What is our primary use case?
Microsoft Azure VPN Gateway is used to connect our data center to our cloud deployments, or at least some of them.
What is most valuable?
API Management, Stream Analytics, and Azure Analytics are tools in the toolkit that help to make Azure more transparent. I mostly work with virtual machines, enterprise applications, and Azure DevOps.
VPN Gateway, among many others we use. We deploy our own enterprise apps, of course, we use them.
The interoperability with various firewall and access gateway vendors is one of this solution's most valuable features.
What needs improvement?
In the past, reliability has not been great. Deployment has not been simple. Getting it to run is a difficult process.
With one being the easiest experience and five being the most difficult, I would give the deployment process a three and a half out of five.
Make it completely routable, for example, if I have a gateway, I should be able to connect to whatever network I want on either side of the gateway, and the gateway should figure out which packet goes where.
This is a traditional firewall or network gateway administration that has been removed from the Azure VPN and Gateway functionality, which should just put it back where it belongs, because as it is now if you have three networks, three different networks on either side of Azure, you have to configure one gateway per network.
For how long have I used the solution?
As a principal cloud architect, I am working with Azure.
We first deployed Microsoft Azure VPN Gateway in July 2019. We have been working with it for three years.
We are working with the most current version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the Microsoft Azure VPN Gateway could be improved.
It could be better than it is right now.
I have been using open-source VPN appliances for the same purpose and they have fared quite a bit better than the Azure solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'm not sure how many people are using this solution in our organization, because we don't keep track of individual users accessing our Azure cloud infrastructure. It is used as an extension to our data center in this case. I'm not sure if every user on our network is using it, or if they are not.
It's similar to a cable. You have no idea how many people send traffic over a cable.
We have no plans to increase our usage in the future.
How are customer service and support?
There is technical support available, but the response time could be improved.
If one is the worst and five is the best, I would rate the technical support a three out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we did not use another solution.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment is not straightforward. It is a lot more complicated than you would expect it to be.
Because of the communication with the service provider, they needed to get their firewall management in order. The deployment took four hours over two days.
It is overly complicated, in my opinion. The networking restrictions make it difficult to use it for everything in Azure. You can only have one gateway active at a time, which is an annoyance.
What about the implementation team?
For our firewall and VPN gateway infrastructure, we use a managed service provider. I installed the Azure component myself and had the service provider install the component on our firewalls.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not aware of the licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
My advice is to only use it if absolutely necessary. If you have the option, don't.
I would rate Microsoft Azure VPN Gateway a four out of ten. It works, but it's not fun to use, and it's not universally usable, contrary to what they claim on the website.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.