Microsoft VPN Forced Tunneling is a feature that allows organizations to route all internet traffic from remote clients or on-premises networks through a specific network path, such as an Azure virtual network or on-premises network, when they are connected to a Microsoft VPN connection. With Forced Tunneling, all traffic is forced to traverse the VPN tunnel, even traffic destined for the public internet, rather than being directly routed to the internet.
This is a useful security feature that helps ensure that all traffic from remote clients or on-premises networks is securely transmitted over an encrypted tunnel, reducing the risk of data leakage and improving compliance with security standards. Additionally, Forced Tunneling allows organizations to filter and inspect internet traffic, providing an additional layer of security by preventing unauthorized access to the internet from remote or on-premises networks.
Forced Tunneling can be enabled on both Point-to-Site (P2S) and Site-to-Site (S2S) VPN connections in Azure, and can be configured using Azure VPN Gateway, Azure Virtual WAN, or third-party VPN devices.
Examples of Microsoft VPN Forced Tunneling
An example of Microsoft VPN Forced Tunneling is when you have a remote workforce that needs to access your corporate network securely. You can set up a VPN connection between the remote clients and your corporate network, and enable Forced Tunneling to route all internet traffic from the remote clients through a specific network path, such as an Azure virtual network.
For instance, let’s say you have a sales team that needs to access your CRM system from their laptops while on the go. You can create a Point-to-Site (P2S) VPN connection between the remote laptops and your corporate network. By enabling Forced Tunneling, you can route all internet traffic from the laptops through your corporate network, where it will be inspected and filtered by your security devices, before being allowed onto the internet. This ensures that all traffic from the remote laptops is securely transmitted over an encrypted tunnel, reducing the risk of data leakage and improving compliance with security standards.
Another example of Microsoft VPN Forced Tunneling is when you have a hybrid cloud environment, where you have workloads deployed both on-premises and in Azure. By enabling Forced Tunneling on your Site-to-Site (S2S) VPN connection between your on-premises network and your Azure virtual network, you can route all internet traffic from your on-premises network through your Azure virtual network, where it will be inspected and filtered by your security devices, before being allowed onto the internet. This ensures that all traffic from your on-premises network is securely transmitted over an encrypted tunnel, improving security and compliance with security standards.
