What is Azure Policy and how does it support governance?

Azure Policy is a governance service that enables organizations to define, enforce, and audit rules for Azure resources. It helps ensure that cloud resources comply with organizational, security, regulatory, and operational standards. For example, an organization can use Azure Policy to require specific regions, restrict resource types, enforce tagging standards, or audit whether resources meet defined security requirements. Azure Policy is particularly important in large environments where multiple teams can create and manage cloud resources. Instead of relying entirely on manual reviews, policies provide automated compliance controls and visibility.