Elevate your security in the cloud: The must-have Public IP upgrade in Azure

If you’re here, it’s probably because you too have received an email like this, and therefore, some of your Azure subscriptions are affected.

Microsoft Azure has announced the upgrade of Basic SKU public IP addresses to Standard SKU.

Why Switch from Azure Basic Public IP to Standard?

Public IP addresses are an essential resource in Azure for communicating with cloud services and instances. The Basic version of public IP addresses has served users well for years; however, the Standard version offers significant improvements in terms of security, availability, and features. For example, Standard IP addresses support Zone Redundancy, meaning they can withstand failures in an availability zone and continue functioning, providing greater resilience and service continuity.

Importance of the Change

The transition to the Standard SKU is more than just an upgrade; it’s an investment in cloud infrastructure that ensures services can operate more securely and reliably. With features like inbound traffic filtering and integration with Azure DDoS Protection, Standard IP addresses are better equipped to handle modern threats and performance requirements.

Key Dates

Microsoft has announced that September 30, 2025, will be the retirement date for Basic SKU public IP addresses. This means users must plan and execute the transition before this date to avoid service disruptions.

Prepare for the Change

Preparing for this change will involve several important steps:

1. Identification: Locate all Basic SKU public IP addresses and associated services (it’s a good time to decommission those IPs you don’t use).
2. Planning: Determine if we will need Zone Redundancy and plan for the necessary downtime for migration.
3. Execution: Perform the upgrade through the Azure Portal, PowerShell, or the Azure CLI, following the instructions provided in the official documentation.
4. Validation: After the upgrade, ensure that the public IP addresses now reflect the Standard SKU and that no services are left inactive or unassigned/unassociated.

Key Points to Consider:

Although the change may seem trivial, it can affect the communications of our public IPs, which, as we remember, are used to publish our services to the Internet. Therefore, it’s possible that you have some critical infrastructure using these services, making proper change planning essential.Note these key points for proper planning:

• Public Addressing: The public addressing may change. If you had a static address, it will be maintained, but if you have a dynamic one, you will need to switch to static before the change. There is preliminary work to study this change, traffic, security, addressing, DNS, etc.
• Disassociation: You will need to disassociate the IPs before the change, so they will temporarily be unavailable. Plan service interruption times correctly.
• Network Security Groups (NSGs): If you didn’t have an NSG before, you will now, and you need to allow or deny access. Review which ports you need to open and from where to where to plan the rules.
• Security Improvements: Rethink and take advantage of the new Standard SKU features to improve infrastructure security.

Advice

Don’t wait until the change to create the new public IPs. If you had dynamic IPs, you will be required to switch to static IPs. So, you can prepare the resources ahead of time, so on the day of the change, you only need to disassociate the old public IP (Basic SKU) and associate the new one (Standard SKU).

Conclusion

The upgrade from Azure Basic Public IP to Standard is a necessary transition that will strengthen cloud infrastructure and improve service security and availability. Although the change may seem simple or complicated depending on the associated services, with proper planning and following the guidelines provided by Microsoft, it is possible to complete this transition smoothly. It’s time to act and prepare for a more secure and resilient future in the cloud.Contact us so we can help you analyze your needs and offer a tailored solution.

At Raona, we have been working for large organizations for over 20 years. With more than 100 completed projects and 200 assisted companies, we are the most awarded company in intranet projects in Spain. Contact us, and we will assist you without obligation.