Overview of Azure Virtual WAN
Azure Virtual WAN is a networking service that brings together many networking, security, and routing functionalities to provide a single, unified, optimized, and automated branch connectivity experience. It acts as a network transit hub and is a hub-and-spoke architecture. Virtual WAN is designed to provide a highly scalable and performant way to connect your on-premises sites, remote users, and other clouds to Azure.
Key Benefits
- Simplified Branch Connectivity: Connect branch offices and remote users to Azure seamlessly.
- Optimized Global Transit: Acts as a global transit hub for your on-premises and Azure networks.
- Scalability and Performance: Built for high performance and massive scalability.
- Integrated Security: Integrates with Azure Firewall and Network Security Groups for robust security.
- Unified Management: Centralized management of your network infrastructure.
Core Components
- Virtual WAN Hub: A Microsoft-managed, scalable hub in Azure that connects to various endpoints.
- VPN Devices: On-premises devices that connect to the Virtual WAN hub.
- ExpressRoute Circuits: For high-bandwidth, low-latency private connections.
- User VPNs: For remote users connecting to the Virtual WAN hub.
- Virtual Network Connections: Connects your spoke virtual networks to the Virtual WAN hub.
Use Cases
- Connecting multiple branch offices to Azure.
- Extending your on-premises network into Azure.
- Providing secure remote access for users.
- Building a global network backbone.
Did you know? Virtual WAN supports up to 2,000 site-to-site (S2S) VPN connections per hub and up to 20,000 connections for ExpressRoute and VNet connections combined.
Getting Started
To start using Virtual WAN, you can create a Virtual WAN resource in the Azure portal. Then, you can create virtual hubs, connect your on-premises sites, and link your virtual networks.