Azure: Hybrid Networking Across Clouds

Key insights

• Hybrid cloud networking connects Azure, AWS, GCP and on‑prem data centers into one secure network.
  It lets services in different clouds talk to each other with consistent policies and management.
• Use a mix of connection types: VPN Gateway for encrypted tunnels, ExpressRoute for private dedicated links, and VNet peering for native cloud-to-cloud traffic.
  Choose the option that balances cost, latency, and security for each workload.
• For multi-cloud links, common approaches include site-to-site VPN for quick setup and private connectivity (via POPs or exchange providers) for predictable performance.
  Operators often use VPN as backup and dedicated links for primary traffic.
• Protect traffic with encryption and reduce internet exposure with private circuits like ExpressRoute.
  Add services such as Azure Firewall and centralized policies to keep access controlled and auditable.
• Handle name resolution and service discovery across clouds using DNS forwarding and private endpoints.
  Plan DNS and routing early to avoid connectivity and application failures.
• Apply best practices: use Azure Virtual WAN or a central control plane for unified routing, enable monitoring and automation, and design for resilience with redundant paths.
  Test failover and document operational runbooks for multi-cloud scenarios.

Introduction: Video Overview and Context

In a recent YouTube presentation, John Savill's [MVP] walks viewers through connecting services across Azure, AWS, GCP, and on-premises networks to form a working hybrid cloud fabric. He demonstrates practical options and design patterns, while explaining the roles of core Azure services and equivalent techniques available in other clouds. Moreover, the video frames the subject as a real-world engineering challenge that many enterprises face today, highlighting both technical choices and operational tradeoffs.

Core Technologies and How They Fit Together

Savill explains the main components used to build hybrid connectivity, including VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, Azure Virtual WAN, VNet peering, and private endpoints. He clarifies that each option serves a different need: encrypted tunnels via S2S VPN for flexibility, and private links via ExpressRoute or direct interconnects for predictability and performance. Consequently, viewers gain a clear sense of how to combine these building blocks to meet specific performance, cost, and security targets.

Additionally, the video highlights physical and logical touchpoints such as points of presence (POPs), cloud exchange providers, and vendor-specific interconnects like Oracle Interconnect for Azure. Savill stresses that the choice between public internet paths, carrier exchanges, and dedicated circuits hinges on latency and security requirements. Therefore, architects must weigh operational complexity against the benefits of lower jitter and stronger isolation.

Multi-Cloud Connectivity Options Explained

Savill reviews cross-cloud alternatives, showing how site-to-site VPN can link clouds cheaply and quickly, while cloud-provider interconnects provide higher throughput and lower latency. He also explores hybrid approaches that use an exchange provider to broker connections among clouds, which can reduce the number of separate circuits and simplify routing. However, he warns that these mixed approaches introduce dependencies on third-party providers and require careful routing and security configuration.

The presentation also covers resilience patterns such as using S2S VPN tunnels as backups to dedicated links and enabling features like FastPath to improve throughput where supported. Savill emphasizes that a pragmatic design often blends redundancy with cost control: keep a lower-cost VPN as a failover, while relying on a direct connection for production traffic. Consequently, teams can balance budget constraints with the need for high availability.

Tradeoffs, DNS, and Operational Challenges

Notably, the video addresses DNS resolution and name discovery as one of the trickier aspects of hybrid networking, since cloud services often use different resolution models and private name zones. Savill recommends planning DNS early, using conditional forwarding, and centralizing resolution where possible to avoid service-to-service failures. At the same time, he points out that centralization can create a single point of failure unless you design redundancy and geographic placement thoughtfully.

Moreover, operational complexity rises with each additional cloud and interconnect method, which increases the burden on monitoring, change control, and security posture. Teams must also contend with IP address management, route propagation limits, and divergent feature sets across cloud providers. As a result, successful implementations require both tooling and governance to keep configurations consistent and auditable.

Practical Recommendations and Final Thoughts

In closing, Savill urges practitioners to define clear objectives before choosing technologies: prioritize low latency and throughput with dedicated paths like ExpressRoute, while using encrypted VPNs for flexibility and cost savings. He also recommends treating hybrid networks as a platform, investing in centralized monitoring and automation to reduce human error and speed recovery. Ultimately, careful design reduces risk and makes ongoing operations more predictable.

Finally, the video illustrates that no single approach suits every scenario; rather, engineers should mix and match options to balance cost, performance, and manageability. For many organizations, the best path includes a blend of private interconnects, exchange-based routing, and resilient VPN fallbacks, together with robust DNS and routing practices. Therefore, enterprises can achieve effective multi-cloud connectivity by planning ahead and testing frequently to validate assumptions and failover behavior.

Keywords

hybrid cloud networking, multi-cloud connectivity, Azure AWS GCP networking, cloud interconnect solutions, SD-WAN for cloud, hybrid cloud architecture, cloud network security, cross-cloud peering