Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

I. introduction

In recent years, with the rapid development of SD-WAN as a new technology in the industry application field, the acceptance of SD-WAN by enterprises is increasing day by day, and various manufacturers have put forward solutions one after another.

With the active innovation in the field of global cloud computing and the development of cloud computing in China has entered the stage of application popularity, more and more enterprises have begun to use cloud computing technology to deploy information systems. In order to ensure the normal operation of the cloud in the enterprise, the enterprise has a new demand for the network. Under this background, the cloud network convergence arises at the historic moment.

SD-WAN has become a new force in the field of cloud-network convergence, including Cisco, Huawei, × ×, Shengxin and other manufacturers have launched their own SD-WAN solutions. Basic operators, cloud service providers such as Aliyun and Tencent Cloud introduce SD-WAN networking technology to optimize their private networks.

2. Typical scene analysis

First of all, let's discuss cloud networking to see what changes the emergence of cloud will bring to the networking of enterprises. First, let's take a look at the cloud example of a large enterprise.

The figure is a simple schematic diagram of a large multinational network, which has built a WAN backbone based on the traditional network. As shown in the red line in the example, the enterprise has two regional data centers in East Asia and North America, which are connected to each other through transnational MPLS × × and use IPSec as backup. The two branch sites on the left are connected to East Asian data centers through MPLS × × and IPSec, respectively. IPSec is used as a backdoor link between each other, and a branch site on the right is connected to the data center in North America through MPLS × ×.

Now, the company has decided to migrate some of its business to the public cloud, while the new business will be hosted directly on the public cloud. The two VPC launched in East Asia need to be connected to the data center in East Asia, one of which is connected through IPSec, and the other is connected through MPLS × × and backed up using IPSec. The two VPC launched in North America are connected to data centers in North America through IPSec, and a VPC is introduced to host public services on the cloud to connect to the two VPC in North America through VPC peering. What we can see is that the networking of large enterprises is mostly around the network of network operators to build the backbone of WAN. After the introduction of VPC, it will be attached to the stock network structure as some terminal nodes. I won't repeat it here.

For some small businesses or startups, they don't want to buy physical servers, switches and other physical assets at the beginning of the office, so their IT environment will grow natively on the public cloud. Let's take a look at an example of a start-up company. At the beginning of the business, two VPC are activated, which are used for Web service and development testing, and are interconnected through VPC peers. With the increase in the number of users, the company has purchased physical servers to support the finance department, but there is no need to communicate with VPC. Since then, the company has expanded rapidly, dividing itself into more departments and building OA systems and other public data services on the cloud. Considering the scalability in the future, the company chose to build a network through Transit VPC, connect each VPC and branch network to Transit VPC through IPSec, and open a dedicated VPC to host the company's public services.

The newly added branch site needs to be interconnected with each stock of VPC. In this case, the enterprise chooses to connect the Transit VPC through the private backbone network of the public cloud, and then transfer to other VPC via Transit VPC. At this point, the company is large enough to become a medium-sized enterprise. When the enterprise gradually matured in the domestic market, it decided to develop multinational business, set up a branch abroad, and launched another Transit VPC in its Region, which was connected with the branches through a public cloud private backbone network, and with the VPC of foreign business through IPSec. Cross-border high-speed connections are realized between domestic and foreign Transit VPC through the public cloud private backbone network. At this time, the backbone structure of the company's WAN network has been formed, and then a new site or VPC will be attached around this backbone.

What you can see is that the backbone of this WAN network is built around the public cloud and its private backbone network, rather than around the MPLS × × network of network operators. In fact, this is not surprising, because these small enterprises or start-ups grow on the public cloud. If the public cloud itself has the ability to build WAN networks, then when it gradually develops into a large enterprise, its WAN network will naturally grow on the public cloud private backbone network. Therefore, from the perspective of development, the common growth of public cloud and these start-ups is likely to profoundly change the pattern of enterprise WAN networking market in the future.

The public cloud private backbone network, with the continuous enhancement of its access coverage and transmission bandwidth capacity, makes the global VPC network possible. After VPC is connected to a private backbone network, it can realize global interworking, which is no longer limited by different geographical ranges of Region. At the same time, in order to get through the hybrid cloud, enterprises do not need to connect with a VPC. As long as they are connected to a POP point of the backbone network, they can connect with the VPC of each Region, and achieve a little network access, which is accessible to the global cloud.

Since the enterprise site can be introduced to the private backbone network, when multiple enterprise sites are connected, the private backbone network of the public cloud naturally has the ability to build multi-point × × for the enterprise. At this time, the blueprint of the integration of cloud and network drawn by the public cloud has gone beyond the inter-cloud and hybrid cloud scenarios to the field of SD-WAN. In other words, the public cloud private backbone network is regarded as an enterprise-level WAN network, and the VPC is regarded as a virtualized enterprise branch site. At this point, the line between the private backbone network of the public cloud and the WAN network of unified network operators will be further blurred. In fact, as can be seen from the example diagram, there is no essential difference between the private backbone network of the public cloud and the WAN network of traditional network operators. In contrast, traditional network operators are mainly oriented to specific countries or regions and have obvious regional attributes, while for public clouds, the construction of their private backbone networks is not restricted by regions, and the goal is to cover the global cloud network.

Third, the development trend of cloud-network convergence

Starting from the second half of 2018, some public cloud giants have begun to continue to explore the tentacles of the cloud network, directly providing enterprises with CPE devices. After using this CPE, the enterprise traffic into the cloud will be automatically directed to the POP points of the private backbone network, realizing the so-called "zero configuration into the cloud". After integrating CPE into the whole cloud network architecture, what the public cloud can provide, including export devices at the enterprise side, POP points connected to major cities, the global backbone network, and then the global Region and cloud VPC network, from the network perspective, this will be a solution with full upstream and downstream coverage.

Take the cloud as the sales entrance, pull the traffic to your own backbone network through CPE, and then enter your own cloud through your own network, which is exactly the shape described by several public cloud giants for the integration of the cloud network.

The above introduces the networking architecture around the private backbone network of the public cloud, which usually means that the own network enters the own cloud. The cloud serves as the front-end entrance to drive the user to enter the network, which in turn further locks the user with the cloud. This only involves IaaS. After entering the cloud, the locking at the PaaS level will be more serious. If your business system uses middleware or API provided by a public cloud, it may be more difficult to get down from this cloud. For small enterprises, this one-stop solution is very attractive, but for large enterprises, locking means that they will face the risk of being controlled by others in terms of price and service in the later stage. In addition, small enterprises may also develop into large enterprises in the future.

In addition, in the second half of 2018, major public clouds experienced frequent failures, service outages or data loss, or even events damaged by natural disasters. Therefore, the use of multiple public clouds can not only reduce the lock-in of public clouds to users, but also play the role of risk diversification. Cloudy is very critical to the healthy development of industry ecology in the future, which has aroused widespread concern in the industry, and how to get through the connection between multiple clouds will become the key capability of cloudy.

At present, all major public clouds provide × × gateways to support interconnection with enterprise branches or data centers. But it is rarely directly connected between the two public clouds. In view of this situation, the most common way to connect multiple public clouds is to use the enterprise data center as the Hub to connect with different public clouds, and the enterprise data center transfers the traffic between different public clouds, that is, users bear the responsibility of multi-cloud interconnection.

In contrast, the multi-cloud interconnection scheme conceived by equipment manufacturers is to introduce vrouter into different public clouds and use vrouter to communicate with enterprise branches or data centers. if enterprises use a manufacturer's devices in their branches or data centers and on each public cloud, they can bypass the public cloud gateways and be uniformly managed and controlled by the manufacturer's controllers. On the one hand, end-to-end automation can be realized. On the other hand, the manufacturer's vrouter has more routing, security, and SD-WAN capabilities, which can meet the more complex networking needs of users. In this way of thinking, the responsibility for multi-cloud interconnection falls on the manufacturer's vrouter, and the vrouter of different public clouds can be interconnected directly with IPSec.

The two ideas introduced above are not technically different, but the focus of networking is different. In fact, the vendor's vrouter is equivalent to OTT losing the public cloud, which forms a direct competitive relationship with the × × gateway provided by the public cloud. At present, the public cloud does not exclude the introduction of vendor's vrouter on Market Place, but it remains to be seen what will happen to the ecology of cloud networking in the future.

IV. The Challenge of Future Cloud Network Convergence

In the cloudy scenario, a kind of role is emerging in the industry, specializing in the exchange of traffic between multiple clouds, which is often called CXP,Cloud Exchange Provider. In the public cloud, VPC is distributed in different Region, and enterprises are distributed in branches or data centers in different regions, and each other uses CXP as the connecting hub to exchange traffic. It can be seen that the difference between CXP and the public cloud private backbone network mentioned earlier is that the public cloud private backbone network is usually only connected with its own cloud, while CXP itself does not act as a public cloud, so it will establish connections with different public clouds as much as possible to enrich its public cloud connectivity as an exchange platform.

CXP is a force that can not be ignored in the future cloud network convergence ecology. For a small number of public cloud giants, the combination of their public cloud resources and services, as well as the coverage and bandwidth of their private backbone networks, can form an overall solution with full upstream and downstream coverage, and the ability of integrated delivery will stabilize their market share. and form a positive push. However, for other public clouds, they may not have the ability to build their own private backbone and provide overall solutions, so the cooperation between them and CXP will be an important basis for maintaining the ecological diversity of the industry in the future.

There are many contestants who play the role of CXP. Traditional IXP only serves as a switching platform for Internet traffic, and its coverage points are widely distributed around the world. With the maturity and popularity of public clouds, IXP will naturally be transformed into CXP after connecting with multiple public clouds. Traditional network operation, with a very developed network structure, extensive coverage, and strong bandwidth capacity, is also the seed of CXP transformation in the future.

For public clouds, the private backbone networks built in the early days usually only connect their own different Region. When the future market pattern is further clarified, if a public cloud cannot occupy sufficient market share, it is possible to split the cloud and network at the strategic level, allowing its backbone network to be opened to third-party public clouds to connect and operate independently, which is tantamount to changing into the role of CXP.

What you can see is that WAN will continue to play a central role in connecting between enterprise branches / data centers, between enterprise branches / data centers and public clouds, or between different public clouds. In the early days, the industry mainly focused on VPC within the cloud, and then the public cloud extended the boundaries of cloud networking through gateways to achieve cross-domain, Internet access and hybrid cloud connectivity, and then to the emerging concept of multi-cloud. When 5G, IOT and edge computing are implemented on a large scale in the future, it will bring more development opportunities for the development of WAN. At the same time, it also poses great challenges to the existing WAN in terms of technology and business model.

5. SD-WAN will become a solid force in the field of cloud-network convergence

At present, it is still in the early stage of cloud-network convergence, and the market pattern is not clear. Equipment manufacturers, network operators and public cloud operators, how to find an accurate position in the future WAN market, and whether a new round of reshuffle will occur in the industry is a profound proposition to continue to observe and consider. In the future, it is hoped that the ecology of WAN can develop in the direction of more open, standardized and service-oriented, and provide users with more flexible and rich connection capabilities.

Under the trend of cloud-network convergence, we believe that with the development of technology in the future, SD-WAN will become more and more mature at the technical level, the functions of related software will become more and more perfect, the security and stability will be greatly improved, and the scope of application will be significantly expanded. For the relevant practitioners, it also means more opportunities, how to track the cutting-edge technology and seize the industry opportunities in this new wave? For more information, please stamp.

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