What is Azure Front Door?
Azure Front Door is a global, scalable entry point for web applications. It combines load balancing, content delivery, and web application firewall in a single service. Requests are routed to the nearest healthy backend, reducing latency and improving availability.
Front Door operates at Layer 7, giving you control over routing based on URL paths, headers, and other HTTP attributes. It integrates with Azure WAF to protect against common web exploits like SQL injection and cross-site scripting.
Core Features
- Global load balancing: Route traffic to the fastest available backend across regions
- Instant failover: Automatic rerouting when a backend becomes unhealthy
- Built-in CDN: Cache static content at edge locations worldwide
- SSL termination: Offload TLS encryption to the edge for better backend performance
- Web Application Firewall: Managed rule sets protect against OWASP Top 10 threats
Typical Use Cases
Front Door is ideal for global web applications that need low latency and high availability. Typical deployments include multi-region API backends, static website acceleration, and protecting public-facing apps with WAF rules.
Benefits
- Single global anycast IP simplifies DNS configuration
- Health probes detect backend issues within seconds
- Rules engine for URL rewrites, redirects, and header manipulation
- Native integration with Azure Monitor for traffic analytics
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Front Door differ from Azure CDN?
Azure CDN focuses primarily on static content caching. Front Door adds Layer 7 load balancing, health monitoring, instant failover, and WAF capabilities. For most new projects, Front Door Standard/Premium replaces the need for a separate CDN.
Can Front Door route to non-Azure backends?
Yes. Front Door can route to any publicly accessible endpoint, including on-premises servers, other clouds, or third-party SaaS services.
How does pricing work?
Front Door charges based on incoming requests, data transferred from edge to client, and WAF rule evaluations. There is no per-hour charge for the Front Door instance itself.
Does Front Door support WebSockets?
Yes. Front Door supports WebSocket connections for real-time applications, passing persistent connections through to your backend.
Integration with innFactory
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, innFactory helps you design and deploy Azure Front Door: global routing architecture, WAF rule configuration, and performance optimization.
