Simplified Hybrid Cloud Integration

Nearly 50 percent of enterprise organizations will implement hybrid clouds within the next three years, according to Forrester Research. With hybrid clouds, organizations can run mission-critical applications in their own data centers, while offloading peak loads to cloud providers. This optimizes both capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx), while better aligning IT costs with business revenue and activity.

A hybrid cloud approach consists of simplified transparent integration between an on-premises enterprise data center with a public cloud service provider. This integration includes:

Highly secure Layer 2 networking connectivity between the enterprise data center and the public cloudThe deployment of security and application services in the public cloudManagement features for a hybrid cloud environment, including support for virtual machine (VM) mobility and lifecycle management.

To address these requirements, Cisco has developed the Cisco Nexus 1000V InterCloud architecture, which connects Cisco virtual data center environments to public cloud providers. The primary features follow.

The first component is the virtual switch that provides highly secure Layer 2 connectivity between the enterprise data center and the public cloud. This Layer 2 network connectivity allows workload mobility across locations while retaining the same IP address. It also provides local switching for the workloads in the cloud.

No matter how remote the public cloud is, this Layer 2 domain overlay allows full workload mobility between servers in each location. Peak capacity and new virtual machines can be bursted to the cloud as needed, on demand.

This Cisco Nexus 1000V-based overlay connection includes vPath for routing traffic to virtual security nodes and application services in the public cloud. These virtual service nodes are deployed as VMs and can run on virtually any cloud infrastructure, while mirroring the sophisticated policy enforcement requirements in the enterprise data center.

The Cisco Nexus 1000V InterCloud framework supports the existing Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual services. These include the Cisco ASA1000V Cloud Firewall, the Cisco Virtual Security Gateway for Nexus 1000V Switch, Cisco Virtual Wide Area Application Services (vWAAS) for WAN optimization, and virtual Network Analysis Module products.

Management of the integrated hybrid cloud environment is handled by the newest 3.0 release of Cisco Prime Network Services Controller, or Cisco Prime Network Services Controller InterCloud provides a single pane of management across enterprise data centers and public clouds. It shows the complete VM inventory in the enterprise data center and facilitates VM migration to a public cloud while retaining Layer 2 connectivity with the other enterprise workloads.

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