Summary:
Over the past decade, Azure Networking has expanded rapidly, bringing incredible tools to help customers build, connect and secure their cloud infrastructure. But with over 40 different products, finding the right solution could sometimes prove to be challenging for clients.
This is why the brand is introducing a more focused and streamlined experience across Azure.com, the Azure portal, and their documentation. The following FAQ details the changes that have been made, as well as why and how they boost customer satisfaction.
Table of Contents:
Which are the 4 main types of networking products/ services Azure Networking offers?
What improvements can I expect in my Azure Networking customer experience?
How is Azure Networking changing?
Question #1: Which are the 4 main types of networking products/ services Azure Networking offers?
Answer: Network foundations: Network foundations provide the core connectivity for your resources, using Virtual Network, Private Link, and DNS to build the foundation for your Azure network. Try it with this link: Network foundations
Hybrid connectivity: Hybrid connectivity securely connects on-premises, private, and public cloud environments, enabling seamless integration, global availability, and end-to-end visibility, presenting major opportunities as organizations advance their cloud transformation.
Try it with this link: Hybrid connectivity
Load balancing and content delivery: Load balancing and content delivery helps you choose the right option to ensure your applications are fast, reliable, and tailored to your business needs.
Try it with this link: Load balancing and content delivery
Network security: Securing your environment is just as essential as building and connecting it. The Network Security hub brings together Azure Firewall, DDoS Protection, and Web Application Firewall (WAF) to provide a centralized, unified approach to cloud protection. With unified controls, it helps you manage security more efficiently and strengthen your security posture.
Try it with this link: Network security
Question #2: What improvements can I expect in my Azure Networking customer experience?
Answer: Clearer starting points: Azure Networking is now organized around four core scenarios and twelve essential services, reflecting the most common customer needs. Additional services are presented within the context of these scenarios, helping you stay focused and find the right solution without feeling overwhelmed.
Simplified choices: We’ve merged overlapping or closely related services to reduce redundancy. That means fewer, more meaningful options that are easier to evaluate and act on.
Sunsetting outdated services: To reduce clutter and improve clarity, we’re sunsetting underused offerings such as white-label CDN services and China CDN. These capabilities have been rolled into newer, more robust services, so you can focus on what’s current and supported.
Question #3: How is Azure Networking changing?
Answer:
Azure.com:
Before: Our original Solution page on Azure.com was disorganized and static, displaying a small portion of services in no discernable order.
After: The revised solution page is now dynamic, allowing customers to click deeper into each networking and network security category, displaying the top line services, simplifying the customer experience.
Azure Portal:
Before: With over 40 networking services available, we know it can feel overwhelming to figure out what’s right for you and where to get started.
After: To make it easier, we've introduced four streamlined networking hubs each built around a specific scenario to help you quickly identify the services that match your needs. Each offers an overview to set the stage, key services to help you get started, guidance to support decision-making, and a streamlined left-hand navigation for easy access to all services and features.
Documentation: For documentation, we looked at our current assets as well as created new assets that aligned with the changes in the portal experience. Like Azure.com, we found the old experiences were disorganized and not well aligned. We updated our assets to focus on our top-line networking services, and to call out the pillars. Our belief is these changes will allow our customers to more easily find the relevant and important information they need for their Azure infrastructure.
Azure Network Hub: Before the updates, we had a hub page organized around different categories and not well laid out. In the updated hub page, we provided relevant links for top-line services within all of the Azure networking scenarios, as well as a section linking to each scenario's hub page.