I use the solution in my company to protect an external website.
Azure Consultant at CoreAzure
Protects external websites
Pros and Cons
- "The product's initial setup phase was easy."
- "The tool is a pain to deal with when it comes to the area of configuration."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The product's WAF was useful to protect against the OWASP attacks.
What needs improvement?
The tool is a pain to deal with when it comes to the area of configuration. Basically, users get a lot of false positives with the product. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement in the product.
I think the reporting elements could be a bit better in terms of having built-in reports, considering how everything has to be a cluster query when you write it, making it an area where users customize the tool. The reporting elements are an area with shortcomings in the tool that could be better as it would be useful to deal with false positives.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure Application Gateway for five months. I use the solution internally for my company. My company has a gold partnership with Microsoft.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is an easily scalable solution.
The tool is not meant for users since it is designed for public access; considering that, I would say that the solution provides protection to our company website, which has thousands of visitors.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is okay and not that good, considering that my company still has some existing tickets open with the support team, which are related to some login stuff. The problem with Microsoft is they outsource their support to vendors in other parts of the world, so it is like a lucky draw system, meaning you are lucky if you get someone good.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase was easy.
The solution can be deployed in a day.
What about the implementation team?
I deployed the solution by myself in my company.
What was our ROI?
The product's ROI is okay, in my opinion.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the product is okay. There is a need to pay a fixed price per month to use the product. There are no additional payments to be made to Microsoft apart from the charges paid towards the monthly licensing costs attached to the solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
My company had looked at the options offered by Cloudflare, but we decided to stick to the stack of services offered within Azure.
For most of our company's in-house resources, we are dependent on the cloud services offered by Microsoft, so it was easy to adopt Microsoft Azure Application Gateway in our organization.
What other advice do I have?
To utilize Microsoft Azure Application Gateway for managing web traffic load balancing in our company, we use products within the Azure landscape like Azure Load Balancer or Azure NAT Gateway.
In our company, we don't have multiple instances of the application to utilize Microsoft Azure Application Gateway for application-level routing and URL-based content distribution. There is pretty much just one instance to deal with in our company, which makes the use of the tool quite straightforward.
The tool's WAF provides a fairly adequate level of protection against common vulnerabilities.
The solution doesn't require any maintenance once it is deployed.
Integrating Azure Application Gateway with other Azure services in our company's existing infrastructure is a fairly seamless process.
I haven't had any issues with the scalability and performance of the product.
I would ask those who plan to use the solution in the future to plan the deployment so they have more time to analyze their data when using the WAF, and you need at least six months of history to see the traffic patterns and to get an alert on false positives.
I rate the product an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
DevOps Engineer at Stanbic
Adds an extra layer of security to our backend but expensive solution
Pros and Cons
- "We find it valuable because it is compatible with our existing Azure solution."
- "There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it to add an extra layer of security to our backend, protecting against denial-of-service attacks and other security threats.
What is most valuable?
We find it valuable because it is compatible with our existing Azure solution.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in the pricing model.
For how long have I used the solution?
We just recently implemented it and are still exploring its features.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable so far to our needs.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable so far to our needs.
How was the initial setup?
The setup process is easy to follow by just following the official documentation. We were able to set it up within a few hours.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is relatively expensive but still within our budget, especially compared to more expensive alternatives like Barracuda. There's no license. It's a cloud-based solution.
As we are already fully on Azure, it leverages other functionalities and remains cost-effective.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten.
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.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
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Senior Cloud Infrustructure Engineer at LogicEra
Provides high availability, redundancy, and load balancing for deployed applications
What is our primary use case?
Application Gateway is a tool service that provides high availability, redundancy, and load balancing for deployed applications on the cloud.
What is most valuable?
Application Gateway is cost-effective and has autoscaling. We can autoscale it.
What needs improvement?
The application gateway is good, but performance improvement in the containerization environment is needed.
The traffic that relies on HTTP for a website is being manually configured to HTTPS. This process should be automated. If the protocol is HTTP, it should automatically redirect to HTTPS.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure Application Gateway for one and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is acceptable, but we are encountering issues configuring the container environment. Apart from that, the performance is satisfactory.
I rate the solution’s stability as seven out of ten, but I rate it as nine out of ten for normal applications.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have over three hundred customers, most of whom utilize Azure Application Gateway. Some are in the government sector, while others are in the private sector.
I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft's support is lacking. Their technical expertise seems insufficient, and when issues arise, the support personnel often request screenshots and provide only minimal information. Despite numerous emails and interactions with various technical support personnel, the initial support experience is subpar. The response is very fast, but they're not technical questions, as we need.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I rate the initial setup a ten out of ten for technical users and an eight out of ten for non-technical users. It's a one-time application. However, once configured, it becomes very easy to manage. Deployment takes 20-30 minutes, depending on the number of applications and servers we are configuring.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is cheap.
What other advice do I have?
A WAF, a robust firewall solution, has been built into the Azure portal. Two models are available. The WAF is also integrated with the Application Gateway, providing comprehensive security for your cloud applications.
This security feature applies to traditional VM applications running on VMs and extends to autoscaling nodes in containerized environments.
The Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a highly beneficial and flexible feature for facilitating the development of our applications and obtaining necessary certifications, thus sustaining our business operations. It offers scalability and high availability, which are crucial for meeting our growing needs. The Application Gateway serves as the sole solution for providing these capabilities, eliminating the need for developing such features in-house. It's an all-in-one solution that perfectly fulfills our requirements.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Last updated: Jun 3, 2024
Flag as inappropriateAzure Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Has a a smooth integration and facilitate easy management and monitoring, but they should add additional features
Pros and Cons
- "In my experience, Microsoft products have a smooth integration and facilitate easy management and monitoring. Using Azure Application Gateway allows us to efficiently handle the system loads."
- "I believe that there is room for improvement in terms of additional functionality. It is an advantage to have features readily available for configuration without needing customer-defined rules."
What is our primary use case?
We are regular users of Azure Application Gateway. It is a very cost efficient option for customers and it has its own advantages. However, when there are urgent concerns regarding security I recommend utilising the web application firewall for its enhanced features and configuration options since Azure lacks functionalities and has its own limitations when handling suspicious requests.
What is most valuable?
Usually, there is a recommendation from Microsoft about integrating Azure Application Gateway with other services like Monitor and Sentinel, so that there is seamless log forwarding and rule management. However, other options involve much more extensive configuration and scripting. In my experience, Microsoft products have a smooth integration and facilitate easy management and monitoring. Using Azure Application Gateway allows us to efficiently handle the system loads.
What needs improvement?
There is a recent feature called Application Policies which has been available. This policy allows us to enable or disable specific security signatures or features related to backend operations. According to the manual provided by Microsoft, this feature is very flexible in managing security and strategies for maintenance. However, in our experience, we have found that modifying these policies has a tremendous impact on the functionality of the application gateway. While it is necessary to adjust the settings, it should be a process of caution since these rules could potentially expose applications to security risks.
Multiple options exist to configure the number of instances and scale responses based on load increases. However, I believe that there is room for improvement in terms of additional functionality. It is an advantage to have features readily available for configuration without needing customer-defined rules. This feature is already available in products like Barracuda and would be great if they are included in the future versions of Application Gateway.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Microsoft Azure Application Gateway for the past two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability a six out of ten because there are some malicious requests.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Sometimes, technical support may require escalation to higher-level experts, particularly when dealing with complex issues.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
I would rate the initial setup a seven out of ten, since it is simple and does not take a lot of time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the integration with other applications a nine out of ten. Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Last updated: May 16, 2024
Flag as inappropriateEasy to use, helpful automatic scaling, and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is its ease of use."
- "Microsoft Azure Application Gateway could improve by allowing features to use more third-party tools."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Microsoft Azure Application Gateway for load balancing and for an additional layer of security.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is its ease of use.
What needs improvement?
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway could improve by allowing features to use more third-party tools.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure Application Gateway for approximately six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the stability of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is great and can be done automatically.
We are doing approximately 10,000 requests per second.
How are customer service and support?
The wait time for a response from the support can be too long. Additionally, we have called repeatedly and we did not have a good experience.
I rate the support from Microsoft Azure Application Gateway a seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used Imprivata OneSign and F5 prior to switching to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway because of the better cloud performance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the price of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway an eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
The initial setup of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is simple when you follow the instructions.
I rate Microsoft Azure Application Gateway an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Cloud solution architect at Ernst & Young
Helps to do load balancing of applications but needs to improve performance and support
Pros and Cons
- "We use the product in front-end and back-end applications to do the load balancing smartly."
- "The product's performance should be better."
What is our primary use case?
We use the product in front-end and back-end applications to do the load balancing smartly.
What needs improvement?
The product's performance should be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate Microsoft Azure Application Gateway's stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool's scalability is good. My company has 500 users for the solution.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway's support could be faster.
How was the initial setup?
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway's setup is neither complex nor easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Optum
A Stable and Scalable Web Traffic Load Balancer which is Easy- to- Setup and is Secure
Pros and Cons
- "The security feature in all the layers of the application is the most valuable."
- "The support can be improved when you are configuring the system rules. The Disaster Recovery feature can be added in the next release. The price of the solution can be reduced a bit."
What is our primary use case?
We're using it to expose our application but the main purpose is to make use of the web in a location.
How has it helped my organization?
We have increased the security so now our infrastructure is more secure. And all the inbound traffic is passing through the WAF and not our application because we have some APIs, based on the encryption apps. So we are changing on the previous load balancer with this application gateway.
What is most valuable?
The security feature in all the layers of the application is the most valuable.
What needs improvement?
The support can be improved when you are configuring the system rules.
The Disaster Recovery feature can be added in the next release.
The price of the solution can be reduced a bit.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. I rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support team is not very good. I rate them six out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the solution can be reduced a bit.
What other advice do I have?
We are migrating to the application gateway, not to the reduce the cost. We are migrating because we want to reduce the latency to the user.
I recommend the solution if you want to review the response time. So you need to understand why did you want to use it and if your application matches with the other source.
I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution comes with a strong WAF module but needs more features added to it
Pros and Cons
- "I find Application Gateway’s WAF module valuable because it helps prevent layer 7 attacks."
- "I find Application Gateway’s WAF module valuable because it helps prevent layer 7 attacks."
- "Application Gateway’s limitation is that the private and the public endpoint cannot use the same port."
- "Application Gateway’s limitation is that the private and the public endpoint cannot use the same port."
What is our primary use case?
Our client is using three to four applications. One use case is with the integration layer, which has the website running on the web app. It interacts with different applications and with their on-premise SAP solution as well. This app service works as an integration layer between the SAP solution and other different applications. The solution also has its patient application running, which is the patient appointment system, since our client is a healthcare organization. That separate application also runs on App Service and is deployed on Application Gateway.
What is most valuable?
I find its Application Gateway's WAF module valuable because it helps prevent layer 7 attacks.
What needs improvement?
Application Gateway’s limitation is that the private and the public endpoint cannot use the same port. But I believe they are working on it.
Another shortcoming is that the maximum permissive size for the request body size is two MB, and it needs to be increased up to five MB or more. Some other third-party solutions or even AWS provides better request body size in this regard.
I would like to see some more features in WAF with the next release to make it more competitive with leading web solution providers. When we compare the WAF with other solutions like F5’s WAF, Application Gateway’s WAF has fewer features.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution's stability a seven out of ten. It took us four or five months to optimize the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate Application Gateway's scalability a ten out of ten because it is very good. It has an autoscale feature. The solution is being used on close to 200 endpoints. My client is a medium-sized healthcare business.
How are customer service and support?
Sometimes customer support puts issues in loops, where they take us through L1 and L2, and it takes some time to get to the right person who can address the issue.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
I rate the initial setup an eight-point-five out of ten because it is easy. Deploying the solution takes a day or so, but all the configurations, working with the application team, and optimizations take time. Usually, it takes three to four days.
While deploying the solution, we gathered application data first, such as the URLs which we needed to run the app services, health probe ports, the certificates from the customer, and any custom flash rules which may need to be created. We gathered all the information from the customer and the customer's development teams.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the pricing seven out of ten because some third-party solutions are even costlier than this. The product's price is good considering the set of features it provides. There is no cost in licensing, but they charge us based on the size of the application gateway, the data being transferred, and the gateway's scalability.
What other advice do I have?
The solution's app service and application gateway took us eight months to implement. It's a huge infrastructure.
If you are considering using Application Gateway, you have to understand the application flow thoroughly. If it will be an integration layer where you might face a lot of issues, counseling with the developers and the customer's teams is very important. The solution requires optimization from the WAF perspective as well as timeouts and other settings. It may take some time to stabilize. The product is stable, but I rate it a seven out of ten based on the features I've seen in competitors, like third-party dedicated WAF solutions, which provide a lot more flexibility and features to their customers. However, they are more costly. And when you have to design scalable solutions, they cost a lot more.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
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Updated: January 2025
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