Hardening Your Azure Environment with Azure Bastion Premium💥

 

One of the key points in the cloud-centric landscape of today is that to access virtual machines (VMs), secure remote access is a major issue. While conventional ways, like revealing VMs to public IP addresses, bring about the risk of unauthorized breaches. Here comes in Azure Bastion, a secure and cost-effective method, for accessing VMs through RDP and SSH without exposure to the public Internet. However, for businesses that require a higher level of safety and scalability, Azure Bastion Premium provides advanced security features that go beyond the standard one. In this blog, we will explore the capabilities and benefits of Azure Bastion Premium, and how it can practically support the network’s security posture.

What is Azure Bastion?

Azure Bastion can be referred to as a completely managed service option connecting with secure RDP and SSH access to the virtual machines straight through the Azure platform which does not need to enable your VMs to the public internet. It is confined to your private virtual network (VNet) and it makes sure that the whole communication is done within the network, thus improving remote connection security.

Azure Bastion Premium

Azure Bastion Premium is an advanced tier of Azure Bastion designed for organizations that require more security, scalability, and flexibility. It builds upon the core capabilities of the standard tier with additional premium features that enhance the overall experience and security of remote access.

Key Features of Azure Bastion Premium

Azure Bastion Premium is a more advanced version of Azure Bastion that is designed for organizations that need more security, scalability, and flexibility. It is built upon the core capabilities of the standard tier with additional premium features that not only improve the overall user experience but also secure remote access.

• One of the standout features of the Premium tier is integration with Entra ID. This enables just-in-time (JIT) access, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and conditional access policies, offering greater control and governance over who can access your VMs.

• With the session recording and auditing, you can track the user activities within VM sessions. This feature is important for compliance and troubleshooting, helping to maintain a secure and transparent remote access environment.

• Native Client Support: Bastion Premium allows users to access VMs using native RDP/SSH clients, in addition to browser-based access. This flexibility ensures compatibility with existing workflows and tools that teams may already be using.

• The Premium tier guarantees better scalability, with the possibility of supporting larger Virtual Network configurations and more concurrent connections. This makes it an excellent choice for enterprise-level workloads.

• You can use Virtual Network peering to extend Bastion Premium across multiple virtual networks, offering centralized, secure access to VMs across a broader network without needing to deploy multiple Bastion hosts.

Public Access

Private Access

Comparison of Azure Bastion Service Standard Tier & Premium Tier

Features	Standard Tier	Premium Tier
Entra ID Integration	No	Yes
Multi-Factor Authentication	No	Yes
Native Client Support	No	Yes (RDP/SSH clients)
Session Recording	No	Yes
Virtual Network Peering	No	Yes
Larger Virtual Network Support	Limited	Enhanced

Why we must Choose Azure Bastion Premium?

Improved Safety

The integration between Azure Bastion Premium and Azure AD, as well as the two-factor authentication (MFA) support, enhances your organization’s security. You can introduce the conditional access policies and specify the users allowed to use the VMs as the main criteria, and you need to set the corporate security policies. Also, the possibility of monitoring and recording sessions adds to this end-to-end visibility ensuring both compliance and regulation.

2. Simplified Management

Azure Bastion Premium sacrifices the inconvenience of having multiple entry points for virtual machines spread on different Virtual Networks with its centralized management function. It also facilitates scaling across the larger environments and makes it easier for IT professionals to control and manage access, which, in turn, reduces administrative overhead.

3. Seamless User Experience

The native client support in Bastion Premium guarantees that users can maintain their current RDP/SSH clients without disrupting their familiar workflow. This enables the transition to Azure Bastion Premium to be more comfortable for employees who have gotten used to specific remote access tools.

4. Economical and Scalable

Addition of new features to Azure Bastion premium makes it a cost-effective substitution to such the case where the individual jump boxes are experienced by the admin. Moreover, being able to scale across larger Virtual Network without sacrificing security signifies that it is suitable for both small and large enterprises equally.

 

Getting Started with Azure Bastion Premium

For the activation of Azure Bastion Premium for your virtual networks you need to perform the following:

• Introduce Azure Bastion: One of the ways you may have Azure Bastion deployed is through the Azure Portal or using Terraform/ARM templates if not you may begin by initiating the process in the Azure portal.
• Upgrade to Premium: When you have deployed the Bastion, you can switch to the Premium service plan by taking the “Premium” option displayed in the Bastion resource.

• Enable Entra ID Integration: Configuration of Entra ID, the establishment of MFA, and the execution of conditional access policies so as to augment further the security system of your remote access environs is to be made.
• Configure Session Monitoring: Handle session recording and monitoring in order to follow user activities as well as enforce the security policies of your organization.