{"id":9479,"date":"2023-01-20T07:35:16","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T15:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=9479"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:32:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:32:40","slug":"enhancing-microsofts-security-posture-with-microsoft-azure-firewall-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/enhancing-microsofts-security-posture-with-microsoft-azure-firewall-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhancing Microsoft\u2019s security posture with Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>We periodically update our stories, but we can\u2019t verify that they represent the full picture of our current situation at Microsoft. We leave them on the site so you can see what our thinking and experience was at the time.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"122\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7436 alignright\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/ms-digital-stories-300x122.png\" alt=\"Microsoft Digital stories\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/ms-digital-stories-300x122.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/ms-digital-stories.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Imagine an enterprise company with dozens or hundreds of firewalls, each with its own set of policies for keeping corporate networks secure. That was the situation here at Microsoft until our IT teams started using Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager.<\/p>\n<p>This platform helped streamline and centralize their control over our large firewall ecosystems. It also cleared the way for insights into the thousands of policies spread out across the company. We just needed the right tool to make it a reality.<\/p>\n<p>To accomplish that goal, our Microsoft Azure Firewall product team developed the new Policy Analytics feature for Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager, <a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/strengthen-your-security-with-policy-analytics-for-azure-firewall\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">now available to all customers in public preview<\/a>. With Policy Analytics, cloud network engineers can identify and remedy rule-based vulnerabilities before they become liabilities. <iframe title=\"Managing Microsoft\u2019s corporate firewalls with Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4EnLgGEstJw\" aria-labelledby=\"Managing Microsoft\u2019s corporate firewalls with Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager\"><\/iframe><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4EnLgGEstJw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4EnLgGEstJw<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: -5px;\"><em>Beth Garrison, a principal service engineer at Microsoft, uses Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager to configure and manage corporate firewalls, all while protecting company data.<\/em><\/div>\n<h2>Streamlining and consolidating with Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager<\/h2>\n<p>This journey began roughly five years ago. The Microsoft Azure team recognized that maintaining multiple firewalls in isolation can be a headache. First, there\u2019s the need to manually update numerous individual firewalls. At the same time, threat definitions and newly discovered software weak points demand constant attention. That kind of maintenance requires immense effort from engineers. The solution? Virtualizing traditional hardware firewalls into a SaaS environment with <a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/products\/azure-firewall\/?OCID=AIDcmm5edswduu_SEM_a3c592e45a9a19b637a2f19902826ed5:G:s&amp;ef_id=a3c592e45a9a19b637a2f19902826ed5:G:s&amp;msclkid=a3c592e45a9a19b637a2f19902826ed5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Microsoft Azure Firewall<\/a> and consolidating control over the entire ecosystem with <a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/products\/firewall-manager\/?OCID=AIDcmm5edswduu_SEM_72c2d79cf1211dedeb83b4e1a93c4ea8:G:s&amp;ef_id=72c2d79cf1211dedeb83b4e1a93c4ea8:G:s&amp;msclkid=72c2d79cf1211dedeb83b4e1a93c4ea8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"quote-body\"><p>Being able to manage firewalls as a fleet and have the operational optics into the health and welfare of the firewalls, along with the ability to manage things from a holistic perspective, has tremendous benefits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"source\">\u2014Tom McCleery, principal engineering manager, Microsoft Digital<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Since going live in 2019, Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager has drastically improved corporate network management both internally at Microsoft and for our enterprise customers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9486\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9486\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9486 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/01\/10448_image001-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"Garrison smiles in a portrait photo.\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/01\/10448_image001-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/01\/10448_image001.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9486\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beth Garrison works on the team that created the Policy Analytics feature for Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There are several benefits for IT practitioners. First, it offers a central location where system engineers can update threat definitions then rapidly deploy them across the cloud. At the same time, a unified ecosystem allows for mass creation and distribution of rules and policies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Being able to manage firewalls as a fleet and have the operational optics into the health and welfare of the firewalls, along with the ability to manage things from a holistic perspective, has tremendous benefits,\u201d says Tom McCleery, principal engineering manager with Microsoft Digital.<\/p>\n<p>Teams can also customize firewall rules for specific regions by defining policies that inherit characteristics from a baseline. This helps enforce a centrally defined policy while providing flexibility for administrators to customize firewall rules.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The main benefit for me as an engineer is time,\u201d says Beth Garrison, principal cloud network engineer for Microsoft Digital. \u201cI spend less time making these small changes and more time focusing on improving our network service. That\u2019s more time focusing on complex network problems instead of managing individual firewall updates.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>The need for an all-up policy analytics solution<\/h2>\n<p>Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/microsoft-azure-firewall-protects-microsofts-network-with-azure-firewall-manager\/\">successful internal implementation<\/a> significantly improved day-to-day operations for our cloud network engineers. But an organization\u2019s network security policies constantly evolve to keep pace with workloads. Over time, network and application rules change and can lose their efficacy, impacting the firewall\u2019s performance and security. For example, applications might migrate to a new network, but rules referencing the former network remain. Or teams could unknowingly duplicate rules throughout a policy hierarchy. At an organization like Microsoft with more than 80 firewalls in operation, those kinds of problems can scale rapidly. As a result, Microsoft Digital engineers need to keep a close eye on policies.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"quote-body\"><p>Policy analytics was one of the most sought-after features in Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager. What out-of-the-box experience could give us a sense of what happens with our policies or how we\u2019re using rules? How can I improve my security posture or the performance of the firewall?<\/p>\n<p class=\"source\">\u2014Mark Gakman, senior product manager, Microsoft Azure Firewall product team<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cPolicy management is a very process-heavy operation in general,\u201d McCleery says. \u201cAcross the several thousand virtual networks we oversee, managing rules is our top volume.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To streamline Microsoft Digital&#8217;s efforts and combat vulnerabilities, the logical next step was providing visibility into policy management over time to generate actionable insights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPolicy analytics was one of the most sought-after features in Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager,\u201d says Mark Gakman, senior product manager on the Azure Firewall product team. \u201cWhat out-of-the-box experience could give us a sense of what happens with our policies or how we\u2019re using rules? How can I improve my security posture or the performance of the firewall?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A collaboration between Microsoft Azure engineers and Microsoft Digital led to Policy Analytics for Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager.<\/p>\n<h2>Policy Analytics with Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager<\/h2>\n<p>Our Policy Analytics feature focuses on providing oversight on all rules in operation across an enterprise\u2019s entire firewall ecosystem.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9485\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9485\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9485 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/01\/10448_image002.jpg\" alt=\"The insights dashboard within Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager\u2019s Policy Analytics feature.\" width=\"850\" height=\"682\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/01\/10448_image002.jpg 850w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/01\/10448_image002-300x241.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/01\/10448_image002-768x616.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/01\/10448_image002-500x400.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9485\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Policy Analytics feature for Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager provides insights into network rules across a consolidated firewall ecosystem.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Four key Policy Analytics features deliver insights for network engineers:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"c-list\">\n<li><strong>Firewall flow logs<\/strong> display the traffic flowing through Microsoft Azure Firewall, hit rates, and network and application rule matches. This view helps identify top flows across all rules, filtered by specific sources, destinations, ports, and protocols.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rule analytics<\/strong> present traffic flows mapped to destination network address translation (DNAT), network, and application rules. This provides enhanced visibility into all flows matching a rule over time. As a result, users can analyze rules across both parent and child policies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The policy insight panel<\/strong> aggregates insights and highlights recommendations to optimize Microsoft Azure Firewall policies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Single-rule analysis<\/strong> analyzes traffic flows matching the selected rule, then recommends optimizations based on intelligent insights.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These features help Microsoft Digital cloud network engineers identify patterns associated with different kinds of vulnerabilities including fat flows, top talkers, underutilized rules, and duplicate policies. For the Microsoft Digital engineers supporting our internal corporate network, the top priority was eliminating duplicate rules. These introduce risk into networks by creating backdoor entry points, which complicate rule management and slow firewall performance among other problems.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"quote-body\"><p>We get weekly tickets saying users can\u2019t connect from a particular source to a particular destination. But we just type in a source IP and we can see what\u2019s happening at a pretty high level\u2014very quickly. So from an on-call perspective for direct-response individuals like me, it&#8217;s been a huge help.<\/p>\n<p class=\"source\">\u2014Beth Garrison, principal cloud network engineer, Microsoft Digital<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>With the added visibility that Policy Analytics provides, the team managed to discover 1,400 duplicate rules and eliminate more than 1,200 of them. Clearing these duplicates has both significantly improved our security posture and paved the way for automated ACL updates to run more smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>An improved security posture is a massive win for our corporate networks as a whole. But for Garrison and her team of cloud network engineers, the biggest impact has been time savings, especially in their troubleshooting work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe get weekly tickets saying users can\u2019t connect from a particular source to a particular destination,\u201d Garrison says. \u201cBut we just type in a source IP and we can see what\u2019s happening at a pretty high level very quickly. So from an on-call perspective for direct-response individuals like me, it&#8217;s been a huge help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By Garrison\u2019s estimate, analytics queries that used to take five or 10 minutes now clock in at around 30 seconds. Those time savings translate to better service and more flexibility for her team.<\/p>\n<h2>The emerging possibilities of Policy Analytics<\/h2>\n<p>Policy Analytics for Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager is currently in public preview. Even at this early stage, the response from customers has been incredible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis solves a big pain point for large organizations with tens or hundreds of firewall deployments,\u201d Gakman says. \u201cAfter only six months in preview, more than 1,000 enterprise customers have activated Policy Analytics. From the conversations I\u2019m having, the demand for these capabilities is strong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team continues to add more analysis and features as Policy Analytics matures. One of the most exciting developments is the ongoing growth of intelligent recommendations for single-rule analysis. That kind of support is especially helpful for organizations who don\u2019t have cloud network engineers in their IT organizations.<\/p>\n<p>By following AI-driven, automated recommendations when a user zooms in on a particular rule, even teams who lack network expertise will be able to increase their security posture. For our support teams and our customers\u2019 IT professionals, Policy Analytics for Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager is one more step toward a truly cloud-driven business world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a feature, but it\u2019s really the underpinning for a whole discipline within my team,\u201d McCleery says. \u201cOur biggest goal is helping people and processes work at the pace of the cloud.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"74\" class=\"wp-image-7448\" style=\"width: 300px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/key-takeaways.png\" alt=\"Key Takeaways\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/key-takeaways.png 500w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/key-takeaways-300x74.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<ul class=\"c-list\">\n<li><strong>The tech is the easy part:<\/strong> Focus on people and process as you\u2019re developing solutions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If it&#8217;s not measured, it&#8217;s not valued.<\/strong> Do everything you can to get the data on the table.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deploy to your most underutilized firewalls first<\/strong> to build confidence and comfort.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Get in the habit of looking into your rules periodically<\/strong>. Adjustments will become simpler over time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"81\" class=\"wp-image-7482\" style=\"width: 300px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/related_links.png\" alt=\"Related links\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/related_links.png 500w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/related_links-300x81.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<ul class=\"c-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/microsoft-azure-firewall-protects-microsofts-network-with-azure-firewall-manager\/\">Read about how we protect our network with Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/implementing-a-zero-trust-security-model-at-microsoft\/\">Learn how we&#8217;re implementing a Zero Trust security model at Microsoft.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/keeping-our-in-house-optical-network-safe-with-a-zero-trust-mentality\/\">Discover how we&#8217;re keeping our in-house optical network safe with a Zero Trust mentality.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 580px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2023\/05\/Customer-Survey-580x85-1.png\" alt=\"We'd like to hear from you!\" \/><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:msitstaff@microsoft.com\">Want more information? Email us and include a link to this story and we\u2019ll get back to you.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We periodically update our stories, but we can\u2019t verify that they represent the full picture of our current situation at Microsoft. We leave them on the site so you can see what our thinking and experience was at the time. Imagine an enterprise company with dozens or hundreds of firewalls, each with its own set [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":9481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_hide_featured_on_single":false,"_show_featured_caption_on_single":true,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[852,115,849,689,848],"coauthors":[622],"class_list":["post-9479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-it-and-business-operations","tag-microsoft-azure","tag-network-and-infrastructure","tag-network-security","tag-security-and-risk-management","program-ms-digital-stories","m-blog-post"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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