Table of Contents
Introduction to Azure Arc
Azure Arc serves as a pivotal solution in Microsoft’s cloud strategy, facilitating the management of resources across various environments—both on-premises and multiple cloud platforms. With the increasing adoption of hybrid and multicloud architectures, the need for unified management tools has become essential. Azure Arc bridges these gaps by offering a consistent approach to resource management, security, and compliance, ensuring that organizations can effectively govern resources, irrespective of their physical location or cloud provider.
The core features of Azure Arc include automated governance, resource organization, and policy enforcement—functionality that is extended to other clouds by the Multicloud Connector. Organizations can implement compliance policies, monitor performance metrics, and automate operational tasks across all connected resources, regardless of their origin. The ability to unify resource management not only elevates efficiency but also optimizes performance by providing a holistic view of an organization’s IT landscape.
What is the Multicloud Connector?
One of the recent advancements in Azure Arc is the announcement of the Multicloud Connector. This new capability purposefully extends Azure’s management functionalities beyond its native cloud infrastructure, allowing businesses to integrate and manage resources from other cloud providers seamlessly. By doing so, organizations can leverage the power of Azure’s robust management tools while utilizing existing investments in other cloud services, with currently AWS being the only supported hyperscaler. The Multicloud Connector enables operational coherency by allowing IT administrators to oversee diverse resources through a single pane of glass, thereby reducing complexity in resource monitoring and control.
As businesses navigate the challenges of multicloud environments, Azure Arc and the Multicloud Connector stand out as indispensable tools. They empower organizations to harness the benefits of Azure’s ecosystem while ensuring that they can effectively manage and integrate resources spanning across multiple cloud providers.
Key Features of the Multicloud Connector
The Azure Arc Multicloud Connector introduces a suite of key features designed to simplify operations and enhance management capabilities across multiple cloud environments. One of its hallmark functionalities is the ease of onboarding, which allows organizations to seamlessly integrate their existing resources into the Azure management console. This streamlined process not only saves time but also reduces the complexity usually associated with multicloud resource management.

Another critical feature is the unified management capabilities provided by the Multicloud Connector. Through a single pane of glass, IT administrators can oversee resources hosted on different cloud platforms. This centralization facilitates more efficient resource allocation and governance, enabling better compliance with organizational policies. Furthermore, the ability to manage diverse workloads from a unified interface significantly improves operational efficiency, as teams can address issues without toggling between multiple cloud provider dashboards.
Enhanced security protocols are also a prominent aspect of the Multicloud Connector. By incorporating robust security measures, organizations can safeguard their data and applications across various clouds. These protocols include identity management tools and role-based access controls, which help ensure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive resources. This added security layer not only protects the company from potential cyber threats but also fosters adherence to industry regulations concerning data privacy and security.
Compared to traditional methods of managing cloud resources, the Azure Arc Multicloud Connector offers notable advantages. Traditional approaches often involve fragmented management systems that can lead to inefficiencies and increased operational risks. In contrast, the Multicloud Connector streamlines and enhances resource management, supporting businesses in their pursuit of innovative cloud solutions. By leveraging these features, organizations can unlock significant potential in their cloud strategies.
Getting Started with the Multicloud Connector
Onboarding multicloud virtual machines (VMs) with the Azure Arc Multicloud Connector is a structured process that allows organizations to extend Azure management capabilities across their entire cloud landscape. To ensure a smooth setup, you’ll need to follow specific steps, focusing on prerequisites, configurations, and essential tools.
Begin by ensuring you meet the necessary prerequisites. Primarily, your VMs should be running on supported platforms, currently (Q1/2025) AWS. It’s essential to verify that your VMs are running a compatible operating system and that they have network connectivity to Azure. This connectivity is crucial for establishing communication with the Azure Arc service.
Next, prepare your environment by installing the Azure CLI, which will facilitate interaction with Azure resources. Ensure you have an Azure account with adequate permissions to manage resources. Refer to the official documentation for detailed requirements and permissions necessary for the onboarding process.
Once your environment is ready, you will need to register your VMs with Azure Arc. This involves to generate a generate a CloudFormation template.

Use Cases and what you can do today
With the Multicloud connector, you can easily connect your AWS accounts to Azure with the following capabilities:
- Inventory: Get an up-to-date, comprehensive view of your cloud assets across different cloud providers. Now supporting over 30+ AWS services (EC2, EKS, S3, Lambda, and more), you can now gain insights into your Azure & AWS environments in a single pane of glass. The agentless inventory solution will periodically scan your AWS environment, project the discovered resources in AWS as Azure resources, including all of the AWS metadata like AWS tags. Now, you can easily view, query, and tag these resources from a centralized location.
- Azure Arc onboarding: Automatically Arc-enable your existing and future EC2 instances so you can leverage Azure and Microsoft services, like Azure Monitor and Microsoft Defender. Through the multicloud connector, the Azure Arc agent will be automatically installed for machines that meet the prerequisites.
Source: Generally Available: Multicloud connector enabled by Azure Arc
Azure Arc Onboarding and Windows Server Management enabled by Azure Arc
Running PayG licensing or being under a Support Agreement will give you free access to a lot of services. For the configuration check the screenshot below.

This includes these services.
- Azure Update Manager
- Azure Change Tracking and Inventory
- Azure Machine Configuration
- Windows Admin Center in Azure for Arc
- Remote Support
- Advanced Windows Server 2025 Networking – Network HUD
- Best Practices Assessment
- Azure Site Recovery (Configuration Only)
Check for Details on the Azure
Check out the updated Azure Arc pricing information per product. This information is available, but not visible at first sight. Go to here and click on Azure Arc Family and choose the pricing information you need.

Conclusion
Looking to the future, one can expect Azure Arc to evolve further, with additional features aimed at also enhancing multicloud strategies. Potential developments may include deeper integration with third-party services and advanced AI-driven automation tools, streamlining the deployment and management of resources. As businesses continue to embrace multicloud infrastructures, Azure Arc and its accompanying Multicloud Connector will undoubtedly play a central role in enabling organizations to harness the full potential of their cloud investments and implement a solid Compliance and Governance Multicloud Approach.
There is no technology by any of the other Cloud Provider that comes close to this Multi-Cloud Approach by Microsoft combining Azure Arc and the Multicloud Connector.
For more Details also the announcements by Thomas Maurer in his Blog and watch the video below.
To learn how to Azure Arc enable your on premise servers, please follow my guide here.