Azure Traffic Manager + Front Door + App Gateway + API Management

Azure Traffic Manager + Front Door + App Gateway + API Management – Enterprise Architecture Summary

🔷 Azure Traffic Manager

• DNS-based global load balancer.

• Routes user traffic based on:

  • Performance (latency-based)

  • Priority (failover)

  • Geographic region

  • Weighted distribution

• Ideal for directing users to the nearest regional entry point (e.g., Azure Front Door or App Gateway).

🔷 Azure Front Door

• Layer 7 global load balancer and application delivery network.

• Offers:

  • Dynamic site acceleration (DSA)

  • Edge-based SSL termination

  • Application layer routing

  • Web Application Firewall (WAF) integration

• Acts as the first point of entry for global users.

🔷 Azure Application Gateway

• Regional Layer 7 load balancer.

• Integrated WAF for OWASP top 10 protection.

• Path-based routing, multi-site hosting, SSL offloading.

• Suited for intra-regional traffic routing between internal services.

🔷 Azure API Management (APIM)

• Provides centralized API gateway services.

• Features:

  • Request throttling and rate limiting

  • API transformation and versioning

  • Security policies (OAuth2, JWT validation, etc.)

  • Developer portal and analytics

• Deployed in front of Spring Boot microservices to enforce governance and observability.

✅ Combined Architecture Flow

1. User DNS request is routed by Azure Traffic Manager to the nearest entry point (based on latency).

2. Azure Front Door handles the client request:

   • Applies WAF rules

   • Terminates SSL

   • Routes requests to backend region’s Application Gateway

3. Azure Application Gateway performs:

   • SSL re-termination if needed

   • Path-based routing to internal services or APIs

4. Azure API Management:

   • Applies API policies and authentication

   • Manages rate limits and quota checks

   • Forwards requests to backend microservices on AKS, App Service, or VM scale sets

5. Responses go back through the same route with telemetry logged via Azure Monitor and Log Analytics.

🛡️ Security and Observability Integration

• Azure AD + SSO for Identity Management.

• NSGs and Azure Firewall for perimeter control.

• SSL/TLS at Front Door and Gateway levels.

• Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and Log Analytics for end-to-end observability.

💡 Benefits of Layered Approach

• Global reach + Local performance

• Resilient and geo-distributed

• Centralized API governance

• Multi-layer WAF protection

• Horizontal scalability with AKS or microservices

🌐 Azure Enterprise Architecture Summary

(Traffic Manager + Front Door + App Gateway + API Management + Istio Service Mesh)

🔷 Azure Traffic Manager

• DNS-based global traffic routing across Azure regions.

• Supports:

  • Performance-based (latency)

  • Geographic routing

  • Weighted and priority routing

• Directs user to the nearest Azure Front Door endpoint for reduced latency.

🔷 Azure Front Door

• Global Layer 7 load balancer + CDN.

• Provides:

  • SSL termination at the edge

  • Web Application Firewall (WAF)

  • Application acceleration and intelligent routing

• First touchpoint for external traffic.

🔷 Azure Application Gateway

• Regional application-level load balancer.

• Features:

  • Integrated WAF

  • SSL offloading

  • URL-based routing to backend pools

• Routes traffic to internal services or API Management (APIM).

🔷 Azure API Management (APIM)

• Centralized API proxy and gateway.

• Key capabilities:

  • Rate limiting, throttling

  • API transformation, versioning

  • OAuth2, JWT validation

  • Developer portal

• Sits in front of microservices to enforce governance and observability.

🔷 Istio Service Mesh on AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service)

• Service-to-service traffic management within the AKS cluster.

• Provides:

  • mTLS encryption

  • Traffic splitting, A/B testing, blue-green deployments

  • Retries, timeouts, circuit breakers

  • Telemetry, tracing, metrics

• Enables zero-trust architecture and fine-grained control.

✅ Combined Architecture Flow

1. DNS resolution via Azure Traffic Manager selects optimal region.

2. Azure Front Door receives traffic, terminates SSL, applies WAF.

3. Front Door routes to Application Gateway.

4. App Gateway directs request to APIM or AKS Istio Ingress based on routing rules.

5. APIM applies policies, then forwards to Istio service mesh in AKS.

6. Istio handles internal service-to-service communication securely and observably.

🔐 Security and Observability Stack

• Azure AD & SSO: User identity and access control.

• Azure Firewall + NSG: Network perimeter security.

• Istio: mTLS, zero-trust, traffic policies.

• SSL Termination: At Front Door and App Gateway.

• Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Prometheus/Grafana: Full-stack observability and monitoring.

🌟 Enterprise Benefits

• Global Load Balancing: Optimized via Traffic Manager + Front Door.

• Enterprise-Grade Security: Layered WAFs, Istio mTLS.

• API Governance: Enforced via Azure API Management.

• DevOps Automation: Azure DevOps + ACR + Helm for microservice deployments.

• Microservices Resilience & Control: Managed with Istio.

🏦 Use Case: Banking & FinTech Platform

• Expose UPI, Loan, and Account APIs via APIM to partners and consumers.

• Handle millions of API calls/day securely and with high performance.

• Use Istio for securing internal service calls and applying traffic policies.

• Azure Monitor and Istio provide deep telemetry and alerting.

• Fully automated CI/CD with Azure DevOps and ACR.