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Supported Scenarios

The CMS is designed to support a wide range of operational and business models for organizations using Azure Stack Hub. It combines a multi-tier commercial hierarchy with flexible deployment patterns, ensuring that both service providers and enterprises can align technical delivery with business outcomes.

Platform Administrators

Operate and govern the CMS at the highest level. Typical activities include publishing pricing and plans, managing usage processing, configuring branding and authentication, and ensuring compliance across regions.

Distributors

Represent the top commercial tier beneath the platform. They manage multiple partners, view aggregated billing and commission data, and apply distributor-level commission structures.

Partners

Act as the customer-facing entities for tenants. They onboard tenants, assign subscriptions, and manage billing at the tenant level. Partner-specific pricing and commission rates can be applied where required.

Tenants

Represent the consuming organizations (end customers or internal business units). Tenants manage their own subscriptions and users, while billing and usage data flow upward to their partner and distributor.

Subscriptions

Provide the unit of consumption within a tenant. Subscriptions map workloads to specific plans and quotas, generate usage records, and serve as the basis for billing and invoicing.

Industry Use Cases

  • Service Providers
    Deliver Azure Stack Hub as a multi-tenant service platform. Use the CMS to onboard tenants, meter consumption, generate invoices, and ensure commissions flow accurately to partners and distributors.

  • Enterprise IT
    Adopt the CMS as an internal service management layer. Departments become tenants, projects or environments are modeled as subscriptions, and chargeback or showback reporting ensures cost transparency.

  • Hybrid Cloud Operators
    Consolidate usage across Azure Stack Hub and external cloud platforms. Apply consistent billing and governance policies across all regions, even in partially disconnected environments.

  • Regulated Environments
    Deploy the CMS where compliance and auditability are essential. Role-based access control (RBAC), usage records, and audit trails support regulatory frameworks.

Out of Scope

The CMS does not replace the core resource providers in Azure Stack Hub (Compute, Storage, Network) or native Azure monitoring tools. Instead, it complements them by adding commercial, operational, and governance layers on top of existing capabilities.

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