--- title: Resource Lifecycle Management with Azure Tagging description: Learn how to use resource lifecycle management with Azure Tagging. image: https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/hubfs/lifecycle-management-featured.jpg --- # Learn How to Use Azure Tagging to Manage Cloud Resources Posted by Michael Spenny - January 15, 2021 ### Whether you have existing Azure resources provisioned or you’re just starting out, setting a governance framework and standards around resource naming conventions and tagging can add value to their adoption.  - [**](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/learn-how-to-use-azure-tagging-to-manage-cloud-resources) - [**](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/learn-how-to-use-azure-tagging-to-manage-cloud-resources&title=&summary=&source=) - [**](https://twitter.com/home?status=) - [**](mailto:?&subject=https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/learn-how-to-use-azure-tagging-to-manage-cloud-resources&body=https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/learn-how-to-use-azure-tagging-to-manage-cloud-resources) ** ![header-picture](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/hubfs/lifecycle-header-web.jpg "header-picture") ### Resource Lifecycle Management with Azure Tagging Once a year the Discovery Channel rolls out the red carpet for one of nature’s ultimate apex predators – the great white shark. During the week viewers are treated to epic breaches, new tech and scientific discoveries. If you’ve ever watched these shows, one activity you’ll see researchers perform is shark tagging. Tags are attached to the skin of the shark and as the shark moves about in the ocean, their location is relayed back to researchers. This provides a wealth of information about where sharks feed and breed and leads to new discoveries about shark behavior.  In much the same way, Azure resource tags can provide a wealth of information about your cloud resources. An effective resource tagging strategy can help you answer questions like:  - Who created this resource?  - Is this resource needed anymore? We’re paying for it but I don’t see why this was created?  - Our Azure billing was high this month, are there resources we can get rid of?    ### **Initial planning**  Whether you have existing Azure resources provisioned or you’re just starting out, setting a governance framework and standards around resource naming conventions and tagging can add value to their adoption.  Resource tags allow you to organize resources by assigning them a “name:value” pair.  With tags you can assign helpful meta data to your resource such as, cost center, owner, environment, etc. Because tags are merely strings of text, it’s important to define strict parameter conventions (spelling, prefix/suffix, abbreviations, etc) governing their use.  In Azure there a couple ways you can set tags on a resource, ither through the portal, via the CLI or by applying custom policies.   [![Azure Governance Playbook FREE DOWNLOAD](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/707613/12e14509-7f97-4632-9ac5-296ad0dc3b81.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/707613/12e14509-7f97-4632-9ac5-296ad0dc3b81) ### **Impl****e****mentation**  We’ll focus for the moment on using the Azure CLI. Here are some basic tagging operations you can execute to give you a feel for the syntax.   To assign a tag on a resource groups and query it:    | az group update -n seleniumrg --set tags.Owner=Bob tags.CostCenter=Marketing  az group list --query [].tags  | | | --- | --- | | The resulting json output in the CLI:   ![jsonoutput](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/hs-fs/hubfs/jsonoutput.png?width=310&name=jsonoutput.png) | In the portal:  ![portalview](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/hs-fs/hubfs/portalview.png?width=385&name=portalview.png) |   ### **Policy Compliance**   As was mentioned earlier in this article, tagging is only as effective as it is consistent. An important strategy you’ll want to employ along with your tags is Azure Policy rules. Policies enable the enforcement of the compliance rules you define. So, for example you could say:  - Assign the tag “Environment:prod” by default for all resources created within specified resource group.  - Make the “CostCenter” and “Environment” tags mandatory for all resources of a certain type.  - Appending a “tagStatus:missing” tag automatically to all untagged resources.  These are just a few examples of this powerful combination (tags and policies).   For organizations interested in empowering innovation and agile adoption of Azure cloud services, InCycle can accelerate your efforts towards cloud resource creation governance**.** How are you managing your resources in Azure?  Ask yourself some simple questions:   - Do you know where your Azure resources are being created?   - Are your resource provisioning standards consistent?   - Are you able to audit and enforce consistent provisioning policies?   - Can you decommission projects with confidence?   - Can you recreate resources in Azure with confidence?   If you don’t know the answers to these questions you may have cloud governance blind spots.   [Download our Azure Governance Playbook](https://www.incyclesoftware.com/playbook-for-modern-enterprise-and-cloud-governance) today to learn more about modern governance. Topics: [Visibility](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/topic/visibility) [![Modern Enterprise & Cloud Governance Playbook](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/707613/e1a05ffb-2e33-417f-8064-4014f1877e61.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/707613/e1a05ffb-2e33-417f-8064-4014f1877e61) --- ### Recent Posts By Michael Spenny - 15 January, 2021 #### Collaborative Cloud Governance: Auditability & Visibility [![read more](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/685080/IMG-TurboSodium/Sodium%20v2/blog/arrow-recent-blog-post.png "read more")](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/collaborative-cloud-governance-auditability-and-visibility) By Michael Spenny - 15 January, 2021 #### How Does the Cloud & Azure Transform Traditional Governance? [![read more](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/685080/IMG-TurboSodium/Sodium%20v2/blog/arrow-recent-blog-post.png "read more")](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/how-does-the-cloud-azure-transform-traditional-governance) By Michael Spenny - 15 January, 2021 #### DevOps Enables Modern Governance [![read more](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/685080/IMG-TurboSodium/Sodium%20v2/blog/arrow-recent-blog-post.png "read more")](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/devops-enables-modern-governance) --- ### Sign-up for Governance Blog Updates # ![Partners Awards List - 2021](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PoY%20Award%202021/Partners%20Awards%20List%20-%202021.png?width=748&name=Partners%20Awards%20List%20-%202021.png) # All About Modern Governance InCycle's Modern Governance blog is the result of almost 20 years of industry experience and is ideal reading for medium and large organizations that are trying to navigate cloud adoption and are struggling to design and implement modern governance for either a team, business unit or across the enterprise. The blog is comprehensive and addresses various stakeholders, including operations, security, application development, accounting, and audit. The goal of the blog is to showcase modern governance drivers, new challenges that arise, and to provide actionable guidance for practitioners to complete a modern governance transformation. ### Azure Governance Playbook FREE guidance and tools to complete governance transformation. [![Learn More!](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/707613/d0b6969d-3645-4839-ae95-84acb7ca61a2.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/707613/d0b6969d-3645-4839-ae95-84acb7ca61a2) ### Posts by Topic - [Cost Control (5)](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/tag/cost-control) - [Security (5)](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/tag/security) - [Structure & Responsibilities (5)](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/tag/structure-responsibilities) - [Visibility (5)](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/tag/visibility) - [Implementation & Adoption (4)](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/tag/implementation-adoption) ### Most Popular Posts ### Blog Archive - [January 2021 (23)](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/archive/2021/01) - [February 2021 (1)](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/enterprise-azure-governance/archive/2021/02) - [**](https://twitter.com/incyclesoftware?lang=en) - [**](https://ca.linkedin.com/company/incycle-software) - [**](https://www.facebook.com/InCycleSoftware/) ### About us At InCycle, we believe there is always a better way and today, that includes the cloud. 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