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Azure VM Encryption

Melissa Coates looks at different encryption methods available for Azure Virtual Machines:

Initially I opted for Storage Service Encryption due to its sheer simplicity. This is done by enabling encryption when you initially provision the storage account. After having set it up, I had proceeded onto other configuration items, one of which is setting up backups via the Azure Recovery Vault. Turns out that encrypted backups in the Recovery Vault are not (yet?) supported for VMs encrypted with Storage Service Encryption (as of Feb 2017).

Next I decided to investigate Disk Encryption because it supports encrypted backups in the Recovery Vault. It’s more complex to set up because you need a Service Principal in AAD, as well as Azure Key Vault integration. (More details on that in my next post.)

Click through for a point-by-point comparison between the two methods.