Preface

In a world heavily dependent on cloud services, understanding and managing cloud network infrastructure is critical. In this book, you will gain both the knowledge and the practical skills to plan, design, implement, manage, and secure networks in the Azure cloud.

This book is also a comprehensive guide designed for those who are preparing for the Azure Network Engineer certification exam (AZ-700) and for those interested in mastering the Azure networking infrastructure. You will dive deep into concepts such as hybrid networking, routing, securing, and monitoring networks, as well as implementing private access to Azure services using native Azure capabilities.

Complete with hands-on labs, this book will take you beyond foundational knowledge to having a clear understanding of key design principles and implementation best practices. By the end of this book, you will be fully equipped and ready to architect and deploy highly scalable, performance-efficient networks in the Azure cloud.

Who this book is for

This book is aimed at new and experienced IT professionals, network engineers, cloud administrators, and architects with interests in planning, designing, implementing, managing, and securing networks in the cloud.

Technical professionals who are preparing to take the Azure Network Engineer certification exam (AZ-700) will also benefit tremendously from reading this book.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Azure Networking Fundamentals, introduces core concepts of Azure networking, such as virtual networks, public and private IP addressing, network segmentation using subnets, and routing concepts.

Chapter 2, Design and Implement Name Resolution, covers the four DNS implementation options for virtual networks in Azure and their use cases: Azure-provided name resolution, customer-managed DNS servers, Azure DNS private zones, and Azure DNS public zones.

Chapter 3, Design, Implement, and Manage VNet Routing, explains Azure routing, and you will create custom routes to control traffic flow. You will learn how to redirect traffic through network virtual appliances so you can inspect the traffic before it’s allowed through. You will also learn how to implement Azure Route Server – a fully managed service that simplifies dynamic routing between your network virtual appliance (NVA) and Azure Virtual Network.

Chapter 4, Design and Implement Cross-VNet Connectivity, covers the design and implementation of cross-VNet connectivity using VNet peering.

Chapter 5, Design and Implement Hybrid Network Connectivity with VPN Gateway, covers one of the diverse options to connect remote users and networks to networks in Azure offered by the Azure cloud – the Azure VPN Gateway service, which allows us to create a secure connection between remote networks and Azure VNets over the public internet.

Chapter 6, Design and Implement Hybrid Network Connectivity with an ExpressRoute Gateway, explores the implementation of ExpressRoute, another gateway service offered by Azure, as an alternative solution for remote network connectivity. ExpressRoute connections bypass the public internet, which means that traffic takes fewer hops and has fewer points of failure that could cause network disruption.

Chapter 7, Design and Implement an Azure Virtual WAN Architecture, explains how to design a scalable network architecture in Azure using the VWAN service.

Chapter 8, Design and Implement Network Security, looks into securing the Azure network perimeter and VNet workloads using native capabilities such as DDoS protection, Azure Firewall, and Azure Firewall Manager.

Chapter 9, Design and Implement Application Delivery Services, discusses the four main load balancing services in Azure (Load Balancer, Application Gateway, Front Door, and Traffic Manager) and aspects to consider when designing and implementing these services.

Chapter 10, Design and Implement Platform Service Connectivity, looks at the three main options to control network connections to services when deploying platform services outside of customer-managed virtual networks in Azure (a platform service firewall, a service endpoint, and a private endpoint). This chapter will provide you with a clear understanding of these three options and how to design and implement them.

Chapter 11, Monitoring Networks in Azure, covers network monitoring and diagnostics – essential components in maintaining the smooth functioning and optimal performance of a network infrastructure. In this chapter, we will cover the tools available in Azure Network Watcher that we can use to monitor and diagnose network services.

To get the most out of this book

Foundation-level knowledge of the Azure cloud platform as well as a general knowledge of networking concepts are required to get the most out of this book.

Software/hardware covered in the book	Operating system requirements
A PC with an internet connection and a web browser	Windows, macOS, or Linux
An Azure subscription

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code from the book’s GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Designing-and-Implementing-Microsoft-Azure-Networking-Solutions. If there’s an update to the code, it will be updated in the GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Load balancer.”

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Select System info from the Administration panel.”

Tips or important notes

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