Cost Optimization

Cloud firewall services vary in pricing models, and understanding these differences helps optimize costs while maintaining security:

AWS Security Groups and Network ACLs: No additional charge
AWS WAF: Charges per Web ACL, rule, and million requests
Azure NSGs: No additional charge
Azure Firewall: Hourly deployment charge plus data processing
GCP Firewall Rules: No additional charge for rules
Cloud Armor: Charges per policy, rule, and million requests

Cost optimization strategies:

# Consolidate rules to minimize WAF costs
def optimize_waf_rules(rules):
    # Combine similar rules using regex
    optimized = []
    ip_blocks = []
    
    for rule in rules:
        if rule['type'] == 'ip_block':
            ip_blocks.append(rule['value'])
        else:
            optimized.append(rule)
    
    # Create single IP set rule instead of multiple IP rules
    if ip_blocks:
        optimized.append({
            'type': 'ip_set',
            'values': ip_blocks
        })
    
    return optimized