On September 16, 2025, Persistent Systems announced that its Cloud Relay platform—a virtual hub that stitches together mobile ad-hoc radio networks over the internet—is now available on Microsoft Azure. Previously, customers could only host this critical hub on Amazon Web Services. The move lets defense organizations, first responders, and enterprises with far-flung field teams connect Wave Relay mesh networks across the globe using Azure’s infrastructure, government cloud regions, and Microsoft’s identity and monitoring tools.

What’s New: Azure Gets the Cloud Relay Hub

Cloud Relay isn’t a new product. Persistent Systems pioneered the virtual hub model in mid-2024, launching the Cloud Relay Virtual Hub Router on AWS Marketplace. That release turned a physical appliance into a software instance that could be spun up in a public cloud in minutes. But until last week, AWS was the only hosting option clearly advertised.

The Azure expansion brings three immediate shifts. First, operators gain access to Azure’s global region footprint—more than 60 regions—to place hubs closer to field teams and slice latency for time-sensitive voice and video. Second, Azure Government and Azure Secret clouds open the door for agencies that require strict compliance frameworks like FedRAMP, DoD IL5, or allied equivalents. Persistent had already supported AWS GovCloud; Azure parity keeps the platform viable for Microsoft-centric shops. Third, the move simplifies integration with Microsoft’s enterprise stack. You can potentially plug a Cloud Relay hub into existing ExpressRoute circuits, manage administrative access with Microsoft Entra ID, and funnel logs into Azure Monitor and Sentinel—though the company hasn’t yet published integration templates.

“Unlock global distributed networking for joint operations” was the tagline on the press release. In practice, that means a special operations team in Europe using Wave Relay radios can now connect to a hub in an Azure Germany region, while coalition partners in the Indo-Pacific link to the same hub, all sharing sensor feeds and situational awareness as if on a single LAN.

Who Gains from This Move

Defense and Coalition Operators

Persistent designed Cloud Relay for exactly these scenarios. The architecture chains together mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) via secure Layer 3 tunnels to a cloud-hosted hub, which then distributes traffic globally. The system supports multicast voice, video, and telemetry, and can automatically switch transports—satellite, 4G/5G, Starlink, public internet—using PACE (Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency) routing if a link fails. With Azure, that hub can be deployed in a region close to the operational theater, and multiple hubs can be launched for resilience.

Security is layered: certificate-based IPsec with CNSA-compliant AES-256 keys, plus an inner MACsec layer. Persistent markets the solution as capable of meeting the NSA’s CSfC Multi-Site Connectivity Capability Package. For classified or controlled unclassified workloads, those claims must be verified with actual compliance artifacts, but they signal a path toward approvals on National Security Systems.

Enterprise IT and Azure Administrators

If your organization runs remote sites—mining, offshore platforms, disaster response—and already uses Persistent’s MPU5 radios, Cloud Relay on Azure now lets you bridge those field networks to your corporate cloud without deploying physical routers at every location. The virtual hub lives in your Azure VNet, behind your network security groups, and can be managed with the same tools you use for other Azure workloads.

Pricing follows the model set on AWS: an hourly, pay-as-you-go listing on the Azure Marketplace. That means you can spin up a hub for a two-week exercise and tear it down when done. However, watch for data egress charges. Video and sensor streams can generate significant costs; use Azure Cost Management to track spending and consider reserved instances if a hub will run 24/7.

Developers and Integrators

Persistent offers APIs for Cloud Relay, so you can automate hub deployment with ARM templates or Terraform once the Azure listing is live. Integration with Azure Event Hubs or Logic Apps opens possibilities for building custom operational dashboards. Just remember to check the official Persistent documentation for Azure-specific API endpoints and authentication flows.

How We Got to Cloud Relay on Azure

The journey started years ago with Persistent’s Wave Relay waveform, which lets radios self-organize into a mesh without any infrastructure. Those meshes were local, though. Connecting two or more MANETs across the world required a physical hub appliance—a box that had to be shipped, installed, and maintained at a fixed site. That was slow and inflexible.

In July 2024, Persistent launched the Cloud Relay Virtual Hub Router and listed it on AWS Marketplace. Suddenly, a hub could be deployed in software, paid for by the hour, and torn down after a mission. The move cut deployment time from weeks to minutes and won quick adoption from defense customers.

Microsoft Azure was a logical next target. Azure has been pushing hard into defense and government markets, and Persistent already had a relationship with Microsoft—a September 2025 Microsoft customer story highlighted Persistent’s own migration to Azure. The Azure Marketplace already hosted some Persistent products, so the infrastructure for a Cloud Relay listing was in place. According to the September 16 announcement, expanding to Azure directly targets “joint operations”—multi-national, multi-agency missions that benefit from Azure’s global scale.

Your Action Plan: Deploying Cloud Relay on Azure

If you’re evaluating Cloud Relay on Azure, here’s a practical checklist drawn from Persistent’s existing AWS documentation and typical cloud networking patterns.

1. Confirm the Azure Marketplace listing. Search the Marketplace for “Persistent Cloud Relay Virtual Hub.” Verify supported regions, VM sizes, and deployment method (ARM template or manual). If the listing isn’t visible yet, contact Persistent directly—some offers take time to appear after announcement.

2. Design your network topology. Decide whether the hub will sit in a public Azure region, Azure Government, or behind ExpressRoute private peering. Map out the IP addressing: your field gateways will need internet access to reach the hub, but you can restrict that with network security groups and IPsec policies.

3. Integrate identity and access management. Ask Persistent whether the hub’s admin interface supports OpenID Connect or SAML for federation with Microsoft Entra ID. If not, plan for local credential management with multi-factor authentication, perhaps via Azure Application Proxy or a jump host.

4. Set up monitoring and logging. Determine what telemetry the hub exports—syslog, SNMP, streaming telemetry—and configure Azure Monitor to collect it. Build dashboards for hub health, tunnel status, and throughput. Forward logs to your SIEM and create alerts for gateway disconnects or cryptographic failures.

5. Test before you trust. Run a proof-of-concept with a few Wave Relay devices in your lab. Simulate typical loads—video streaming, sensor data, multicast—and measure latency, jitter, and packet loss. Test failover paths by severing a gateway and confirming PACE routing kicks in. If you already run an AWS hub, see how traffic behaves when you add an Azure hub to the mix.

6. Verify security attestations. Persistent’s product pages state that Cloud Relay uses IPsec with CNSA-compliant AES-256 and an inner MACsec layer, and that it can meet CSfC Multi-Site Connectivity requirements. For classified or sensitive use, demand the actual CSfC component list and lab validation reports. Ask about FIPS 140-2/3 validation for the cryptographic modules and whether any third-party penetration tests have been performed on the Azure-hosted hub.

7. Budget for total cost of ownership. Beyond the hourly VM price, factor in Azure egress fees—especially if you’re shipping video across regions. Use the Azure Pricing Calculator. For continuous operation, a one-year reserved instance can cut costs by up to 72%.

The Road Ahead

Persistent isn’t likely to stop at Azure. Multi-cloud is becoming standard in defense networking, so expect Cloud Relay on Google Cloud or even on-premises hypervisors for air-gapped environments. The bigger prize may be integration with Azure Edge Zones or Azure Stack, bringing the virtual hub directly to the tactical edge.

Microsoft’s own investments in 5G and satellite connectivity—through Azure Orbital and partnerships with operators—could pair powerfully with Cloud Relay’s multi-transport capabilities. For now, Windows and Azure pros have a green field to test the platform, but the usual rule applies: verify every claim, measure every link, and plan for failure. That’s how you turn a press release into a battle-ready network.