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Skillsazure-ddos-protection

azure-ddos-protection

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Updated 10-16 02:29

About this skill

Azure DDoS Protection

Azure DDoS Protection sits on the Microsoft global network and absorbs layer 3/4 volumetric and protocol attacks before they reach your workloads. The free Infrastructure Protection layer protects Azure as a platform; the paid DDoS Protection plans give you dedicated, profile-tuned mitigation, attack analytics, post-incident reports, cost protection, and Rapid Response support for your resources.

When to use

Public-facing workloads with a non-trivial cost-of-downtime: e-commerce, regulated financial APIs, multiplayer gaming, public-sector services, internet-facing AI APIs, streaming, and any campaign exposed to politically or commercially motivated DDoS.

Do not use this skill for application-layer (HTTP) attack mitigation alone (azure-waf), Azure Firewall design (azure-firewall), or third-party DDoS appliance patterns.

Tier selection

Tier Scope Best for
Infrastructure Protection Free, platform-level, no SLA, no analytics Default for every workload
DDoS Network Protection Per VNet, all public IPs in scope Multi-IP workloads, large estates
DDoS IP Protection Per public IP, granular Small estates, cost-conscious, specific high-risk IP

Pricing model differs: Network Protection is a flat fee per plan covering many resources; IP Protection is per-IP. Estate size flips the economics — model both before choosing.

Approach

  1. Decide tier per workload.

    • 50+ public IPs across multiple VNets → Network Protection on the relevant VNets.
    • Specific internet-facing app on a single Standard public IP → IP Protection.
    • Mixed → both, scoped appropriately.

  2. Enable on the VNet (Network Protection) at deployment time. The platform begins traffic profiling immediately; it learns normal patterns over ~7 days and auto-tunes the per-IP mitigation policy. Mitigation accuracy improves the longer the profile runs.

  3. Static thresholds are not a thing, by design. Mitigation is adaptive. Don't architect on the assumption of a fixed Mbps cap.

  4. Configure alerts. DDoS metrics and alerts are first-class:

    • "Under DDoS attack or not" boolean per public IP.
    • Inbound packets dropped by DDoS Protection.
    • Inbound TCP/UDP packets to be triggered for DDoS. Wire to Sentinel via Log Analytics + activity-log alerts.

  5. Simulate before incident. BreakingPoint Cloud and Red Button are Microsoft- approved simulation partners. Simulate quarterly on non-prod public IPs to validate mitigation engagement and runbook execution.

  6. Attack analytics + post-incident reports. During and after an attack, the product produces a mitigation report with attack vectors, traffic volume, top sources, and mitigation actions — useful evidence for board/regulator communications.

  7. DDoS Rapid Response (DRR). Plan on Network Protection includes engagement with Microsoft's DDoS response team during active attacks. Pre-stage:

    • DRR contact info in your IR runbook.
    • Customer support contract type that allows DRR (usually Premier/Unified or Pro Direct) — verify.
    • Designated owner who is authorized to engage Microsoft.

  8. Cost protection. A successful DDoS attack can balloon scale-out costs (autoscaled App Service, additional bandwidth, CDN egress). Network Protection includes service- credit cost protection — file the claim post-incident with the mitigation report.

  9. Combine with WAF and Front Door. DDoS Protection covers L3/L4. L7 attacks (HTTP floods, slow loris, business-logic abuse) need WAF on Front Door / Application Gateway in front of your workload. Architect both.

Guardrails

  • Infrastructure Protection (free) is not nothing, but is not enough for high-value public workloads. No SLA, no analytics, no cost protection.
  • Don't enable Network Protection on a VNet with no internet-facing public IP. No effect, full price.
  • Mitigation needs profile time. A brand-new public IP enabled minutes before an attack benefits less than one with 7+ days of baseline.
  • WAF and DDoS are complementary, not substitutes. L7 attacks bypass L3/L4 mitigation entirely.
  • Test in non-prod, never live customer endpoints. Simulation partners only on approved IPs in approved windows.
  • Standard public IP only. Basic public IPs aren't supported for IP Protection (and Basic SKU is being retired).
  • CDN-fronted workloads are partially shielded by the CDN's own DDoS posture; still consider DDoS Protection on the origin.
  • Don't use Azure DDoS as your DR plan. Mitigation reduces impact; it does not guarantee zero impact.

Common anti-patterns

  • "Free Infrastructure Protection is enough" — until the first targeted attack, then no analytics, no Rapid Response, no cost protection, no audit evidence.
  • "IP Protection on 200 IPs" — bill larger than Network Protection plan would have been. Model the math.
  • "Activated DDoS Protection during the attack" — profile is empty; less effective. Always pre-enable.
  • "Skipped simulation, never tested runbook" — first real engagement is fumbled.
  • "DRR not pre-arranged" — incident response wastes 60 minutes finding the right Microsoft contract path.
  • "Architected without WAF in front" — L7 attacks succeed through L3/L4 mitigation.
  • "Customer support tier doesn't permit DRR" — surprise during incident.

Example prompts

  • Plan DDoS Protection coverage for a 6-region public-API estate with 80 public IPs.
  • Compare Network vs IP Protection cost for a tenant with 25 public IPs in 3 VNets.
  • Build the DDoS attack runbook including DRR engagement steps and stakeholder comms templates.
  • Quarterly DDoS simulation with BreakingPoint Cloud — scope, success criteria, rollback.
  • Wire DDoS metrics + alerts to Sentinel with detections for sustained mitigation events.
  • Architect Front Door + WAF + DDoS Network Protection for a regulated e-commerce workload.
  • File the cost protection claim after a 14-hour mitigated attack — what evidence and process.

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