Azure Global Vnet Peering – A Step Closer To MPLS Replacement

This year, Azure announced a global VNET peering preview during Ignite 2017. Global VNET peering enables customers to connect Azure networks in different regions by easily leveraging Azures global networking backbone. Many customers with a large number of globally distributed regional offices historically have not been too happy with the cost and performance of their global networking. For example, there are not enough internet breakouts to satisfy local performance needs, MPLS bandwidth for the remote office is less than provided by their local internet cafe, and overall IT in remote offices cost more than it should. Currently, the peering does not support transitive routing or gateway transit. Therefore a remote office connected to a VPN in a remote Azure region cannot leverage Azure Express Route connection in another region over global peering. When transitive routing becomes available, customers are able to reduce the MPLS costs and provide fast internet access in local offices. Office servers can be migrated to Azure leaving managed VPN/Firewall as the only infrastructure to be maintained, therefore greatly simplifying IT. MPLS replacement with Azure also requires many other management solutions to be compatible (such as compute endpoint management) but promises to be a way of reducing cost, simplifying operations and improving global network services. Nordcloud has years of experience in Azure core infrastructure solutions development, so please get in touch if you want to find out more.