What is cloud networking?

Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet.

Why cloud networking?

Businesses today turn to the cloud to drive agility, deliver differentiation, accelerate time-to-market, and increase scale. The cloud model has become the standard approach to build and deliver applications for the modern enterprise.

Cloud networking has also played a critical role in the way organizations address their growing infrastructure needs, regional expansions, and redundancy plans. Many organizations are adopting a multi-data center strategy and leveraging multiple clouds from multiple cloud service providers (CSPs).

Why should you care about cloud networking?

Most application interactions begin at or terminate beyond an organization’s own network, so cloud networking is becoming the new enterprise core. Designing, deploying, and maintaining a cloud network for agility, performance, security, and efficiency is vital to companies using public cloud services.

What IT teams are responsible for cloud networking?

Cloud networking requires collaboration across several IT operations teams (compute infrastructure, networking, and security), application teams, cloud architects, and business stakeholders, including:

NetOps: Configures and maintains network architectures to different teams, which helps ensure access to applications and resources and provides a consistent user experience

Data center and compute infrastructure teams: Enforces application-aware policies so the network is consistently extended between on-premises and public cloud environments

SecOps: Protects users, access, applications, and data across multiple networks

DevOps and application teams: Leverages network architectures and resources to deploy applications and improve performance

Cloud architects: Contributes to the design of a common strategy across multicloud networking

Cloud networking Types:

1.Cloud networking
Cloud networking is an umbrella term for the connectivity to and between all variations of on-premises, edge, and cloud-based services, such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

The main benefits of a well-executed cloud networking strategy include:

• Simplification for lifecycle management
• User-experience assurance
• Reduced time to market for service rollout
• Lower operational costs
• Reduced risk for applications and data

2.Multicloud networking:

Multicloud networking, often used interchangeably with the term cloud networking, refers to advanced capabilities such as application and workload-awareness, SaaS-delivered control plane, and integrations with public cloud providers. This enables easier access to, and automated management, across multiple clouds and on-premises environments.

Typical use cases for multicloud networking include:

• SD-WAN and SASE for optimized access to IaaS and SaaS services
• Multicloud software-defined networking (SDN) for consistent application-aware policy automation between on-premises and IaaS environments
• Hybrid application connectivity across an SD-WAN and between multiple public clouds/on-premises environments

3.Hybrid cloud networking
Hybrid cloud networking is a subset of cloud and multicloud networking; it relates specifically to the connectivity between two clouds, such as on-premises private, hosted private, and public. It is also commonly used to describe connectivity between an on-premises data center or colocated facility and a public cloud.

4.Cloud networking and cloud-based networking:

Cloud-based networking can be used to refer specifically to cloud networking solutions with their control plane hosted and delivered in public clouds; this is in contrast to an on-premises device or software stack. Increasingly, modern cloud networking solutions have a cloud-based management plane.

What are the advantages of cloud networking?

Several reasons make cloud networking a smart choice for enterprises with growing workloads:

Cost: By accessing equipment, storage, and software on a cloud network, there is no need to purchase any of these resources. Enterprises can keep a lid on capital expenditures so that limited budgets do not need to be tapped.

Productivity: Because traffic, software updates, and backups are managed on the cloud network, IT staff have more time to focus on higher priority tasks. Because staff don’t have to maintain or configure the network, productivity levels often increase and administration costs remain low.

Mobility: As an always-on means of connecting, a cloud network provides users with access to data and applications 24/7, wherever they are and with any device connected to the Internet.

Rapid scalability: Because they don’t need to build and configure networking hardware and software, IT can quickly add capacity, loading more data, storage, or applications almost instantly.

Quick implementation: Cloud networking providers handle configuring and installing networking equipment, so new resources can be deployed quickly.

Reduced downtime: With cloud networking, the entire process of updating cloud networking applications is managed by the providers, meaning IT no longer needs to bring the system down for updates and business processes can run continuously.

Interconnecting Cloud Networks

Modern cloud design requires integrating cloud networks to provide smooth communication between cloud environments and on-premises equipment. Several approaches and technology enable these connections:

A. VPN Links:

• Site-to-Site VPN: Encryptly connect an on-premises data center or office to a cloud VPC. It enables secure public internet communication. Site-to-Site VPNs safeguard the local network-cloud connection for hybrid companies.
• VPC Peering: Two VPCs in the same cloud provider can be directly connected. A private, low-latency link lets resources in separate VPCs communicate as if they were on the same network. VPC peering is suitable for interacting VPCs while maintaining traffic on the same cloud provider’s network.

B. Direct Link

• Overview of Direct Connect: Cloud service providers provide dedicated, high-speed, private network connections. It connects an organization’s on-premises data center to the cloud provider’s infrastructure. Direct Connect has dedicated bandwidth, reduced latency, and better dependability than VPNs.
• Direct Connect Advantages and Use Cases: Direct Connect has various advantages, including greater security, improved network performance, and lower data transmission costs. Enterprises with massive data flow, real-time applications, or strict compliance demands benefit most. Disaster recovery, backup, hybrid cloud deployments, and low-latency network connectivity are use cases.

C. Gateway Transit

• Transit Gateway: A Transit Gateway is a cloud network gateway that streamlines network communication across different VPCs, on-premises data centers, and other cloud environments. It routes traffic and facilitates network administration.
• Benefits of Using a Transit Gateway for Network Connectivity: Transit Gateways simplify network design by lowering complexity and facilitating effective traffic routing. They boost scalability, ease VPC and connection addition, and improve network traffic visibility. Transit Gateways consolidate and cost-effectively manage cloud connectivity for enterprises with many VPCs or complicated network topologies.

Disaster Recovery Planning for Cloud Networks:

• Risk Assessment and Recovery Objectives:

- Identify threats and prioritize applications based on criticality.

- Define Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs).

• Backup and Data Protection:

- Implement automated, frequent backups for critical data.

- Use cloud-native or third-party backup solutions.

• Multi-Region Redundancy and Disaster Recovery Site:

- Replicate critical resources across regions or Availability Zones.

- Establish a secondary disaster recovery site.

• Failover and Automation:

- Develop and automate clear failover and failback procedures.

- Use orchestration tools and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

• Testing and Monitoring:

- Regularly test disaster recovery procedures.

- Implement real-time monitoring and alerting.

• Documentation, Training, and Compliance:

- Document plans and train teams.

- Ensure compliance with industry regulations.

• Third-Party Services:

- Consider third-party Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) providers.

• Regular Updates and Communication:

- Keep the plan up to date.

- Develop a communication plan for stakeholders.

• Post-Disaster Analysis:

- Analyze the event, identify lessons, and improve the plan.

Effective disaster recovery planning ensures cloud network resilience and business continuity in the face of disruptions.