Connecting your on-premises network to Azure

Many organizations have an existing on-premises infrastructure that they wish to integrate with Azure. This enables organizations to migrate existing applications to the cloud, and also to take advantage of the scalability, availability, security, and other enterprise features that Azure offers for new applications. The key part of this scenario is understanding how to establish a secure and robust network connection between your organization and Azure.

The patterns & practices group has created a set of reference architectures to address these scenarios. Each reference architecture demonstrates one approach to creating hybrid networks with Azure, and includes:

  • Recommendations and best practices.
  • Considerations for availability, security, scalability, and manageability.
  • An Azure Resource Manager template that you can modify and deploy.

This article gives a summary of each reference architecture, and helps you to decide which solution will best meet your needs.

Using a virtual private network connection

You can use Azure VPN Gateway to create a virtual private network (VPN) connection for sending network traffic between Azure virtual networks and on-premises locations. The network traffic flows between the on-premises network and an Azure Virtual Network (VNet) through an IPSec VPN tunnel.

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This architecture is suitable for hybrid applications where the traffic between on-premises hardware and the cloud is likely to be light, or it is beneficial to trade slightly extended latency for the flexibility and processing power of the cloud.

Benefits:

  • Simple to configure.

Considerations:

  • Requires an on-premises VPN device.
  • Although Microsoft guarantee 99.9% availability for each VPN Gateway, this SLA only covers the VPN gateway, and not your network connection to the gateway.
  • A VPN connection over Azure VPN Gateway currently supports a maximum of 200 Mbps bandwidth. You may need to partition your Azure virtual network across multiple VPN connections if you expect to exceed this throughput.

Using an Azure Express Route connection

ExpressRoute connections are high bandwidth network connections that use a private dedicated link made through a third-party connectivity provider. The private connection extends your on-premises network into Azure providing access to your own IaaS infrastructure in Azure, public endpoints used in PaaS services, and Office365 SaaS services.

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This architecture is suitable for hybrid applications with the following characteristics:

  • Applications running large-scale, mission-critical workloads that require a high degree of scalability.
  • Large-scale backup and restore facilities for data that must be saved off-site.
  • Handling Big Data workloads.
  • Using Azure as a disaster-recovery site.

Benefits of using an Express Route connections:

  • Much higher bandwidth available; up to 10 Gbps depending on the connectivity provider.
  • Supports dynamic scaling of bandwidth to help reduce costs during periods of lower demand. However, not all connectivity providers have this option.
  • May allow your organization direct access to national clouds, depending on the connectivity provider.
  • 9% availability SLA across the entire connection.

Considerations for using an Express Route connection:

  • Can be complex to set up. Creating an Express Route connection requires working with a third-party connectivity provider. The provider is responsible for provisioning the network connection.
  • Requires high bandwidth routers on-premises.

Using Azure VPN Gateway to provide a failover connection for Azure Express Route

Any network can suffer outages. If you are running mission critical services in Azure, you will require a fallback position <!– option? –>, possibly with reduced bandwidth. For example, you can provide a VPN connection alongside an ExpressRoute circuit. Under normal circumstances, the traffic flows between the on-premises network and an Azure virtual network through the ExpressRoute connection. If there is a loss of connectivity in the ExpressRoute circuit, traffic will be routed through an IPSec VPN tunnel instead.

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Benefits of using a failover VPN connection:

  • High availability in the event of an Express Route circuit failure, although the fallback connection is on a lower bandwidth network.

Considerations for using a failover VPN connection:

  • Complex to configure. You need to set up both a VPN connection and an ExpressRoute circuit.
  • Requires redundant hardware (VPN appliances), and a redundant Azure VPN Gateway connection for which you pay charges.