Zero-trust security startup Illumio Inc. today announced the general availability of a new integrated solution, designed in partnership with Microsoft Corp., to bring zero-trust enforcement to the Azure Firewall.

Illumio for Microsoft Azure Firewall is a zero-trust enforcement point to visualize and secure all traffic between Azure resources connecting through the Azure Firewall. The service builds resilience to ransomware and other cyberattacks while maximizing the impact and value of Azure Firewall as a security investment.

Zero trust is a cybersecurity framework that assumes all users and devices are potential threats, even those within the network perimeter. It requires continuous authentication and authorization for access to resources, reducing the risk of data breaches and stopping the lateral movement of attackers.

Designed to assist organizations looking to reduce their risk from breaches and build cyber resilience, the new service helps Azure Firewall users secure and protect enterprise cloud environments by serving as the entry and exit point for data as it traverses the hybrid cloud ecosystem. Illumio for Azure Firewall allows users to protect different parts of their cloud environment by enabling one-to-one mapping between a resource and its metadata in Azure and its associated workload and labels in Illumio.

The benefits of the service include simple policy creation. Illumio argues that traditional firewall configurations often tether security rules to IP addresses or hostnames — frequently variable elements in a constantly evolving cloud landscape. With Illumio for Azure Firewall, organizations can author modern context-based security rules that are inherently adaptable to shifts in Azure deployments.

Improved application uptime in the new service allows enterprises to innovate and expand without the fear of unintentionally impairing their mission-critical applications. Security teams can test and validate the outcome and impact of their security policies before fully enforcing them using a simulation mode, which protects applications and workloads.

The service also provides zero trust at large scale, with zero-trust segmentation controls that minimize the impact of cyberattacks, reducing organizations’ risk and increasing their resilience. Illumio for Azure Firewall offers simplified context-based visibility of any communication across Azure Firewall and Azure network security groups, assisting organizations in prioritizing and implementing the most impactful security policies.

“Illumio for Microsoft Azure Firewall helps modernize firewall policy management by making it easy to enforce zero trust,” Narayan Annamalai, general manager at Microsoft, said ahead of the release.

The new service is available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.

Image: Illumio