Microsoft Azure Architect Design (AZ-304) Practice Test

The Azure Application Gateway is specifically designed to provide a fully managed load balancing service that includes advanced application-level routing and security features, such as a web application firewall (WAF). This means it not only distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers effectively, enhancing the availability and responsiveness of applications, but it also provides the ability to protect web applications from common vulnerabilities and threats.

The integration of application firewall capabilities allows for monitoring and filtering of HTTP requests, which is essential for maintaining secure and compliant web applications. By analyzing incoming traffic and applying security rules, the Application Gateway can help prevent attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

In contrast, while Azure Load Balancer shares the characteristic of distributing network traffic, it does not offer the advanced features available within the Application Gateway, like WAF capabilities. Azure Traffic Manager is focused primarily on DNS-based traffic routing to optimize network performance and geo-distribution but does not offer load balancing or firewall features. Azure ExpressRoute serves a different purpose by providing private connections between Azure data centers and on-premises infrastructure, ensuring secure connectivity, but not load balancing or application firewall functionalities. Thus, the Azure Application Gateway stands out as the most suitable option to meet the specified requirements.