We initially investigated pricing details because we needed the costing information for Azure Firewall. We then implemented basic traffic filtering using Azure Firewall standard features. We used a hub and spoke topology to centralize the security controls, setting up Azure Firewall in our hub and spoke topology with standard features. Azure Firewall has a feature for filtering traffic from suspicious IPs or other threats. We needed to prevent those calls from accessing our API, which required us to route our requests in a filtering way. For logging in our project, we use a logging mechanism in our internal environment. We integrated our logging module into Azure Firewall, ensuring only specific authenticated users can access this logging for auditing purposes. Azure Firewall makes our tasks easier; otherwise, we would have to do many extra things manually to secure our APIs and requests. We have integrated Azure Monitor and Log Analytics, making logs easily visible in our Log Analytics. Azure Firewall is very compatible with integrating with other Azure services, which made our tasks for logging and development security much easier overall. Diagnosing blocked traffic was initially challenging because we didn't know how to diagnose and integrate Azure Firewall with other Azure services for storing logs in Log Analytics. Tracking suspicious activities was also challenging at first because we had to learn to use Azure Firewall effectively. The threat intelligence-based filtering in Azure Firewall uses Microsoft threat intelligence, which leverages AI and machine learning. There are some threat intelligence-based filtering features in the app and integration with Microsoft Sentinel. Currently, the AI-related features supported by Azure Firewall seem sufficient, though I cannot recommend too much as I have not thoroughly tested all those features. I recommend Azure Firewall because any development activities or software must address security, threat intelligence, filtering, and TLS termination. Doing these manually or programmatically would be very difficult. Azure Firewall simplifies everything, securing our APIs and systems so that suspicious IPs do not access our sophisticated systems.
