IBM's Azure Foundry Enterprise Kit

Enterprise Adoption Guide

From zero to production in 4 phases. This guide walks your organization through adopting the Azure Foundry Enterprise Kit — from platform setup to self-service agent development. Follow the phased rollout to minimize risk and maximize team readiness.

Adoption Timeline

Week 1–2          Week 3–4          Month 2–3          Month 4+
┌──────────┐      ┌──────────┐      ┌──────────┐      ┌──────────┐
│ PHASE 1  │      │ PHASE 2  │      │ PHASE 3  │      │ PHASE 4  │
│ Platform │ ──▶  │ First    │ ──▶  │ Scale    │ ──▶  │ Mature   │
│ Setup    │      │ Agent    │      │ & Govern │      │ & Evolve │
└──────────┘      └──────────┘      └──────────┘      └──────────┘
 Deploy infra      Build agent       Multiple agents    Self-service
 Configure IAM     Evaluate          Policy enforcement  Agent marketplace
 Set up CI/CD      Certify           Continuous eval     Cross-org sharing

Phase 1: Platform Setup (Week 1–2)

Goal: Deploy the foundational infrastructure and configure team access.

RequirementDetails
Azure SubscriptionOwner or Contributor + User Access Administrator
Azure AD TenantEntra ID with Security Group for the platform team
Azure DevOps or GitHubRepository and pipeline access
Team1 Platform Engineer + 1 Security reviewer

Key Steps

  1. Fork & configure — Clone the kit, copy parameter files for your environment
  2. Deploy infrastructure — Run az deployment sub create with your parameter file
  3. Verify deployment — Confirm all resources are provisioned
  4. Set up CI/CD — GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps with OIDC federation
  5. Set up monitoring — Import the Agent Operations Dashboard

See the Deployment Guide for detailed Bicep module configuration and the Infrastructure as Code page for module inventory.

Phase 2: First Agent (Week 3–4)

Goal: Build, evaluate, and certify your first production agent.

  1. Choose a template — Pick the right blueprint for your use case using the Agent Blueprints guide
  2. Customize the agent — Edit the manifest, system prompt, and toolbox config
  3. Create test dataset — Write at least 20 golden test cases in JSONL format
  4. Evaluate — Run the evaluation harness against your dataset
  5. Certify — Achieve Bronze certification level

Certification Levels

LevelRequirements
BronzeManifest valid, evaluators pass, basic telemetry
Silver+ CI/CD pipeline, continuous eval, policy compliance
Gold+ Production metrics baseline, HITL configured, full audit trail

Phase 3: Scale & Govern (Month 2–3)

Goal: Deploy multiple agents with governance controls.

  1. Deploy policy packs — Enable data boundary, escalation, and toolbox policies
  2. Enable continuous evaluation — Schedule automated evaluations on live traffic
  3. Connect enterprise systems — Wire ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce, and Graph adapters
  4. Production deployment — Deploy to prod with private networking and DDoS protection

Production Checklist

  • All agents pass Silver certification
  • Continuous evaluation enabled
  • Alert email recipients configured
  • DDoS protection enabled (auto in prod)
  • Private networking enabled
  • Decision Ledger connected to Cosmos DB

Phase 4: Mature & Evolve (Month 4+)

Goal: Self-service agent development with organizational governance.

Team Structure

RoleResponsibilityKit Areas
Platform TeamInfrastructure, monitoring, upgradesinfra/, observability/, dashboards/
Agent DevelopersBuild and test agentsagent-templates/, sdk-starters/, eval-packs/
Governance TeamPolicies, certification, compliancepolicy-packs/, trust-extensions/
OperationsMonitoring, incident responsedashboards/, observability/

Customization Checklist

  • Update org name in parameter files and manifests
  • Customize policy thresholds for your risk appetite
  • Add domain-specific custom evaluators
  • Build adapters for your internal systems
  • Create agent templates for your common patterns
  • Add org-specific KPIs to the monitoring dashboard

Cost Estimation

EnvironmentMonthly EstimateKey Drivers
Dev$200–$500Foundry project, AI Search (basic), Cosmos DB (serverless)
Staging$800–$1,500+ Container Apps, Content Safety, API Management (dev tier)
Production$3,000–$8,000+ Private networking, geo-redundancy, DDoS, premium SKUs
Next steps: Start with the Overview to understand what the kit provides, then follow the Deployment Guide to deploy your first environment.