Azure — Difference between Azure Private Links and Azure Service Endpoints
Azure Private Links vs Azure Service Endpoints — Comparison between Private Links and Service Endpoints
Azure Private Link (Private Endpoint) allows you to access Azure PaaS services over Private IP address within the VNet. It gets a new private IP on your VNet. When you send traffic to PaaS resource, it will always ensure traffic stays within your VNet.
Azure Service Endpoint provides secure and direct connectivity to Azure PaaS services over an optimized route over the Azure backbone network. Traffic still left your VNet and hit the public endpoint of PaaS service.
Azure PaaS Services: SQL Databases, Storage, Key Vault, ServicesBus, App Services, Cosmos DB, Event Hubs, SQL Data Warehouse etc.
Key Points
Access
Service endpoint — It remains a publicly routable IP address. Private endpoint — It is a private IP in the address space of the virtual network where the private endpoint is configured.
Both are design to allow you to restrict who connects to your service. Traffic between your virtual network and the service travels the Microsoft backbone network without going over the internet.
Data Exfiltration protection
Service Endpoint — Traffic need to be passed through an NVA/Firewall for exfiltration protection. Private Link — It has an inbuilt data protection.
On-Premise Connectivity
Service Endpoints — it is not easily restrict on-premise traffic. They can only be secured to Azure VNet. Private Links — Easily extensible for On-premises network traffic via ExpressRoute or VPN tunnels.
Complexity
Service Endpoint — It’s much simpler to implement and significantly reduce complexity of your architecture design. Private Link — Need to manage another resource.
Cost
Service Endpoint — There is no additional cost for using VNet service endpoints. Private Link — It costs can quickly grow depending on total ingress and egress traffic and runtime of the link.
Availability
Both services are not available for all resources/services. See the complete list for Service Endpoints and Private Link.
Summary
Use a private endpoint, if you want to be able to block all internet traffic to a target resource. Private Link is superior to Service Endpoint in Security.
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