Designing Networks and Services for the Cloud

Book excerpt: Designing Networks and Services for the Cloud Delivering business-grade cloud applications and services A rapid, easy-to-understand approach to delivering a secure, resilient, easy-to-manage, SLA-driven cloud experience Designing Networks and Services for the Cloud helps you understand the design and architecture of networks and network services that enable the delivery of business-grade cloud services. Drawing on more than 40 years of experience in network and cloud design, validation, and deployment, the authors demonstrate how networks spanning from the Enterprise branch/HQ and the service provider Next-Generation Networks (NGN) to the data center fabric play a key role in addressing the primary inhibitors to cloud adoption–security, performance, and management complexity. The authors first review how virtualized infrastructure lays the foundation for the delivery of cloud services before delving into a primer on clouds, including the management of cloud services. Next, they explore key factors that inhibit enterprises from moving their core workloads to the cloud, and how advanced networks and network services can help businesses migrate to the cloud with confidence. You’ll find an in-depth look at data center networks, including virtualization-aware networks, virtual network services, and service overlays. The elements of security in this virtual, fluid environment are discussed, along with techniques for optimizing and accelerating the service delivery. The book dives deeply into cloud-aware service provider NGNs and their role in flexibly connecting distributed cloud resources, ensuring the security of provider and tenant resources, and enabling the optimal placement of cloud services. The role of Enterprise networks as a critical control point for securely and cost-effectively connecting to high-performance cloud services is explored in detail before various parts of the network finally come together in the definition and delivery of end-to-end cloud SLAs. At the end of the journey, you preview the exciting future of clouds and network services, along with the major upcoming trends. If you are a technical professional or manager who must design, implement, or operate cloud or NGN solutions in enterprise or service-provider environments, this guide will be an indispensable resource. * Understand how virtualized data-center infrastructure lays the groundwork for cloud-based services * Move from distributed virtualization to “IT-as-a-service” via automated self-service portals * Classify cloud services and deployment models, and understand the actors in the cloud ecosystem * Review the elements, requirements, challenges, and opportunities associated with network services in the cloud * Optimize data centers via network segmentation, virtualization-aware networks, virtual network services, and service overlays * Systematically secure cloud services * Optimize service and application performance * Plan and implement NGN infrastructure to support and accelerate cloud services * Successfully connect enterprises to the cloud * Define and deliver on end-to-end cloud SLAs * Preview the future of cloud and network services