Define your tagging strategy

When you apply metadata tags to your cloud resources, you can include information that the resource name doesn't include, like information about the asset. You can use that information to run sophisticated filtering and reporting on resources. Include context about the resource's associated workload or application, operational requirements, and ownership information. IT or business teams use this information to find resources or generate reports about resource usage and billing.

The required tags and optional tags that you apply to resources differs among organizations. The following list provides examples of common tags that capture important context and information about a resource. Use this list as a starting point to establish your own tagging conventions.

Minimum suggested tags

Use the following tags to help guide the implementation and processes of Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure methodologies. The methodologies have many best practices that demonstrate cloud operations automation and governance based on the following tags.

Tag name	Description	Key value and example values
Workload name	Name of the workload that the resource supports.	WorkloadName ControlCharts
Data classification	Sensitivity of data that the resource hosts.	DataClassification Non-business Public General Confidential Highly confidential
Business criticality	Business impact of the resource or supported workload.	Criticality Low Medium High Business unit-critical Mission-critical
Business unit	Top-level division of your company that owns the subscription or workload that the resource belongs to. In smaller organizations, this tag might represent a single corporate or shared top-level organizational element.	BusinessUnit Finance Marketing Product XYZ Corp Shared
Operations commitment	Level of operations support provided for the workload or resource.	OpsCommitment Baseline only Enhanced baseline Platform operations Workload operations
Operations team	Team accountable for day-to-day operations.	OpsTeam Central IT Cloud operations ControlCharts team MSP-{Managed Service Provider name}

Other common tagging examples

Use the following tags to increase visibility into the usage of Azure resources.

Tag name	Description	Key and example values
Application name	Added granularity, if the workload is subdivided across multiple applications or services.	ApplicationName IssueTrackingSystem
Approver name	Person responsible for approving costs related to the resource.	Approver chris@contoso.com
Budget required/approved	Money approved for the application, service, or workload.	BudgetAmount $200,000
Cost center	Accounting cost center associated with the resource.	CostCenter 55332
Disaster recovery	Business criticality of the application, workload, or service.	DR Mission-critical Critical Essential
End date of the project	Date when the application, workload, or service is scheduled for retirement.	EndDate 2023-10-15
Environment	Deployment environment of the application, workload, or service.	Env Prod Dev QA Stage Test
Azure region	Region where you create the resource.	AzureRegion West Europe UK South East US Japan East Qatar Central
Owner name	Owner of the application, workload, or service.	Owner jane@contoso.com
Requester name	User who requested the creation of the application.	Requester john@contoso.com
Service class	Service-level agreement level of the application, workload, or service.	ServiceClass Dev Bronze Silver Gold
Start date of the project	Date when the application, workload, or service was first deployed.	StartDate 2020-10-15

Take action

Review the resource naming and tagging decision guide.

Next step

Learn how to move resource groups and assets between subscriptions in Azure.

Move resource groups and assets between subscriptions