Take Your Cloud Connectivity to the Next Level

3nets | CloudNavigator™ and Data Center Interconnect Services: The Perfect Combination

Simplifying application workload connectivity is something that all application owners are constantly seeking to increase the speed of deployment, streamline ongoing operations, and deliver high availability for applications. However, all “connectivity” is not alike regarding enabling communications between application workloads in the cloud.

3nets | CloudNavigator™ is a service delivery platform that provides application connectivity as a baseline service, reducing additional cloud complexity by hiding the complex networking constructs offered by the various cloud providers. In doing so, the 3nets | CloudNavigator™ solution provides additional layers of value that cloud connectivity solutions were never intended to deliver.

The not-so-subtle difference between “application connectivity” and “cloud connectivity” is often lost in today’s discussions around “simplifying cloud connectivity.” However, the services differ in terms of the value they deliver to application owners.

Cloud Connectivity

As the name implies, this service may be required if an application owner needs to connect applications distributed across many cloud locations.

To meet intra-cloud/inter-region cloud connectivity requirements, customers can often leverage an existing cloud service provider’s highly scalable and optimized internal IP network. However, in some cases (cloud to cloud, cloud to data center), where the underlying network cannot meet the service level requirements of the applications running in the cloud, additional connectivity is required. This is a scenario where a cloud connectivity service is necessary.

Cloud connectivity or Data Center Interconnect (DCI), is a bandwidth service that delivers bandwidth predictability and latency between two or more locations. It is important to recognize that connectivity stops at the cloud provider interconnect in this case . DCI solution providers often work with major cloud providers and integrate with the cloud provider’s direct access technology (AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, etc.). However, the demarcation point of these services is the cloud provider’s gateway. Therefore, these services do not provide connectivity to the application workload. To do so, application owners must learn various cloud provider network solutions and architect primary and backup connectivity from each DCI endpoint into the Virtual Private Cloud that hosts the application. This becomes increasingly complex for initial connectivity and ongoing operations as additional VPCs and cloud providers are onboarded.

The value of cloud connectivity services is measured in terms of predictable bandwidth, predictable latency, and lower costs a customer can achieve when connecting cloud locations. Rapid deployment, flexible and scalable pricing, and open APIs are the additional value that many next-generation DCI providers deliver. Cloud connectivity services can be enabled via a user portal or API, allowing customers to integrate them into their service delivery automation platforms to orchestrate service delivery.

Application Connectivity

As the name implies, application connectivity connects at the application level. Application connectivity goes beyond “location” connectivity and extends beyond the cloud provider gateways into the workload of Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs). Application connectivity can leverage an existing cloud service provider’s highly scalable and optimized internal IP network and the connectivity provided by a DCI to connect applications. There are numerous benefits to this model.

• Multi-cloud simplicity: Deploying a common software stack in each cloud workload VPC environment simplifies operations through a standard view with standardized deployment models and constructs. Additionally, routing capabilities on the software stack allow for the automation of path selection during outages.
• Operational visibility: Operational visibility is increasingly important as applications are distributed across many clouds. The ability to monitor connectivity from VPC to VPC on a single-pane-of-glass provides unprecedented end-to-end visibility versus the fragmented visibility across multiple cloud service provider interfaces and DCI providers, assists operations teams in troubleshooting problems rapidly, and lowers MTTR.
• Increased security: Besides the end-to-end connectivity, data security in motion is automated and simplified through automated IPSec tunnel and encryption key management. Additional cost and effort to deploy an additional service while navigating multiple vendor VPN interfaces is no longer required. Zero Trust is built into the platform.
• Network agility: Application connectivity requires agility as modern distributed applications constantly grow and move around. Therefore the application fabric must be agile in expanding or growing its footprint not only across existing sites but also new sites where applications can move. Cloud connectivity is relatively “static” as it only provides connectivity that is agnostic to applications and their movement.
  
• Location neutrality: By leveraging a common software stack, application connectivity can extend connectivity, security, and operational visibility to locations not served by DCI providers.
  
• Additional value-added services: In addition to baseline application connectivity, security, and operational streamlining, 3nets | CloudNavigator™ provides capabilities such as application high availability and end-user experience optimization by leveraging a distributed multi-cloud global load balancer, a service that is critical when deploying applications across multiple clouds and private data centers.
• Complimentary connectivity (application and cloud connectivity): Cloud and application connectivity can work hand-in-glove where application connectivity alone may not be enough. In many cases, using today’s optimized cloud provider backbone network provides the necessary service levels to meet application requirements. However, in cases where an application’s needs are unsustainable, or customers can optimize egress costs by leveraging direct connections into cloud provider regions, a cloud connectivity solution is a welcomed alternative. With application connectivity solutions providing higher layer connectivity to deliver additional value, the two solutions working together present the best overall solution for customers deploying applications in the cloud.

Contact us at https://www.3nets.io/ to find out how we can simplify your application connectivity across a multi-cloud environment.