Microsoft’s new Network Security Hub in Azure is a deliberate evolution of Azure Firewall Manager into a single-pane, service-aware control plane that consolidates firewalling, application-layer protection, and volumetric defense — promising simpler discoverability, unified visibility, and more consistent policy application across sprawling cloud networks.
Background
For organizations wrestling with dozens of security controls, cloud regions, and a mix of native and third‑party appliances, the operational complexity of securing Azure networks has become a recurring pain point. Azure Firewall Manager — introduced as a policy and deployment control plane for Azure Firewall and secure Virtual WAN hubs — helped centralize firewall policies beginning in 2020, but it was limited in name and scope relative to the wider set of protections many customers now expect.Microsoft’s Network Security Hub rebrands and expands that experience into a broader hub that surfaces Azure Firewall, Web Application Firewall (WAF), DDoS Protection, Firewall Policy, and Virtual WAN security constructs from a single landing page. The vendor frames the change as a productivity and visibility enhancement: fewer places to click, faster discovery of the right security controls, and consolidated dashboards for monitoring and remediation.
What the Network Security Hub actually is
The Network Security Hub is a consolidated Azure portal experience — not a new network appliance — that groups relevant network security services and exposes integrated overviews, common scenarios, and guided configuration flows.- It unifies administrative entry points for Azure Firewall, Web Application Firewall (WAF) (via Application Gateway or Front Door), and Azure DDoS Protection, along with management of Firewall Policy objects and Virtual WAN security configurations.
- The hub provides an overview page with recommended deployment patterns, quick links to documentation and pricing, and Azure Advisor–style recommendations surfaced for coverage gaps and optimizations.
- It consolidates coverage dashboards that map where protections are applied (VNets, secured hubs, application endpoints), helping teams locate unprotected workloads quickly.
Key features and design goals
The Network Security Hub aims for three practical outcomes: discoverability, consistent control, and improved visibility.Discoverability and onboarding
- A single landing page that routes admins to the appropriate blades for Firewall, WAF, DDoS, and Firewall Policies. This reduces the cognitive load of deciding which service to use for a given protection scenario.
- Quick-start scenarios and guided flows for common topologies: hub-and-spoke, secured Virtual WAN hubs, and perimeter WAF deployments.
Consistent policy and deployments
- Centralized view of Firewall Policy objects so teams can create and assign policies at scale and reduce configuration drift across subscriptions and hubs.
- Integration points with Virtual WAN make it simpler to apply consistent route and inspection patterns in hub-based topologies.
Unified visibility and remediation
- Coverage dashboards and recommendations help identify resources that lack proper protections.
- Consolidated telemetry pointers — the hub directs admins to the right metrics and diagnostic settings (Azure Monitor, DDoS metrics, WAF logs) to create SOC-level alerts and runbooks.
How this builds on Azure Firewall Manager — evolution, not replacement
Azure Firewall Manager was conceived as a policy manager for Azure Firewall and later added secure Virtual WAN hub support. The change to Network Security Hub is an expansion of that remit: rather than a firewall‑centric product it becomes a network security control plane. Historical context matters here: the industry trend has been to move from siloed appliance management toward converged security operations — Microsoft’s UX change follows that trend.Key differences to note:
- Scope: Firewall Manager focused on firewall policy and secure hub management; Network Security Hub brings WAF and DDoS into the center of the console.
- Guidance: The new hub emphasizes scenario-driven guidance (when to use WAF vs. DDoS vs. Firewall rules), whereas Firewall Manager primarily provided policy CRUD and association workflows.
Technical specifics and important caveats
While the Network Security Hub surface appears straightforward, the underlying Azure product landscape has product‑level behaviours and limitations that matter for architecture and operations.DDoS Protection and Virtual WAN secured hubs
Microsoft documentation for Azure Virtual WAN secured hubs indicates a specific limitation: secure Virtual WAN hubs that host Azure Firewall do not support Azure DDoS Protection in the same hub construct. In other words, the network-level DDoS Protection model and the secured-hub model have historically had mutually exclusive constraints; DDoS Protection is designed to protect public endpoints in VNets and may be applied at the VNet or subscription level, while a secured hub is a managed construct with its own boundaries. This detail is essential when designing hub‑centric architectures and must be validated against the tenant’s region and SKU choices.Because the Network Security Hub aggregates these services, customers should not assume every protection can be simultaneously enforced inside every hub without checking individual product constraints in documentation and the portal.
Firewall Policy and Scale
- Firewall Policy objects remain the central way to express rules (network, application, NAT, threat-intel exceptions) and can be attached to multiple firewall instances or secured hubs. Policy versioning and rule precedence must be handled carefully to avoid unintended allow rules. The hub simplifies discovery, but policy governance still requires strong role-based access control and change review processes.
Observability and telemetry
- The hub steers admins to telemetry but does not replace the need for instrumenting Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and a SIEM/SOAR pipeline for long-term retention and incident response.
- DDoS Protection exposes specific metrics (IfUnderDDoSAttack, BytesInDDoS, PacketsInDDoS) that teams must subscribe to and pipe into incident pages; WAF diagnostics require separate diagnostic settings to forward logs to Log Analytics or Event Hubs for retention. The hub surfaces these links but operational wiring remains a tenant responsibility.
Multi-tenant and governance implications
- Enterprises with management groups, disparate subscriptions, and multi-region landing zones must plan where to place policy resources and how to grant least-privilege access to the hub. The relationship between Azure RBAC, management group inheritance, and Firewall Policy assignment is unaffected by the hub’s UX; it only becomes more visible. Governance still needs subscription-level guardrails and automated policy checks.
Operational benefits — what teams should expect
The Network Security Hub promises measurable operational gains when used correctly.- Faster onboarding for new teams: one place to learn which protection fits which threat model.
- Reduced misconfiguration: unified dashboards help spot VNets without WAF or DDoS coverage and surface policy gaps.
- Better cross-team handoffs: security, networking, and application teams can converge on a shared view of protection coverage and recommended actions.
- SOCs can reduce mean‑time‑to‑detect by aligning DDoS and WAF telemetry sources more consistently, because the hub collates diagnostic plumbing recommendations.
- Network engineering can reuse Firewall Policy objects across regions, reducing drift and the number of bespoke rule sets to review in audits.
Implementation guidance — practical steps to adopt the Network Security Hub
- Inventory: Build a fast inventory of public-facing endpoints, VNets, secured hubs, and firewalls. Document current coverage for WAF, Firewall Policy, and DDoS Protection.
- Pilot: Pick one subscription or management group and enable the Network Security Hub to map existing protections and test the UX-driven recommendations.
- Policy rationalization:
- Consolidate duplicate Firewall Policy objects.
- Convert local allowlists or legacy NAT rules into centrally managed policy objects when safe.
- Telemetry wiring:
- Create or verify diagnostic settings for WAF, Azure Firewall, and DDoS and route to Log Analytics or Event Hubs.
- Hook key DDoS metrics into incident alerting and escalation flows.
- Governance:
- Use Azure RBAC to create scoped roles for firewall and security operators.
- Implement policy-as-code (ARM templates/Bicep/Terraform) to manage Firewall Policy objects and hub associations.
- Tabletop and runbooks: Add DDoS, WAF, and firewall misconfigurations to incident playbooks and run tabletop exercises. Ensure DDoS runbooks reference IfUnderDDoSAttack and related metrics for automated paging.
Security and compliance implications
Centralized management changes the threat model in two important ways:- Positive: It reduces configuration sprawl and increases policy consistency, which helps with compliance audits and simplifies evidence collection.
- Negative: It increases blast radius if access controls are misconfigured. A compromised identity with broad rights in the Network Security Hub could modify multiple protections at once.
- Enforce Privileged Identity Management (PIM) and just-in-time access for hub administrative roles.
- Require change approvals and review for Firewall Policy updates (use pipelines and code reviews).
- Retain audit logs and enable immutable storage where regulations demand long-term retention.
Strengths
- Operational simplicity: A single discovery and control plane reduces friction for teams that previously navigated multiple blades and disparate docs.
- Consistency at scale: Shared Firewall Policy objects and scenario templates help standardize policies across subscriptions and regions.
- Actionable visibility: Coverage dashboards and advisor-style recommendations accelerate remediation of obvious gaps.
Risks and limitations (what to watch for)
- Product-level constraints remain: The hub is a UX layer; product constraints (for example, Virtual WAN secured hub limitations with DDoS Protection) still apply and can create confusing exceptions. Always validate the portal recommendation against the underlying product documentation before making architecture changes.
- Misleading “one-place” thinking: Centralization may create a false sense of completeness. The hub helps find and configure protections, but it does not automatically rewire telemetry, dependency maps, or third‑party appliance integrations.
- Access governance risk: Because the hub touches multiple security controls, weak RBAC practices can amplify security incidents. Harden identities and use PIM.
- Operational debt in legacy estates: Migrating many bespoke rule sets into centralized policies is valuable but can surface subtle differences in rule semantics that require careful testing.
Realistic expectations for adoption
- Small and medium teams will find immediate value in discoverability and fewer portal clicks.
- Large enterprises should treat the Network Security Hub as the orchestration/visibility layer that complements established policy-as-code and CI/CD practices.
- Organizations running hybrid or multi-cloud estates must plan for how the hub’s centralized recommendations fit into cross-cloud architectures; the hub does not control non‑Azure appliances.
Final analysis and verdict
The Network Security Hub is a sensible, overdue step: it aligns the Azure portal with modern operational needs by making protections easier to discover, evaluate, and monitor from one place. For defenders, the hub is an immediate productivity win; it reduces misconfigurations and speeds up coverage assessments.However, the hub’s value will depend on disciplined governance and an accurate understanding of product constraints. The UX consolidation is not a substitute for architecture validation: some product-level limitations (notably around secure Virtual WAN hubs and DDoS) remain and must be respected during design and deployment. Teams that adopt the hub without verifying these constraints risk building topologies that appear protected in the portal but are incomplete in practice.
In short: adopt the Network Security Hub to reduce operational friction and improve visibility, but follow rigorous policy governance, telemetry wiring, and architecture verification to convert the hub’s promise into measurable security improvements.
Quick operational checklist (for immediate use)
- Inventory public IPs and ensure critical endpoints are classified for WAF and DDoS.
- Pilot the Network Security Hub in a non-production subscription and validate recommendations.
- Consolidate Firewall Policies where possible and place them under policy-as-code management.
- Ensure DDoS and WAF diagnostic settings forward logs to Log Analytics / Event Hubs.
- Enforce RBAC, use PIM, and require change approvals for policy updates.
- Run a tabletop exercise that includes DDoS, WAF incidents, and firewall misconfiguration scenarios.
The Network Security Hub packages visibility and control in a much-needed central location, but it is an orchestration layer — not a silver bullet. The tool can deliver meaningful operational improvements when paired with disciplined governance, telemetry, and architecture validation.
Source: Petri IT Knowledgebase Azure Network Security Hub Delivers Centralized Control Across Services