Cloud bridges, gateways and brokers for external cloud deployment
October 30, 2012
Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Laurie MacVittie.
Originally used as an inexpensive alternative to quickly deploy services outside the realm of IT, cloud computing is quickly becoming a de facto standard for new application resources. The challenge is how to manage those resources transparently. The cloud should be an extension of the internal data center, and cloud bridges, gateways and brokers are all components that IT should focus on for connecting to their external cloud deployment.
But there are challenges to integrating bridges, gateways and brokers to any production cloud deployment. First, the market is still shaking out what each of these product categories do and what they’re called. Second is where they fit in the infrastructure, and then third and possibly most important, who owns these technologies and who ultimately is responsible for their success…
If addressed early and architected correctly, however, cloud bridges, gateways and brokers can add value to the cloud.
* Cloud bridges: Cloud bridges are a critical means of interconnecting clouds with the data center. Cloud bridges take their name from traditional networking solutions that "bridge" disparate networks, enabling transparent connectivity between endpoints despite being separated by multiple networks, switches or even physical location. Intra-data center bridging is enabled via network elements such as switches while intra-environment bridging is accomplished via routing, often over a secured tunnel such as IPsec or SSL…
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