Azure Virtual Networks (VNets) are a core part of Azure’s networking infrastructure. They allow you to securely connect and manage your resources within Azure and link your cloud setup to your on-premises environment.
What Is a Virtual Network?
A Virtual Network is a private, isolated network within Azure. Think of it as the cloud version of a traditional on-premises network.
- A VNet is region-specific—it exists in a single Azure region.
- You can subdivide a VNet into subnets, which helps organize and segment resources.
- Virtual Machine (VMs), Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS), App Services, and Virtual Machine (VM) Scale Sets can all be connected through a VNet.
Why Use VNets?
VNets enable your Azure resources to:
- Communicate with each other using private IP addresses.
- Connect to other Azure services through service endpoints.
- Communicate with the Internet—Azure VMs can connect out to the Internet by default.
- Allow inbound traffic, such as SSH or RDP, when specifically enabled.
- Connect to on-premises networks using VPN Gateways.
Traffic Control
With VNets, you can:
- Use network security groups (NSGs) to control inbound and outbound traffic.
- Define route tables to control how packets travel within the VNet or outside it.
These capabilities help implement zero-trust networking and other security strategies (see #39# and #40#).
What Is Virtual Network Peering?
Virtual Network Peering links two VNets together—either in the same region or across different regions.
- Peered VNets can communicate privately with low latency.
- You don’t need to set up gateways, and the traffic between VNets stays on the Azure backbone network.
- Peering allows resources in different VNets to behave as if they are on the same network.
This is useful when you want to:
- Scale applications across regions.
- Isolate environments like development and production while still allowing interaction.
- Consolidate shared services (e.g., a central logging or database VNet).
Conclusion
Virtual Networks and Peering give you powerful tools to design secure, scalable, and connected cloud architectures. Whether you’re connecting within Azure or bridging your on-premises systems, VNets offer the flexibility to build robust solutions.
Want to practice designing your own Azure network? Get hands-on in our AZ-900 video course – or click here to go back to the AZ-900 list of requirements.
Please click here to find out more about Microsoft’s AZ-900 exam.
