Azure ExpressRouteprovidesdedicated private connectionsbetween on-premises infrastructure and Azure data centers, bypassing the public internet. This results inmore predictable latency, higher reliability, and better security, making it ideal for mission-critical workloads.

Thebranch-to-branch topologyin Azure Virtual WAN is characterized bydirect connectivity between branchesthrough the Virtual WAN backbone, whichreduces dependency on centralized hubs. This results in asimplified network architecture, lowering latency and optimizing routing between branch locations.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)allows you to deploy FortiWeb as a virtual machine in Azure, giving you granular control over vCPU and memory allocation. This model provides full flexibility over the compute resources and network configuration, which is essential for deploying and scaling security appliances like FortiWeb.

Azure Firewall Premiumincludes advanced features not available in the Standard tier, such asenhanced URL filtering and web categories,TLS inspection,IDPS (intrusion detection and prevention system), and support forprivate certificate authorities. These enable more granular and secure traffic inspection and control.

For VMs in the10.0.1.0/26subnet to access the internetthrough the FortiGate VM, theirdefault gateway must be changedto the internal IP address of the FortiGate's NIC in that subnet (e.g.,LAB1-FGT-A-Nic2).
This ensures traffic is routedthrough FortiGate for inspection and NAT, rather than directly using Azure's default system routes.