Role of network in empowering cloud computing

Emerging capabilities of network have enabled cloud to successfully provide on-demand services which can unilaterally provision computing capabilities such as servers, network, OS and storage. Further, it allows resource pooling where multiple users through multiple tenant model (multiple customer utilizing the same facility) can access different physical and virtual resources. Additionally, virtualization permits applications, compute and network resources to reside anywhere, which are then accessed through the network, thus allowing these resources to be flexible and scalable. Cloud computing also has the capability to measure the services being offered through the usage of charge back or metering where it can control and optimize resource usage.
The network plays a key role in the delivery of cloud-based services as it provides a means to connect every IT system and has the ability to provision and scale these resources to meet application and end-user requirements.
It also is one of strategic element used for management of security objectives in the cloud as it:

• Enables infrastructure enhancements by supporting server consolidation, virtualized environment, automated infrastructure and support application mobility.
• Addresses access requirements emerging from thin clients or organization mobility requirements which may extend to any device at any time from any place.
• Offers application analytics by clustering requirements and enabling remote usage or community services
• Supports varied traffic patterns through location independent endpoints while ensuring automated provisioning and orchestration.

Virtualization and cloud computing have changed the way that the network needs to behave and interact with the other systems in the data-center. For example,
Unlike a physical workload, which is tied to a particular server, a virtual workload can exist anywhere on any server. This change requires the network to touch each and every component from the edge of the server up to the individual virtual machines.
Virtual machines have the potential to move within and between data-centers. This movement can break the traditional model of how data-center networks are built, so it is important to think about how modifications to the network need to be implemented.
As the number of virtual machines increases the network needs a strategic approach where instead of connecting servers together, it needs to connect with virtual machines. Technology has made it possible to connect virtualized network elements such as virtual network interface cards or virtual switches, permitting a new logical network topology between virtual machines and the hypervisors.
As the computational density and the number of virtual machines per physical server increase in the cloud environment, it impacts the amount and varied traffic volumes. The network needs to be robust, flexible, automated to support virtualization, cloud computing, and a diverse end-point ecosystem. Additionally, storage and LAN convergence in the cloud will drive the need for more predictable, high performance network architectures
To meet these new requirements, a strong connection needs to exist between the server and the network. This is when a network and a server starts to become a fabric by allowing storage networks to seamlessly extend into the Ethernet resulting in a single network with a flexibility to deploy both protocols between server and storage. The fabric based infrastructure, not only has the capability to reconfigure all system components - server, network, storage, and specialty engines but also has the flexibility to provide resources within the fabric to workloads as needed, thus being capable enough to manage systems holistically. The Fabric allows integrated, model-based management to simplify and speed deployment of virtualized environments, bringing the network directly to server and virtual machines for increased performance, security, and manageability. Further, integrated network services provide high-speed connectivity and high availability, increase application performance, and reduce security risks in multitenant environments. Additionally, the fiber architecture allows storage networks to seamlessly extend into the Ethernet resulting in a single network with a flexibility to deploy both protocols between server and storage. A fabric provides transparency so that virtual machines are visible on both the server and the network, with capabilities to help ensure that security policies follow the virtual machine thus empowering organization to move on the cloud.

Thus, it is essential that organizations which are transitioning to the cloud effectively architect their network with the appropriate routing, application performance, and security technologies. DSCI-Cisco has collaborated together through a Security Thought Leadership Program, where reference architectures with respect to virtualization, cloud and mobility environment are being studied and discussed with the CIO/CISO community. The objective is to empower organization in building architectures for their adopting these technologies.