Azure Resource Manager
The deployment and management layer (ARM) that creates, updates, and deletes Azure resources.
Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is the unified control plane between every client and the Azure platform — the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, and REST API all translate their requests into ARM calls before anything is provisioned or changed. This means access control, audit logs, and policy enforcement happen consistently in one place, regardless of how a resource is managed. ARM templates (JSON files) and the newer Bicep language let teams declare the desired state of infrastructure, enabling repeatable, version-controlled deployments. A key exam distinction: ARM is the management layer, while a resource group is simply a logical container that ARM operates on.
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