I'm looking for help with designing a multi-region hybrid connectivity setup. I'm familiar with the Site-to-Site VPN using ExpressRoute and Virtual Network Gateway, but I'm unsure how to approach the overall design. I've read about the multi-hub architecture using the Azure Landing Zones accelerator but haven't actually deployed one yet.
I understand that I need to gather requirements during the interview and design the architecture, but I feel a bit lost when it comes to multi-region connectivity. Is there a reference architecture I can implement over the weekend to help me gain confidence in my answers?
3 Answers
It might seem overwhelming at first, but it's really about structuring everything clearly rather than coming up with something completely new. For multi-region hybrid connectivity, think of the hub-and-spoke model replicated in each region. Each region has its own hub with a Virtual Network Gateway or ExpressRoute, and then the spokes connect locally. After that, connect the hubs with VNet peering or global transit so the regions can communicate with each other. The key focus for interviewers is on redundancy and failover—if one region or gateway fails, you want the traffic to still route through another region. That’s where multi-hub setups (like ALZ) come into play. Honestly, don’t stress if you haven’t deployed it yet; just understanding the pattern and trade-offs is often enough. For practice, consider setting up a simple two-region architecture over a weekend and getting traffic flowing between them. Once you grasp it, you'll find the concepts are pretty repetitive!
Check this out: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/firewall/firewall-multi-hub-spoke. It provides a great reference for multi-hub setups and covers a lot of scenarios.
Thanks! This is really helpful. It seems to cover all the scenarios I was wondering about!
I totally understand that blank moment! The usual approach is to set up a hub-and-spoke model for each region. Each hub should have its own ExpressRoute or Virtual Network Gateway for on-prem connectivity, while the spokes remain local. The hubs need to communicate with each other via global VNet peering. For example, if you have three regions, like two hubs in the EU and one in India, the idea is to route users to the nearest hub and ensure inter-hub paths are available. Using BGP preferences helps with failover—if one gateway or region goes down, traffic can route smoothly through another. A great practice for the weekend would be to set up a small lab with two regions to establish basic connectivity, then simulate a failure to watch the failover in action. I suggest rehearsing your design using prompts from the IQB interview question bank and doing some quick whiteboard sessions with Beyz coding assistant to keep your thoughts organized. Start with requirements, then constraints, and finish with trade-offs to present a solid design.
Could you tell me more about IQB and Beyz?
I see. But what if I end up with three regions? For instance, 2 in the EU and 1 in India. How would users connect?