Azure Networking Overview
Welcome to the Azure networking documentation. This section provides a comprehensive overview of the core networking services and concepts available in Microsoft Azure. Understanding these components is crucial for building scalable, secure, and resilient cloud solutions.
What is Azure Networking?
Azure Networking allows you to create private networks in the cloud, connect them to on-premises environments, and control traffic flow. It offers a wide array of services designed to meet diverse connectivity and security requirements for your applications and data.
Key Networking Components
Azure provides a robust set of building blocks for your cloud network architecture:
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Virtual Networks (VNets)
A VNet is the fundamental building block of your private network in Azure. It provides a secure and isolated network environment for your Azure resources, allowing you to define IP address spaces, subnets, route tables, and network security groups.
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Subnets
Subnets are divisions of your Virtual Network's IP address space. They allow you to segment your network, isolate resources, and apply specific security policies.
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Network Security Groups (NSGs)
NSGs act as a distributed firewall to protect your Azure resources. You can associate NSGs with subnets or individual network interfaces (NICs) to filter traffic based on source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols.
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Route Tables
Route tables enable you to control how traffic is routed between subnets, Azure services, and on-premises networks. You can define custom routes to direct traffic through network virtual appliances or other gateways.
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Public IP Addresses
Public IP addresses allow Azure resources to communicate with the internet. You can assign static or dynamic public IP addresses to VMs, load balancers, and other network resources.
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Load Balancing
Azure Load Balancer distributes incoming network traffic across multiple backend resources (like virtual machines) to improve availability and responsiveness. Azure also offers more advanced load balancing solutions like Application Gateway and Traffic Manager.
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Gateways
Azure provides various gateway services for connecting your on-premises networks to Azure or for enabling cross-region connectivity:
- VPN Gateway: Securely connects your on-premises networks to Azure over the public internet.
- ExpressRoute: Provides a private, dedicated connection between your on-premises infrastructure and Azure.
- Application Gateway: A managed web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications.
Common Networking Scenarios
Azure networking services are used in a variety of common scenarios:
Hybrid Connectivity
Connecting your on-premises data center to Azure VNets using VPN Gateway or ExpressRoute is a fundamental requirement for hybrid cloud deployments.
High Availability and Scalability
Using Load Balancer, Application Gateway, and multiple VM instances across availability zones ensures that your applications remain accessible and can handle varying traffic loads.
Network Security
Implementing robust security measures using Network Security Groups, Azure Firewall, and DDoS protection is vital for safeguarding your cloud resources.
Internet Facing Applications
Exposing your applications to the internet securely and efficiently using Public IP addresses, Application Gateway, and WAF (Web Application Firewall).
Getting Started
To begin exploring Azure networking, you can:
- Create your first Virtual Network in the Azure portal.
- Deploy a virtual machine and assign it a Public IP address.
- Configure a Network Security Group to control traffic to your VM.
- Experiment with Azure Load Balancer to distribute traffic.
For detailed information on each service, please refer to the specific documentation pages linked in the sidebar.