Network security Best Practices – Google Cloud, AWS and Azure compared.

Most cloud providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud (GCP), approach essential network security controls and architectural best practices with a focus on virtualization, automation, and layered defense, heavily prioritizing the Zero Trust model.

Here is an overview of how they approach essential controls & architectural best practices:

1. Zero Trust and Identity-Based Access Control

Currently the foundational architectural principle shared across providers is that of Zero Trust (ZT), which mandates that no user or device is inherently trusted, regardless of its network location. Access must be verified constantly.

• Azure's Approach: Azure promotes a Zero Trust model to perform network segmentation and apply intelligent threat protection and traffic encryption. Solutions like Microsoft Entra Conditional Access apply access controls based on conditions such as device, identity, and network location. Azure Bastion facilitates secure RDP/SSH connectivity to virtual machines directly through the Azure portal over TLS, without exposing public IP addresses. Azure also supports Just-in-Time (JIT) VM access in Microsoft Defender for Cloud to lock down inbound traffic, reducing attack surface.

• Google Cloud's Approach: Google Cloud recommends implementing zero-trust networks. Their BeyondCorp framework is described as Google Cloud’s zero-trust solution, offering single sign-on, access control policies, and authentication/authorization services.

• AWS's Strategy: Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) on AWS enforces the principle of least privilege, verifying identity through multi-factor authentication (MFA), checking device security status, and validating location/time of access before granting permission only to the specific application, rather than the entire network.

2. Network Segmentation and Firewall Controls

Providers utilize cloud-native firewalls and security groups to filter traffic and enforce network segmentation, which limits lateral movement if a breach occurs.

Control/Provider	Microsoft Azure	AWS	Google Cloud
Basic Access Control	Uses Azure Network Security Groups (NSGs) for basic, stateful packet filtering based on the 5-tuple (source IP/port, destination IP/port, protocol). Custom security rules have higher priority than Azure default rules. Augmented security rules simplify definition by combining multiple ports/IPs/ranges into a single rule.	Implements Amazon VPC Security Groups as host-based stateful firewalls for EC2 instances, and Network ACLs (NACLs) as stateless firewalls for VPC subnets.	Network segmentation is enforced through micro-segmentation with fine-grained security policies to control traffic and contain lateral movement.
Managed Network Firewall	Azure Firewall is a cloud-native, intelligent, fully stateful firewall security service, available in Basic, Standard, and Premium SKUs. It provides network and application-level security, along with features like intrusion detection/prevention and URL filtering (Premium SKU).	AWS Network Firewall offers VPC protection with capabilities like stateful inspection, intrusion prevention, and web filtering.	Google Cloud offers a Network Security Integration service to deploy purpose-built deep packet inspection (DPI) appliances from third-party vendors, often deployed in a "bump-in-the-wire" mode. This service uses a producer-consumer model for traffic inspection.
Centralized Management	Azure Virtual Network Manager centrally manages virtual networks at scale. Security admin rules defined in this service have higher priority than NSG rules and enforce baseline security policies.	AWS Firewall Manager centrally configures and manages firewall rules across accounts and networks to ensure consistent policy compliance.

3. Application and Edge Protection

All major providers utilize services specifically designed to protect internet-facing web applications from common attacks and high-volume denial-of-service threats.

• Web Application Firewall (WAF):

  • Azure provides Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) to protect web applications from exploits like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). WAF can be deployed with Azure Application Gateway (regional load balancer) or Azure Front Door (global entry point).

  • AWS offers AWS WAF to filter web requests based on IP addresses, HTTP headers, body, or URI strings to block common attack patterns.

• DDoS Protection:

  • Azure offers Azure DDoS Protection (IP Protection and Network Protection SKUs) with always-on monitoring, real-time mitigation, and adaptive tuning.

  • AWS uses AWS Shield for always-on detection and automatic inline mitigations against DDoS attacks to minimize application downtime.

  • Google Cloud uses Cloud Armor for defenses against DDoS attacks.

• Global Delivery and Security:

  • Azure Front Door and Google Cloud Armor (Cloudflare also focuses on this) function as a global, scalable entry point/edge network to provide Layer 7 load balancing, TLS termination, and integrated security, including platform-level DDoS protection.

4. Secure Connectivity and Hybrid Networking

Architectural best practices emphasize keeping traffic private, especially when dealing with hybrid environments or connecting to Platform as a Service (PaaS) resources.

• Private Connectivity:

  • Azure provides Azure Private Link, allowing private access to Azure PaaS services (e.g., Azure SQL, Storage) using private endpoints within the virtual network. This ensures traffic remains on the Microsoft Azure backbone network and avoids exposure to the public internet.

  • Google Cloud emphasizes using private access options so that cloud-based or on-premises clients can communicate with supported APIs and services without requiring an external IP address.

  • Dedicated WAN Links: For cross-premises connectivity in hybrid IT scenarios, Azure ExpressRoute is recommended, providing a private, dedicated WAN link that does not traverse the public internet, offering enhanced security and reliability compared to Site-to-Site VPN.

  • Virtual Network Connections: VNet peering in Azure connects virtual networks using the Microsoft backbone infrastructure, bypassing the public internet.

5. Load Balancing and Availability

Enhancing availability and performance through load balancing is a key security practice, ensuring services remain accessible and resistant to single points of failure.

• Layer 4 Load Balancing:

  • Azure Load Balancer provides high-performance, low-latency Layer 4 load balancing for TCP/UDP protocols, supporting both internal and external scenarios.
  • Layer 4 load balancing on AWS is provided by the Network Load Balancer (NLB), which operates at the transport layer of the OSI model.
  • Google Cloud offers multiple types of L4 load balancers, including internal and external options, each designed for specific use cases.

• Layer 7 Load Balancing:

  • Azure Application Gateway is a Layer 7 (HTTP web traffic) load balancer that manages traffic based on HTTP request attributes, offering features like Web Application Firewall (WAF) and TLS termination.

  • Layer 7 load balancing in AWS is primarily handled by the Application Load Balancer (ALB), which operates at the application layer of the OSI model.

  • Layer 7 load balancing on Google Cloud is a proxy-based, application-layer service that enables intelligent traffic distribution for HTTP and HTTPS traffic based on content such as URLs, HTTP headers, cookies, and message content.

• Global Load Balancing:

  • Azure Traffic Manager and Azure Front Door perform DNS-based or global Layer 7 load balancing across multiple Azure regions to optimize uptime and performance based on user location.

  • For AWS, several services can be used to direct traffic to the nearest or most optimal data center based on geographic location, latency, or health status. The most effective approach involves combining multiple AWS services to handle both regional and global traffic distribution. For global routing based on geographic proximity or network latency, Amazon Route 53 is a key component. It supports routing policies such as geolocation and latency-based routing to direct users to the nearest AWS region.

  • Google Cloud also offers Cloud Load Balancing.

    It's a fully distributed, software-defined, managed service that enables the distribution of incoming network traffic across multiple backend instances or services, ensuring high availability, scalability, and optimal performance for both internet-facing and private applications. It allows traffic to be balanced across different regions and zones to enhance application responsiveness by routing users to the geographically closest healthy backend.

6. Monitoring and Threat Detection

Providers offer native tools for visibility, logging, and threat detection to identify malicious or anomalous activity.

• Azure provides Azure Network Watcher to monitor, diagnose, and gain network insights, including NSG flow logs and connection monitoring. Microsoft Defender for Cloud helps prevent, detect, and respond to threats by monitoring network security configuration and alerting on network-based threats.

• Google Cloud offers the Network Intelligence Center for network observability, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

• AWS provides real-time traffic visibility. Amazon Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall blocks malicious DNS queries. Analyzing user and entity behavior (UEBA) helps detect abnormal activity using machine learning and data analytics.

No longer hitting a wall.

All cloud providers tackle network security more like running a high‑tech airport than building one giant wall. Instead of relying on a single perimeter, they set up multiple internal checkpoints that constantly shift and verify every passenger (Zero Trust, NSGs, segmentation).

Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud all have specialized tools — firewalls, WAFs, DDoS protection — acting like automated security scanners, checking who’s coming in and moving around. If someone slips through one gate, they’re stopped from accessing the rest of the airport, and the incident gets logged instantly. Private connectivity solutions (like Azure Private Link) are the equivalent of secure underground service tunnels, keeping sensitive cargo routes away from the busy public roads.

So instead of one big barrier, it’s a layered system of smart checkpoints, scanners, and private routes that keep everything moving safely.

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Best Practices   GCP   Layer 4   Layer 7   Network Security   Secure Architecture   Zero Trust   secure engineering   AWS   BeyondCorp Azure   DDoS   DDoS Protection   ExpressRoute   Identity-Based Access Control   Layered Defense   Load Balancing   Managed Network Firewall   Micro-segmentation   Model   Monitoring and Threat Detection   Network Segmentation   Private Link   Secure Connectivity   Web Application Firewall (WAF)   ZTNA   firewall   network access   security groups   2023