– Data replication to secondary replicas: The primary replica receives write operations and replicates them to secondary replicas located in different datacenters. This distributed approach ensures data durability by storing copies of the data in multiple locations.
– Committing writes to multiple datacenters: To ensure data durability and availability, the ad platform architecture commits writes to at least two datacenters. This redundancy protects against data loss and allows for seamless failover and recovery in the event of failures.
– Zero Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The ad platform architecture aims to achieve a Zero RTO, meaning that there is no data loss during failovers. This ensures that users can continue their operations without interruption or loss of data.
Improved Performance Through Routing Requests To Closest Datacenter
To enhance performance and reduce latency, the ad platform architecture leverages the ability to route requests to the closest datacenter. By strategically directing traffic, users experience improved response times and a more efficient access to Azure services and resources.
Key features that contribute to improved performance include:
– Servicing directory reads from secondary replicas: Directory reads are efficiently handled by secondary replicas, minimizing the workload on the primary replica. This distribution of read operations improves overall performance by reducing the load on the primary replica and ensuring faster response times.
– Routing requests to the closest datacenter: The ad platform architecture intelligently routes user requests to the datacenter that is geographically closest to the requester. This proximity-based routing minimizes network latency and ensures faster data retrieval and processing.
Read-Write Consistency And Failover Capabilities
Ensuring read-write consistency and failover capabilities are critical aspects of the ad platform architecture. The architecture employs a single-master design with primary and secondary replicas to achieve these objectives.
Key points related to read-write consistency and failover capabilities include:
– Single-master design: The ad platform architecture adopts a single-master design, where each partition has a primary replica that handles write operations. This design ensures the consistency of writes and enables centralized control over data modifications.
– Secondary replicas for read operations: While write operations are directed to the primary replica for consistency, read operations can be serviced by secondary replicas. This distribution of read operations allows for efficient utilization of resources and improves overall performance.
– Failover for write operations: In the event of a failure or unavailability of the primary replica, the ad platform architecture can shift write operations to another replica. This failover capability ensures continuous availability and data integrity, even in the face of failures.
Independent And Quick Traffic Shifting Between Datacenters
The ad platform architecture is designed to enable the independent and quick shifting of traffic between datacenters. This flexibility allows for efficient maintenance activities and seamless failover in case of disruptions or failures.
Key aspects of independent and quick traffic shifting include:
– Geographical distribution of datacenters: The ad platform architecture spreads its datacenters across different regions, ensuring geographical diversity and independence. This distribution enables localized traffic shifting and the ability to continue operations even if one or more datacenters face issues.
– Maintenance activities without downtime: Due to the independent nature of the datacenters, Azure AD can perform maintenance activities on individual datacenters without causing any downtime or disruption to users. This allows for a high level of availability and minimizes the impact on user experience.
Single-Master Design With Primary And Secondary Replicas
The ad platform architecture employs a single-master design with primary and secondary replicas to ensure data consistency, high availability, and efficient utilization of resources. This design enables read-write consistency and failover capabilities.
Key features of the single-master design include:
– Primary replica for each partition: Each partition in the ad platform’s data tier has a primary replica that handles write operations. This primary replica acts as the master for that partition, responsible for maintaining the consistency of writes and ensuring data integrity.
– Secondary replicas for read operations: The ad platform architecture utilizes secondary replicas to handle read operations. This distribution of read operations among secondary replicas improves performance by load balancing and allows for efficient utilization of resources.
– Write failover to other replicas: In case of a failure or unavailability of the primary replica, write operations can be shifted to another replica within the same partition. This failover capability ensures continuous availability and maintains the consistency of data.
High Availability, Security, And Monitoring Measures
The ad platform architecture prioritizes high availability, security, and robust monitoring to ensure the reliability and integrity of Azure AD services. Several measures are in place to achieve these objectives and provide a seamless user experience.
Key elements of high availability, security, and monitoring include:
– Continuous analysis and reporting: The ad platform architecture continuously analyzes and reports key service health metrics and success criteria. This monitoring ensures that any anomalies or issues are quickly detected, allowing for prompt mitigation and resolution.
– Monitoring and alerting systems: Robust monitoring and alerting systems are in place to provide real-time notifications about the health and performance of the ad platform. These systems enable proactive measures to address any emerging issues and ensure optimal service availability.
– Multi-factor authentication and auditing: To ensure secure operations, the ad platform architecture includes multi-factor authentication and auditing features. These measures help protect against unauthorized access and track any changes or actions for accountability purposes.
– Just-in-time elevation system: The architecture employs a just-in-time elevation system to grant temporary access for operational tasks. This controlled access mechanism further strengthens security by limiting privileged access and reducing the potential of unauthorized actions.
In conclusion, Azure AD’s ad platform architecture is a sophisticated and resilient system that enables secure management of access to Azure services and resources. With its geographically distributed and highly monitored design, scalable components, geo-redundant data replication, improved performance through routing requests to the closest datacenter, and read-write consistency with failover capabilities, the ad platform architecture ensures high availability, data durability, and optimal performance.
Additionally, its security measures, monitoring systems, and continuous analysis contribute to a secure and reliable user experience. With these capabilities, the ad platform architecture sets the stage for a future that prioritizes availability, scalability, and security in the world of advertisement platforms.