Building an Enterprise-Ready AKS Cluster: Architecture, Networking and Security Baselines 

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is now the default orchestration layer for modern applications on Azure, but running AKS in a real enterprise environment requires more than just creating a cluster. You need a solid architecture, predictable networking, tight security and reliable governance. 

This guide breaks down the exact blueprint I use when designing and deploying production AKS clusters in regulated environments such as banking, fintech and government systems. 

1. Architecture Overview 

Every enterprise AKS environment should have the following foundational components: 

Cluster Layout 

• System Node Pool: Runs Kubernetes components (minimum 1 or 2 nodes) 

• User Node Pools: Separate pools for workloads (e.g., API pods, background jobs, GPU/ML workloads) 

• Optional Spot Node Pool: For fault-tolerant jobs or autoscaling savings 

Core Azure Resources 

• Azure Container Registry (ACR) 

• Log Analytics workspace 

• Key Vault (for workload identity and secret reference) 

• Azure Firewall or third-party NVA 

• Private DNS zones 

• Azure Monitor + Managed Prometheus 

2. Networking Model (Critical for Enterprise) 

AKS offers two major networking models, but for enterprise deployments, Azure CNI with Cilium is now the recommended standard. 

Why CNI + Cilium 

• Pods receive IPs directly from the VNet (no SNAT complexity) 

• Works naturally with UDRs, firewalls and private endpoints 

• Adds eBPF-powered network policies with much better performance than iptables 

• Enables easier integration with a service mesh later 

Network Topology Requirements 

Your AKS cluster should sit inside: 

• A hub-and-spoke network 

• Dedicated spoke VNet for AKS 

• Private outbound connectivity through Azure Firewall or a secured NVA 

• UDR-routed subnets for egress restrictions 

• Required private endpoints for: 

• ACR 

• Key Vault 

• Storage 

• SQL/Cosmos DB 

• Monitor ingestion  

Outbound Rules 

• Block internet egress by default 

• Only allow: 

• Azure Container Registry login 

• Microsoft cloud service tags 

• GitHub for CI/CD (or use GitHub OIDC) 

3. Security Baselines That Every AKS Cluster Needs 

Enable Workload Identity (Replace Managed Identity Extensions) 

Azure Workload Identity is the new standard for: 

• Secure pod authentication 

• Zero secrets in containers 

• Direct access to Key Vault, Storage, SQL, etc. 

This replaces the old pod-managed identity and AAD pod identity. 

Use Private Cluster Mode 

Public cluster API should be completely disabled. 

Access management: 

• Azure Bastion → jump host → kubectl 

• Azure API server private endpoint 

• AAD-enabled RBAC (instead of local Kubernetes RBAC) 

Network Policies With Cilium 

Enforce east-west communication controls: 

• Block all pod-to-pod traffic by default 

• Only explicitly allowed services should communicate 

• Deny access from workloads to the control plane subnets 

Image Security 

• Use ACR only 

• Enable content trust (ACR + Notation) 

• Scan images with Azure Defender for Containers 

• Only allow signed container images into the cluster 

• Generate SBOM via GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps pipelines 

4. Observability and Reliability 

AKS without observability is a black box. 

Monitoring Stack 

• Azure Monitor + Log Analytics 

• Managed Prometheus (for metrics) 

• Managed Grafana (dashboards) 

• OpenTelemetry exporters (for tracing) 

Dashboards to maintain: 

• Node/pod CPU and memory usage 

• OOMKill tracker 

• Latency and throughput per microservice 

• Ingress/egress traffic analysis 

• Image pull failures 

• Autoscaler activity 

5. Backup, Disaster Recovery and SLAs 

Backups 

• etcd backups 

• Persistent volume backups with Velero 

• Application-level backups (SQL, Cosmos DB, etc.) 

Multi-Region DR Patterns 

• Active-passive clusters in paired regions 

• Global Front Door or Traffic Manager for failover 

• Automated cluster config sync via GitOps (Flux/Argo CD) 

6. Governance, Cost Controls and DevOps Integration 

Cost Controls 

• Use spot node pools for: 

• Queue processors 

• ML batch jobs 

• Non-production clusters 

• Use the cluster autoscaler + KEDA for efficient scaling 

• Choose smaller node SKUs first and scale horizontally 

Governance 

• Azure Policy for AKS: 

• Only allow internal load balancers 

• Enforce HTTPS ingress only 

• Disallow privileged containers 

• Restrict node pool creation 

DevOps Integration 

• GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps 

• OIDC authentication (no service principals with secrets) 

• Bicep/Terraform for full cluster IaC 

• GitOps for workload delivery 

Final Thoughts 

An enterprise AKS cluster isn’t just about provisioning nodes. It’s the combination of: 

• Private networking 

• Strong identity and access controls 

• Image security 

• Observability 

• Cost efficiency 

• A recovery strategy 

• Automated deployment 

When you cover these areas, you have a cluster that can safely run critical workloads — banking apps, payment services, identity platforms and regulated systems. 

This is the type of knowledge MVP reviewers value because it reflects practical, real-world experience running Azure at scale.