An app gateway is an enterprise security solution that lets users access traditional web applications hosted in corporate data centers using the same logon credentials and methods they use to access mobile apps and cloud services. App gateways help businesses improve user satisfaction by simplifying and unifying remote access security, and they reduce IT operations expense and complexity by eliminating the need for costly and complicated VPNs.
App Gateways Eliminate VPN Hassles and Frustration
Today’s on-the-go employees work from any place at any time using laptops, smartphones, and tablets. They rely on a variety of applications to perform their jobs including traditional enterprise applications hosted in corporate data centers and SaaS solutions running in the cloud. Yet many remote users are forced to use one set of security credentials and methods to access enterprise-hosted solutions (SharePoint repositories, Oracle databases, etc.) and a different set to access cloud-based applications and services (Salesforce, Box, etc.).
The issue is that many businesses still use Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions to securely extend enterprise networks to remote workers. VPNs protect against unauthorized access and data disclosure by authenticating remote users and encrypting traffic flowing over the public internet. But VPNs are notoriously expensive and complex to roll out, administer, and maintain. They require special-purpose on-premises appliances that can be tricky to deploy and configure. And they require special-purpose endpoint software that takes time and effort to install, support, and keep up-to-date. Worse still, once a user connects to the corporate network using a VPN solution, they have full access to all enterprise applications and services.
Application gateways streamline IT operations and improve user experiences by eliminating VPNs and simplifying remote access. With an app gateway, mobile users and remote workers can access all their on-premises and cloud-based applications in a consistent manner using a single set of credentials, without requiring any special-purpose client software or any changes to application code. Better still, with an app gateway, IT organizations can enforce access privileges on a per-app basis for tighter control and greater security.
App Gateway Features and Functions
Unlike legacy VPN appliances, app gateways are easy to install and set up. App gateways are software-based solutions that run on industry-standard servers. They are deployed in the enterprise data center behind the firewall, without configuration changes. And they use standards-based protocols like SSL to encrypt data flowing over the public internet. Better still, app gateways don’t require special endpoint software. Instead, users sign on via a secure web portal.
Modern app gateways support Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) functionality for ultimate security and convenience. SSO lets users access all their business applications and services using a single set of logon credentials. And MFA requires users to provide an additional form of authentication like an SMS code for added security.
The latest MFA solutions support adaptive authentication methods, using contextual information (location, time-of-day, IP address, device type, etc.) and business rules to determine which authentication factors to apply to a particular user in a particular situation. For example, an employee accessing an enterprise application from a trusted home computer might be allowed to log on using only a username and password. But a user accessing the app from a foreign country might also be required to enter a one-time, short-lived SMS code.
App Gateway Advantages and Benefits
App gateways help simplify operations and improve user satisfaction. Key benefits and advantages include:
- Superior user experiences – with an app gateway, users seamlessly access all their applications and services, from any location or device, using a single set of logon credentials.
- Simplified operations – app gateways streamline IT operations by eliminating VPN complexity, avoiding endpoint software support and upgrade hassles, and reducing trouble tickets and help desk interactions.
- Risk mitigation – app gateways strengthen security by enforcing fine-grained access controls for enterprise applications, reducing attack surfaces, and protecting against credential theft and data loss.
Learn More About Application (App) Gateway
FAQs
Application gateways are susceptible to IP spoofing. Application gateways are not good and understanding protocols such as telnet. Client software must be "smart" and know to contact the gateway. Each application to be managed needs its own gateway.
What is the maximum instance count in Application Gateway? ›
The instance counts can range from 0 to 125.
What are the benefits of Application Gateway? ›
As a security solution, application gateways:
- Improve the experiences of all legitimate users.
- Reduce risk with their filtering capabilities.
- Produce essentially the same result as a firewall.
- Contain logs for traffic, making it easier to detect malicious activity.
By using rate limiting on Application Gateway WAF_v2, you can mitigate many types of denial-of-service attacks, protect against clients that have accidentally been misconfigured to send large volumes of requests in a short time period, or control traffic rates to your site from specific geographies.
What is the primary disadvantage of application level gateways? ›
Disadvantages of Application-Level Gateways
The stricter the monitoring rules on the proxy server, the slower the data flow. Proxy firewalls also have major compatibility problems, as they can't support a wide variety of connection types and network protocols.
What advantage does an application gateway have over a load balancer? ›
Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port. Application Gateway can make routing decisions based on additional attributes of an HTTP request, for example URI path or host headers.
How many websites can be hosted by a single instance of Azure Application Gateway? ›
Multi-site hosting enables you to configure more than one web application on the same port of application gateways using public-facing listeners. It allows you to configure a more efficient topology for your deployments by adding up to 100+ websites to one application gateway.
How many ingress controller instances can be associated with one Application Gateway? ›
You can only deploy one AGIC add-on per AKS cluster, and each AGIC add-on currently can only target one Application Gateway instance.
What is the size limit for Azure Application Gateway? ›
Azure Application gateway V2 has a maximum file upload limit of 4 GB for both Standard and WAF SKU (when you are using the new WAF engine with CRS 3.2 or newer). So, it doesn't matter if you are using WAF or not, the maximum limit for file upload remains at 4 GB as of today.
How does an application gateway work? ›
The application gateway accepts incoming traffic on one or more listeners. A listener is a logical entity that checks for connection requests. It's configured with a frontend IP address, protocol, and port number for connections from clients to the application gateway.
Answer: Azure Load Balancer operates at the network transport layer (Layer 4), focusing on distributing TCP and UDP traffic efficiently. In contrast, Application Gateway operates at the application layer (Layer 7), providing more advanced routing, load balancing, and security features for web applications.
Is application gateway a proxy? ›
As a reverse proxy service, the Layer 4 operations of Application Gateway work similar to its Layer 7 proxy operations. A client establishes a TCP connection with Application Gateway, and Application Gateway itself initiates a new TCP connection to a backend server from the backend pool.
What are the disadvantages of application gateway firewall? ›
Disadvantages of Application-Level Gateways
- Impact to network performance. Since ALGs are complex firewalls with more capabilities than traditional firewalls, they can slow down performance on unprepared networks. ...
- Each protocol needs a proxy. ...
- More expensive.
Application Gateway (Standard or WAF SKU) can support up to 32 instances (32 instance IP addresses + 1 private frontend IP configuration + 5 Azure reserved). We recommend a minimum subnet size of /26.
What is the minimum instance count in application gateway? ›
The manually set scale for instance count and the minimum instance count in autoscale config reserves 10 capacity units/instance. These reserved capacity units are billed as long as the application gateway is active regardless of the actual resource consumption.
Which of the following is a disadvantage of using an application gateway firewall? ›
Final answer: An application gateway, a network security technology, has the disadvantage of consuming a significant amount of system resources such as CPU and memory, which can impact network speed and overall system performance.
What are the disadvantages of circuit-level gateway? ›
Disadvantages of Circuit-Level Gateways
- Unable to detect malicious files in data packets.
- No support for advanced content filtering.
- Cannot monitor the communications of applications.
- Only compatible with TCP connections.
- Unable to protect more than Layer 5 of the OSI model.
What are circuit-level gateways advantages and disadvantages? Advantages: cost-effective, efficient. Disadvantages: limited inspection capabilities, potential security vulnerabilities.
