Design Artifacts Overview

Editorial Context

This artifact was produced by the Design Agent (Step 3 of the APEX pipeline). The Design Agent takes the approved architecture from Step 2 and produces detailed design artifacts: architecture diagrams, Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) with WAF pillar analysis, and cost visualization charts. These artifacts provide the rationale and visual context that feeds into the Governance check (Step 3.5) and the IaC Planner (Step 4).

Architecture Diagram

The Design Agent generates a component-level architecture diagram showing all Azure resources, their connectivity, and network segmentation:

Key Artifacts

The Design Agent produced the following artifacts for the Malta Catering project:

Architecture Decision Records

Three ADRs document the key technical decisions, alternatives considered, and WAF pillar impact for each choice:

ADR	Title	Status	Key Trade-off
ADR-0001	App Service S1 Compute	Accepted (Revised)	Always-on reliability vs. higher base cost (~$73/mo vs ~$11/mo for ACA)
ADR-0002	Table Storage Persistence	Accepted	Ultra-low cost ($8.47/mo) vs. no native backup (accepted for demo)
ADR-0003	VNet + Private Endpoints	Accepted (Revised)	Enterprise-grade security posture (+$23/mo) vs. simpler public endpoints

Each ADR includes alternatives considered, WAF pillar scoring, GDPR compliance considerations, and implementation notes.

Cost Estimate

The cost estimate provides a detailed breakdown of the ~$154.87/month architecture cost, including:

• Line-item cost breakdown by service
• Top 5 cost drivers with optimization opportunities
• Savings opportunities (1-year RI saves ~36% on compute)
• Cost risk indicators and watch items
• 6-month cost projection

All prices were sourced from the Azure Pricing MCP server with swedencentral region filters.