Azure Firewall – When to Choose Which SKU

 Azure Firewall – When to Choose Which SKU

🔹 1. Azure Firewall Basic

Choose when:

• You are a small or mid-sized customer.

• Use case is non-critical: dev/test environments, pilot projects.

• You have limited throughput needs (< 250 VMs / < 100 Mbps).

• You don’t need advanced security like TLS inspection or IDPS.

• Budget is a concern.

Not for: Production enterprise workloads, regulated industries, or internet-facing apps.

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🔹 2. Azure Firewall Standard

Choose when:

• You need enterprise-grade L3–L7 filtering.

• You want Threat Intelligence filtering, custom DNS, and FQDN filtering.

• Workloads include internet access, north-south, or east-west traffic.

• You are running production apps that are not highly regulated.

• You want integration with Azure Monitor and Azure Sentinel for visibility.

Best for: Most production workloads in mid-large environments.

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🔹 3. Azure Firewall Premium

Choose when:

• Your apps handle PII, PHI, or financial data.

• You are in a regulated industry (banking, healthcare, government).

• You need TLS inspection (SSL decryption) for outbound traffic control.

• You need Intrusion Detection & Prevention (IDPS).

• You want URL category-based access control (not just FQDN logging).

• You face sophisticated threats or require zero-trust egress control.

Best for: High-security workloads, compliance-sensitive environments, e-commerce, or hybrid apps with critical data.

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📝 Summary Recommendations

Scenario	Recommended SKU
Dev/Test Environment	✅ Basic
Small Business with ~100 VMs	✅ Basic
Production Workload (General Enterprise)	✅ Standard
Public-facing App with Egress Control	✅ Standard or Premium
PCI, HIPAA, or Financial Compliance	✅ Premium
Need for TLS/SSL Outbound Decryption	✅ Premium
Advanced Threat Protection & IDPS	✅ Premium
Cost-Optimized Centralized Firewall	✅ Standard (with Autoscaling)

Basic vs Standard Vs Premium 

Feature	Basic	Standard	Premium
Use Case	Small orgs, dev/test	Enterprise prod environments	High-security regulated workloads
Deployment Scale	Up to 100 Mbps throughput	Scales with VMSS (Gbps+)	Scales with VMSS (Gbps+)
Availability Zones	✅ Zone-redundant (select regions)	✅ Zone-redundant	✅ Zone-redundant
Threat Intelligence-based Filtering	❌	✅ Alert & deny modes	✅ Alert & deny modes
TLS/SSL Inspection	❌	❌	✅ Yes (with cert management)
IDPS (Intrusion Detection/Prevention)	❌	❌	✅ Signature-based
Web Categories (FQDN Filtering)	❌	✅ URL category logging	✅ + URL category filtering
Custom DNS / DNS Proxy	❌	✅	✅
FQDN Tags & Service Tags	✅ Basic tags	✅ All available tags	✅ All available tags
SNAT/DNAT Support	✅	✅	✅
Network & Application Rules	✅	✅	✅
Pricing	Lowest	Moderate	Highest
Azure Policy Integration	✅	✅	✅
Logging & Monitoring	Basic Logs	Full diagnostic logs	Full diagnostic logs + Threat logs