Last week I had the pleasure of attending Experts Live Netherlands 2023, and presenting a session called “Exploring the benefits of Azure Virtual WAN“. The event brought together people throughout the Microsoft Community, and covered a wide range of topics and sessions – it was a brilliant event, and one I’d recommend to anyone keen to learn more and network! It was also hosted in the fantastic City of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, which I really enjoyed exploring and finding out more about.
✅ I’d like to say a huge Thank You to the Organisers for having my session part of this awesome event, and to my employer CDW for enabling me to attend!
My Session: Exploring the benefits of Azure Virtual WAN
For my Session, I opted to cover Azure Virtual WAN, as this is a technology I’ve used extensively with customers, have spoken about at Azure University, and have also previously blogged about. So, I was therefore keen to share an overview and cover the range of benefits that Virtual WAN brings.
✅ You can download the slides used for my session here. Lab Files for the Session are also available here. Note – if you are new to Terraform and need some assistance getting the Lab deployed, why not check out my Terraform Getting Started series here?
Within my session & slides, I covered the following areas:
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What is Azure Virtual WAN?
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Use Cases
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Core Components
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Why Azure Virtual WAN? Core Benefits
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Security
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Expansion
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Where do we begin?
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Demo Environment
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Links / Q&A
As part of this write up, I also wanted to share the links to the Demo Environment, and additional Resources:
Demo Environment
I have created a small demo environment for Virtual WAN, that allows deployment into two Azure Regions, and basic testing using two Virtual Machines accessed via Azure Bastion. You can extend and expand this Lab as required to add additional regions, or security services like Azure Firewall. I used this environment within my session to provide a reference point for questions, and so that certain aspects could be shown live:
✅ Update (07/06/2023) – this Lab now includes optional Azure Firewall deployed within the Virtual WAN Hubs:
✅ Full instructions for enabling/disabling Azure Firewall are included in the Lab Readme – available here.
Links / Q&A
As part of my session I also highlighted a variety of links, further reading, exams, and learning material for Azure Virtual WAN. I’ve collated these below:
- What is Azure Virtual WAN – Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-wan/virtual-wan-about
- What’s new in Azure Virtual WAN? – Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-wan/whats-new
- Hub/Spoke Migration Guidance – Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-wan/migrate-from-hub-spoke-topology
- Deploying Azure Virtual WAN using Terraform – Jake Walsh: https://jakewalsh.co.uk/deploying-azure-virtual-wan-using-terraform/
- John Savill – Virtual WAN Overview – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-GyAURZWzg
- Virtual WAN Demo Environment (Terraform) – Jake Walsh: https://github.com/jakewalsh90/Terraform-Azure/tree/main/Virtual-WAN-Demo
- Exam AZ-700: Designing and Implementing Microsoft Azure Networking Solutions: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/exams/az-700/
