Which kind of PAYG license does the Palo Alto Networks NGFW support with Azure?

The Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) supports a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) licensing model in Azure, specifically focusing on an hourly billing approach. This model allows users to pay for their NGFW deployment based on the actual number of hours the service is used, which can be more economical and flexible for organizations that require scalability or have variable workloads. Hourly billing is particularly advantageous for short-term projects or for applications that do not need a constant firewall presence.

The PAYG model reduces upfront costs, as there is no need to make a large initial investment, which is typical in a Bring-Your-Own-License (BYOL) model where customers purchase a license upfront for on-premise or cloud services. Furthermore, the hourly licensing structure means that users can dynamically scale their deployment according to demand, ensuring cost-effectiveness while only paying for the resources that they actively use during a given billing period.

In contrast, other license types like annual billing often require a longer commitment and upfront payment, which may not align with the financial strategies of all organizations.