Key Architect Note

Prefer Bicep/ARM over imperative CLI for reproducibility. See Lesson 006 for the full IaC deep dive.

When to Use Each Tool at the Architect Level

• Azure CLI — Quick exploration, ad-hoc queries, prototyping resource configurations
• PowerShell (Az module) — Automation scripts, scheduled tasks, complex logic with conditionals/loops
• Azure Portal — Visual validation, reviewing deployed resources, one-off configuration checks
• Bicep / Terraform — Production infrastructure, repeatable deployments, code-reviewed changes, drift detection