I've been asked to research pricing and setup options for an Azure lab environment using Entra, Purview, and related services. The goal is to have a safe sandbox for testing features, policies, and configurations without affecting production. Would it be better to create a completely separate Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant, or are there other approaches that work well for a lab? I'd also appreciate recommendations for subscriptions, licensing, and the most cost-effective way to test Entra, Purview, and other Azure features.
2 Answers
A separate tenant is the safest option, especially for Purview. A test policy could otherwise affect real data, and a misconfigured Conditional Access rule could lock users out. Keep in mind that some Purview capabilities require paid licensing, so you may need at least one suitable E5-level license, depending on what you want to test.
For a true sandbox, I’d use a separate tenant and subscription. That gives you strong isolation and greatly reduces the chance of an experimental Entra policy, Conditional Access rule, or Purview configuration affecting production.
Does Microsoft offer any useful lab or developer benefits for existing customers that could help reduce the cost?
I’m also looking into Microsoft’s developer and Visual Studio-related programs, since they may provide a limited development tenant or credits that could be useful for the lab.