- The CIO's Dilemma
- Increasing Relevance of the Network
- Monetization
- Evolution of Network Services for the Cloud
- Quick Guide to the Rest of This Book
- Summary
- Review Questions
- References
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Quick Guide to the Rest of This Book
The network fabric is the glue that securely binds together heterogeneous resources inside clouds and between clouds and delivers them beyond the cloud to the end users. Based on requirements, characteristics, and administrative domains, cloud networks can be divided into three distinct entities:
- Data center networks
- WAN/IP NGNs
- Enterprise/consumer networks
How are these networks evolving to support cloud models? What is the role played by these networks in enabling business-grade cloud services? And how do we instantiate these concepts in deployment use cases? What end-to-end considerations apply for the secure delivery of cloud services with an SLA? These are some of the questions we explore in the rest of this book. The three parts of this book that follow are organized along the lines of the network sections listed here. The first one delves into data center networks. The next one explores the network between the data centers and from the data centers to cloud users. And the final one covers cloud consumer/enterprise networks, and then brings it all together with an end-to-end view of cloud service delivery. Here’s a reader’s map to these three sections.
Part II: Inside the Data Center Networks
We begin in Chapter 5, “Role of the Network Infrastructure in a Virtualized Environment,” by examining the changes in networking infrastructure required to adapt to the virtualized environment of today’s cloud data centers. What trends are driving the data center network design? How are virtual network services hosted on this network fabric? Next, in Chapter 6, “Securing and Optimizing Cloud Services,” we examine the design of secure, multitenant data center networks. How can virtual security services be enabled inside a tenant’s network container, and then across tenants? How can predefined instances be used to provision security compliant frameworks for PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and other regulations? Then, Chapter 7, “Application Performance Optimization,” delves into optimization of cloud services and enhancing the end user experience. How do virtual application delivery solutions work?
Part III: Inside the SP Next Generation Network (WAN)
Cloud service providers that own or control WAN/IP NGN assets are able to mobilize their cloud resources between data centers and are also able to securely deliver and optimize the cloud service all the way to the customer edge. Chapter 8, “NGN Infrastructure That Supports Cloud Services,” discusses Data Center Interconnect (DCI), the drivers, and the technologies. We also explore exciting changes that allow the cloud network to automatically adjust and optimize to account for such mobility. Chapter 9, “Securing Cloud Transport and Edge Using NGN Technologies,” explores advanced security technologies in the NGN that protect the cloud edge and enable secure access to cloud services and applications. Then, we wrap up this section with acceleration technologies for cloud services over the WAN, in Chapter 10, “Optimizing and Accelerating Cloud Services.” In addition, we explore how network intelligence, exposed by innovations such as the Network Positioning System, facilitates the optimal placement and selection of cloud services.
Part IV: Putting It All Together—Cloud Services Delivered
Enterprise networks are adapting to this new world order and playing a critical role as a control point in the consumption of cloud services. Chapter 11, “Connecting Enterprises to the Cloud,” covers the architecture of cloud connectors and explains how advanced branch networks enable survivability, optimization, security, and performance of cloud services. We then discuss the all-important topic of cloud SLAs and how distinct networks can be stitched together to enable end-to-end cloud service delivery in Chapter 12, “End-to-End Cloud SLAs.” Finally, in Chapter 13, “Peeking into the Future,” we look at future trends as related to the cloud and what they mean for networks and network services.