In the modern workplace, Microsoft employees access their work from diverse locations. To ensure secure and efficient connectivity to cloud and on-premises resources for our global workforce, we’re adopting Azure Virtual WAN (VWAN) in conjunction with enterprise-scale security solutions.

Our enterprise-scale security solutions are vital in authenticating remote users across Azure and on-premises resources, enabling seamless service-to-service authentication. Our approach creates a more robust and reliable environment by removing interdependencies between network services and physical locations. Through strong authentication enforcement and role-based access control, our security solutions are tailored to support deployments at an enterprise scale.

We’re evolving remote access for our employees by migrating our remote and VPN access infrastructure to a modern, cloud-based solution using Azure VPN and Azure VWAN. Our new solution accommodates evolving security requirements and scales to support the changing demands of our remote workforce. This transition improves our security posture and enhances the overall efficiency of our remote access infrastructure, aligning seamlessly with our commitment to scalable and secure solutions for our global workforce.

Moving to the Azure-based solution allows us to support all remote access users with the Azure VPN client. This unified approach creates a simplified user experience and performs better for remote employees than our previous solution.

Our solution’s core is Azure Virtual WAN, a networking service that combines many networking, security, and routing functionalities to unify Azure and on-premises networking capability into a single operational interface.

Azure VWAN supports site-to-site, point-to-site, and private connections between Azure and on-premises users and resources using ExpressRoute, Azure VPN, Azure Firewall, and advanced routing configuration. The hub and spoke architecture of Azure VWAN provides enterprise scale and performance from cloud-hosted Azure VWAN hubs in Azure regions across the globe. Using the globally distributed Azure public cloud infrastructure, we can quickly deploy a global transit network architecture for our entire enterprise, supporting instant connectivity from the closest Azure VWAN Hub to any on-premises network endpoints.

Using the Azure VPN client and integrated VPN support built into Azure VWAN, our employees connect to the closest regional hub, securely and efficiently integrating them with Azure VWAN and our global corporate network. Currently, Azure VPN is selectively deployed for specific use case scenarios. It doesn’t serve as the default network access now, but its versatility allows for such a role, and we plan to use Azure VPN as the default remote access solution soon.

Using Azure VWAN and Azure VPN to manage our global network and remote access has resulted in many improvements to our wide area network architecture and the employee experience when using the network.

We’re using infrastructure as code (IaC) to deploy and scale our VPN capacity, enabling us to quickly accommodate and host over 100,000 users. Our ongoing efforts include onboarding all Microsoft employees to Azure VPN.

Protecting intellectual property is paramount for Microsoft. Our solution provides a highly secure environment through Azure VPN, using industry-standard encryption protocols and advanced security features. This ensures that all data transmitted between employees and resources in Azure or on-premises remains confidential and protected from unauthorized access.

Our architecture is designed to scale seamlessly as the user base grows. With the inherent scalability of Azure Virtual WAN, we can accommodate additional users and network resources without compromising performance. This flexibility ensures that Microsoft can support its expanding workforce without sacrificing connectivity or user experience.

Our network build process uses IaC principles to create a highly adaptable, robust, and reliable network environment. Our deployment templates and resource modules—created using the Bicep language—define the desired state of our VWAN infrastructure in a declarative manner. Following Microsoft best practices, we maintain a central Bicep template that invokes distinct modules—also defined in Bicep—to instantiate the necessary resources for deployment. This modular framework allows us to be flexible and accommodate new changes or requirements by applying various deployment patterns. For more information, visit Deploying a VWAN using infrastructure as code and CI/CD.

Our solution offers centralized management and monitoring capabilities, enabling our support ecosystem to manage our VPN infrastructure efficiently. Our security team can easily configure VPN settings and management using Azure Dashboard, allowing them to monitor usage patterns in a smart way. This centralized control ensures streamlined administration and effective troubleshooting.

We design the user experience to maximize productivity. Our solution optimizes network connectivity, relying on a global profile to minimize latency and allow employees to access hosted resources seamlessly from anywhere in the world. This eliminates barriers to productivity and empowers users to collaborate efficiently, irrespective of their geographic location.

Intellectual property protection often involves compliance requirements. Our solution adheres to industry best practices and relevant regulations to ensure that we meet necessary compliance standards. This includes data privacy, access controls, and auditability, providing peace of mind that intellectual property is handled in a secure and compliant manner.

We’re excited about the successful enterprise-scale deployment of our Azure Virtual WAN and Azure VPN-based solution. This deployment increases our ability to safeguard intellectual property while seamlessly supporting the connectivity needs of Microsoft employees. We remain committed to supporting the internal networking needs of Microsoft and ensuring secure and seamless connectivity as our organization grows.

Contact us today to explore how our solutions can help protect your intellectual property, enable remote access at scale, and provide a robust and secure network infrastructure tailored to your organization’s unique requirements.

• Migrate to a cloud-based VPN solution. Transition your VPN and remote access infrastructure to Azure VPN and Azure VWAN for a more scalable and secure remote access solution.
• Leverage Infrastructure as Code for network management. Adopt infrastructure as code (IaC) using the Bicep language to efficiently manage and scale your network infrastructure, allowing for flexible and rapid deployment.
• Plan for scalability and user growth. Ensure your network architecture is designed to scale seamlessly with Azure Virtual WAN, accommodating additional users and resources without sacrificing performance.
• Centralize management and monitoring. Use centralized management and monitoring tools, such as the Azure Dashboard, to efficiently administer VPN settings and manage network usage.

Get started with Azure VWAN with routing intent and routing policies at your company.

• Check out our full series on moving our network to the cloud. 
• Learn more about Azure Virtual WAN.
• Get more insight on how Azure VPN Gateways work.

Want more information? Email us and include a link to this story and we’ll get back to you.

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The post Deploying global remote VWAN connectivity with Azure VWAN and Azure VPN appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

At Microsoft, our support, escalation, and customer engineers help Microsoft with solution troubleshooting, implementation assistance, integration walkthroughs, and many other complex support needs.

Our Microsoft Digital (MSD) team created a virtual lab tool named MyWorkspace to help our engineers accurately replicate customer environments using cloud-based resources in Microsoft Azure so they can provide contextual troubleshooting and support. Recently, we developed the MyWorkspace network management service to reduce the complexity of deploying and managing network environments that host MyWorkspace virtual labs.

Using the capabilities of Azure Firewall, Azure Container Apps, Azure Service Bus, and the flexibility of infrastructure as code (IaC), the network management service enables MyWorkspace to provide a catalog of instantly deployable network topologies and management strategies for virtual labs. The service optimizes the deployment, performance, security, and usability of virtual lab network environments in Azure, creating a seamless experience for our engineers and contributing to an excellent customer support experience.

Using infrastructure as code for automation and consistency

Maintaining a catalog of network topologies is crucial to MyWorkspace’s functionality because our support engineers’ needs vary based on their customer support scenarios. Using the network management service, MyWorkspace provides pre-defined templates created by the MyWorkspace team and validated by MSD security teams. MyWorkspace uses these templates to dynamically deploy network infrastructure for virtual lab environments.

By using Azure Resource Manager and Bicep templates, all network topologies are deployed and configured as IaC. The templates for these network topologies can be developed, tested, and updated independently, ensuring their functionality, usability, and reusability before being uploaded to the catalog.

Creating dynamic networks with Azure Firewall and hub and spoke topology

When deploying network templates, hub and spoke architecture is the foundational topology for the MyWorkspace network management service. This design facilitates network isolation by centralizing control, segmenting traffic, and enhancing security through Azure Firewall—located within the hub virtual network. A hub and spoke model provides the following benefits in our environment:

• Simplified management. A central hub simplifies management tasks, including traffic flow control, network policy management, traffic monitoring, and security measures enforcement.
• Integrated scalability. The hub and spoke model inherently supports scalability. With virtual network peering, up to 500 distinct virtual networks can be connected to the virtual network hub.
• Optimized resource usage. We can ensure efficient resource use by centralizing services and resources in the hub, such as removing peerings for unused virtual networks.
• Improved troubleshooting. Centralized traffic flow makes identifying and troubleshooting network issues easier, enhancing network reliability.
• Data security compliance. The hub and spoke model inherently enforces strict traffic segmentation, aiding in compliance with data security requirements and regulatory standards.

Azure Firewall serves as the central element in our hub and spoke network. By using Azure Firewall for traffic flow control and segment isolation, we gain several benefits, including:

• High throughput. With a throughput capacity of 100 gigabits, the Premium tier of Azure Firewall ensures that the network can handle even the most demanding workloads without compromising performance.
• Advanced security. The built-in transport layer security (TLS) inspection and intrusion detection capabilities provide an additional layer of security, ensuring that malicious traffic is detected and thwarted before it can harm the network.
• Direct API calls. Using the Azure Firewall API in Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, .NET, and additional languages enables us to deeply integrate Azure Firewall functionality into our automation framework.

Our team has worked closely with the Azure Firewall product team as Customer Zero—using Microsoft products internally within MSD. As a result, we’ve been able to provide feedback and use cases that the product team could use to improve features and functionality for Microsoft customers.

The partnership between MyWorkspace and the Azure Firewall Product team has been truly transformative. MyWorkspace’s role as an early adopter, serving as Customer Zero, has been instrumental in refining the product for external users.

—Varun Anantharaman, senior product manager, Azure Firewall product team

We’ve also pioneered new use cases for Azure Firewall, including NGINX server integration with Azure Firewall in the MyWorkspace network management service. This integration has brought flexibility to the network architecture, enabling the team to seamlessly support more inbound network flows.

With Azure Firewall’s seamless integration with Azure services, built-in high availability, automatic scaling, and robust logging and monitoring, it stands out as the primary choice for securing infrastructure.

“The partnership between MyWorkspace and the Azure Firewall Product team has been truly transformative,” says Varun Anantharaman, Senior Product Manager for the Azure Firewall product team. “MyWorkspace’s role as an early adopter, serving as Customer Zero, has been instrumental in refining the product for external users.”

Reducing cluster complexity with Azure Container Apps

To build the MyWorkspace network management service, our team required an Azure hosting service that would reduce the need for infrastructure configuration and allow developers to focus on code delivery. After analyzing the various options, we chose Azure Container Apps. Built on Kubernetes, Azure Container Apps abstracts the underlying cluster infrastructure, allowing configuration and management using simplified IaC and continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) deployment methods for rapid resource deployment.

We use the auto-scaling feature of Azure Container Apps to create simplified scaling rules based on events like HTTP requests, CPU usage, or queue message counts. With IaC, these scaling rules can be configured to accommodate microservice needs.

Azure Container App costs are tracked at the individual resource level, making it easier to understand and manage overall expenses. Since each Azure Container App is deployed as a separate microservice unit, scaling rules can be configured to place containers in an idle state during low resource use to reduce cost.

Enabling just-in-time access control with Azure Service Bus

Security and governance are crucial for creating more secure and compliant environments for our support engineers. We use just-in-time (JIT) access to grant temporary access to virtual lab environments for authorized users for a limited time. JIT access improves security and avoids persistent access to deployed network infrastructure. JIT sessions have a minimum duration of 1 hour and a maximum of 10 hours.

We’re using Azure Service Bus scheduled messages to track the precise expiration of these sessions. With scheduled messages, we calculate the desired expiry time for each virtual lab session and schedule a message using the expiry time using the Message API.

Azure Service Bus automatically activates the scheduled message when the scheduled expiration time arrives. This message triggers the session deactivation microservice listening to the Service Bus for messages.

Using Azure Service Bus decreases complexity by removing the need for custom messaging code or session tracking logic in each microservice component. It also allows for precise deactivation of JIT sessions at the exact moment they expire.

Service Message Bus supports instant scalability to accommodate increased workload without decreased performance. It also efficiently handles messaging by sending and processing messages only when they’re due, without requiring dedicated resources or continual open polling.

The network management service uses Azure technology to provide a compliant and efficient software as a service (SaaS) solution for deploying network topology in MyWorkspace. This helps us deliver a virtual lab environment to more than 18,000 Microsoft employees that’s secure by design, optimizes user productivity, eliminates hardware costs, and provides good stewardship over Azure resources.

• Adopt infrastructure as code: Use Azure Resource Manager and Bicep templates to deploy and maintain your Azure resources efficiently and consistently.
• Take advantage of hub and spoke architecture. Implement a hub and spoke network model in Azure to benefit from simplified management, integrated scalability, and enhanced security.
• Maximize Azure Firewall capabilities. Explore the advanced features of Azure Firewall—like the Premium tier’s high throughput—for efficient traffic flow control and enhanced network security.
• Implement JIT access with Azure Service Bus. Improve security by enabling just-in-time access controls using Azure Service Bus scheduled messages for precise session tracking.
• Simplify microservice infrastructure with Azure Container Apps. Use Azure Container Apps to abstract Kubernetes cluster infrastructure and employ auto-scaling features for optimal resource utilization.

Try deploying your resources with PowerShell and Bicep.

• Read the first blog in our “Moving our network to the cloud” series.
• Read the second blog in our “Moving our network to the cloud” series.

Please share your feedback with us—take our survey and let us know what kind of content is most useful to you.

The post Building resilient and secure virtual labs with Azure Firewall, Azure Container Apps, and Service Bus appeared first on Inside Track Blog.