Azure Appgw VS Front Door

Question

hi guys, we have published different domains and we want to redirect its to another external urls. We have thought if It could be posible to do it using natives azure tools such as appgw or front door but we dont know which would better.Thanks you in advance.Kind Regards

Answer 1

Hello Werwer1984,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your questions here.

Problem

I understand that you would like to compare Azure Application Gateway and Azure Front Door so that you can implement redirection from your domains to other external URLs using Azure native tools, as they are two main options.

Solution

For redirecting different domains to external URLs, both Azure Application Gateway (AppGW) and Azure Front Door are viable options.

Looking into Azure Application Gateway (AppGW)

• AppGW operates at the application layer (Layer 7), which allows it to inspect HTTP requests and perform URL-based routing.
• You can use the URL rewrite and redirection feature to redirect incoming requests to external URLs. This is useful if you need to implement specific redirection rules based on the request URL.
• AppGW includes a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that can protect your web applications from common threats.
• AppGW is regional, which means it's deployed in a specific Azure region. This could be beneficial if your traffic is primarily regional and you want to minimize latency.

Looking into Azure Front Door

• Azure Front Door is a global service designed to optimize traffic routing and reduce latency by routing traffic to the nearest available backend.
• Front Door supports custom routing and redirection rules. You can easily set up rules to redirect traffic from one domain to another, including to external URLs.
• It offers global load balancing, which can be beneficial if your users are distributed across different regions. Front Door can automatically direct users to the nearest endpoint for faster response times.
• Front Door also offers CDN-like capabilities, including caching, which can help improve performance for static content.

Now, to choose between AppGW and Front Door

• If your primary concern is global distribution and routing traffic to the closest endpoint, Azure Front Door is typically the better choice.
• If you have complex URL-based routing or need to integrate with a regional WAF, Azure Application Gateway may be more appropriate.
• Consider the cost implications of both services, as they may differ based on the volume of traffic and specific features used.

Finally, for global geographically distributed traffic with simple redirection needs, Azure Front Door is often the better option. If your needs are more region-specific or require advanced URL-based routing, Azure Application Gateway might be more suitable.

References

For more detail on implementation and to read more, kindly use the links below and the additional resources by the right side of this page:

• Azure Application Gateway URL Redirection.
• Azure Front Door Overview.

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Best Regards,

Sina Salam