cloud network builder

 One of the complexities of the cloud is the fact that the cloud model has so many variations - public, private, hybrid - and many deployment options driven by multiple cloud providers and cloud software providers. A common element in all clouds is the cloud network , which is always essential in connecting cloud resources to users, and increasingly in making connections between cloud resources and providers. Any company building a cloud strategy has to develop a cloud networking strategy, and that strategy has to be versatile enough to accommodate the possibilities of the cloud, rather than limit them.

A good place to start is with the concept of network as a service, or Naas. Public cloud services include Naas features implicitly (the internet is an "access Naas" for most public clouds) or explicitly (with VPN capabilities), and private and hybrid clouds almost always control network connections. using a Naas model.

Naas, for a cloud network builder , is an abstract model of a network service that can be either Layer 2 (Ethernet, VLAN) or Layer 3 (IP, VPN) in the OSI model. A cloud user defines the type of Naas that their cloud connectivity requires, and then uses public or private tools to build that Naas. Naas can define how users access cloud components, and also how the components themselves are connected in a private or hybrid cloud.

The best known example of Naas in the public cloud space is Amazon's Elastic IP Address service . This service allows any cloud host on EC2 , wherever it may be, to be represented by a constant IP address. Elastic IP NaaS makes the cloud look like a single host. This is an example of an access oriented NAAS application.

Naas as cloud connectivity

In the private cloud, the most common example of Naas comes from OpenStack's Neutron APIs, which allow users to build models of network services at Layer 2 or Layer 3 and then add their virtual machine (VM) instances to these. Models. This Naas model builds connections between components that connect elements of cloud applications to each other, and also defines the inter-network gateways to publish application services to users. However, not all private cloud suites have Naas or Neutron-like capabilities, and those that do not exist will require the use of management / orchestration tools, popularly called DevOps tools, in the cloud to build Naas services in a private cloud deployment cisco core router.

For hybrid clouds - the direction that most cloud users hope to go with their own cloud plans- Naas is likely to be a three-step process. First, you will need to define the public cloud NaaS service, then the cloud connectivity you will need for your private cloud, and finally the bridge between them. In most cases, this "hybrid bridge" is a gateway between the two Naas services in your cloud, but is often a two-tier gateway. First, you have to provide a real network connection between the public and private clouds, which in many cases will involve setting up a software-based router or router device. Second, you have to make sure that the directories that provide addressing for the cloud application components (DHCP to assign addresses,This is really a part of cloud integration , and it can be done using DevOps tools or off-the-shelf cloud integration products.

Cloud networks are critical to the success of the cloud, and approaching them as the union of Naas domains is a good way to plan and implement the necessary elements, and keep them functioning optimally for efficient use of the cloud. .