Azure Networking Services

Azure networking services provide a comprehensive set of capabilities to build secure, reliable, and high-performing cloud networks. These services enable you to connect Azure resources to each other, to on-premises environments, and to the internet. Explore the various services below to understand how they can enhance your cloud architecture.

Introduction to Azure Networking

Azure networking allows you to extend your on-premises network into the cloud, create isolated network environments for your applications, and manage traffic flow with advanced features. It forms the backbone of your cloud deployment, ensuring connectivity and security.

Virtual Networks (VNets)

Azure Virtual Network is the fundamental building block for your private network in Azure. It enables many types of Azure resources, such as Azure Virtual Machines, to securely communicate with each other, with the internet, and with your on-premises network. VNets provide:

• IP Addressing: Assign private IP addresses to resources within your VNet.
• Subnetting: Segment your VNet into smaller subnets for better organization and security.
• Network Security Groups (NSGs): Filter network traffic to and from Azure resources.
• Routing: Control how traffic flows within your VNet and to external networks.

Learn more about configuring virtual networks and subnetting strategies.

Load Balancing

Distribute network traffic across multiple resources to improve availability and responsiveness. Azure offers several load-balancing solutions:

• Azure Load Balancer: Provides high performance, low latency Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) load balancing.
• Azure Application Gateway: A Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) load balancer that offers features like SSL termination, cookie-based session affinity, and Web Application Firewall (WAF).
• Azure Traffic Manager: A DNS-based traffic load balancer that allows you to distribute traffic optimally to services in different Azure regions or even external endpoints.

Application Gateway

Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. It offers advanced routing capabilities and allows you to offload the intensive task of SSL/TLS termination from your web servers.

Key Features:

• Layer 7 load balancing
• SSL/TLS termination
• Cookie-based session affinity
• Web Application Firewall (WAF) integration
• Path-based request routing

Azure Firewall

Azure Firewall is a cloud-native and intelligent network security service that protects your Azure Virtual Network resources. It's a managed, cloud-based network security service that protects your virtual network resources. It offers:

• Stateful filtering policies
• Network and application traffic filtering
• Threat intelligence-based filtering
• Centralized logging and monitoring

Azure DNS

Azure DNS provides a highly available and resilient DNS hosting service for your domain names. It enables you to resolve your Azure resources using custom domain names. Key capabilities include:

• Hosting DNS zones
• Creating DNS records (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, SRV, TXT)
• Alias records for Azure resources
• Integration with Azure services

VPN Gateway

Azure VPN Gateway allows you to create secure, cross-premises connections between your on-premises networks and Azure, or between different Azure virtual networks. It supports:

• Site-to-Site VPNs
• Point-to-Site VPNs
• VNet-to-VNet connections

ExpressRoute

Azure ExpressRoute lets you create private connections between Azure datacenters and infrastructure that's either on-premises or in a colocation environment. ExpressRoute connections do not go over the public Internet, and offer higher reliability, faster speeds, lower latencies, and greater security than typical Internet connections.

Traffic Manager

Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that allows you to distribute traffic to your services hosted in different Azure regions. It enables you to provide the best response to your customers based on various traffic-routing methods and endpoint health monitoring.

Network Watcher

Azure Network Watcher provides tools to monitor, diagnose, and view metrics for your Azure network resources. It helps you understand network performance, identify potential bottlenecks, and troubleshoot connectivity issues.

Tools include:

• IP Flow Verify
• Next Hop
• Connection Troubleshoot
• Packet Capture
• Network Topology

Explore the detailed documentation for each service to build robust and efficient cloud networking solutions with Azure.