Microsoft launches Azure Firewall, a cloud-based network security service to protects your resources

Microsoft today announced two new network related Azure services, Azure Virtual WAN (wide-area network) and Azure Firewall.

Azure Virtual WAN is a networking service that will offer optimized and automated branch to branch connectivity. Organizations can easily connect their branches to each other and Azure using Internet allowing a distributed connectivity model. Customers can also build a hub and spoke network in Azure to route traffic to virtual appliances such as firewalls and Azure network security services. It also offers mechanisms to connect traditional routers on-premises as well as an expanding ecosystem of new Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) systems from various partners of Microsoft.

Azure Firewall is a fully managed, cloud-based network security service that protects Azure Virtual Network resources. It is a stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability.

Organizations can centrally create, enforce, and log application and network connectivity policies, spanning Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs), IP Addresses, ports and protocols across subscriptions and virtual networks. Azure Firewall policies can be fully integrated with customers’ dev ops model while enabling them to manage security risks and achieve compliance requirements for managing resource access and protection in the cloud.

Both now Azure Virtual WAN and Azure Firewall are now available in preview.

Source: Microsoft