Microsoft announced that the new Premium tier for its cloud-based managed network security service Azure Firewall was released as a public preview today.
Azure Firewall requires zero maintenance and provides customers with protection for their Azure Virtual Network resources, as well as unlimited cloud scalability and seamless deployment.
The public preview of Azure Firewall Premium adds new capabilities required by highly sensitive and regulated environments.
“Azure Firewall Premium uses Firewall Policy, a global resource that can be used to centrally manage firewalls using Azure Firewall Manager,” Microsoft said.
“Starting with this release, all new features will be configured only through Firewall Policy. This includes TLS Inspection, IDPS, URL filtering, web categories capability, and more.”
Customers will still be able to use Firewall Rules (Classic) to configure existing features for Standard Firewall, while Firewall Policy can be managed independently or with the help of Azure Firewall manager.
The TLS Inspection feature blocks the transmission of malware over encrypted connections, and IDPS (short for intrusion detection and prevention system) helps identify and block malicious traffic and activities.
Azure Firewall Premium also allows you to restrict access to web content using built-in URL filtering and enhanced content filtering capabilities through the Web Categories feature.
To deploy and configure Azure Firewall Premium Preview, you need a free account and an Azure subscription.
Microsoft provides the template required to deploy a complete Azure Firewall Premium test environment.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
