Evidence on behalf of unified [VPN + Cloud] networking (1/3): setting the scene

As Cloud computing and Anything-as-a-Service (AaaS) are clearly on the rise, I would like to defend the need of a unified [VPN + Cloud] networking approach for enterprises. Let me first express a few initial considerations:

1. The « Cloud » is not really new: for the last 20 years, enterprises have connected their central application servers to remote terminals through private (virtual) networks (leased line, Frame relay and now MPLS…).
2. VPNs are not close to disappear: they host the enterprises' specialized business applications and protect their confidential data. They more and more interconnect employees through interactive applications like wiki, forum, voice, tele-presence and enterprise video. Unless enterprises want to send their staff in the sky (which will likely create some justified emotion) all these flows will remain on the VPN.
3. "Cloud computing" as well as "AaaS" are certainly major IT evolutions with true benefits and long term existence. It follows in the Datacenter consolidation's wake that started a few years ago, completed by the power of server virtualization: Cloud computing, it is something like "virtual datacenter consolidation".

When the enterprise decides to deploy application in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) mode, or to deploy Virtual Datacenters to host its business applications, it has to handle 2 clouds: the plain old private cloud (VPN) and the new 'virtually private cloud'.

As applications concentrate on a few central locations, these clouds (or more precisely communications across them) are more and more crucial to users who do not care about technical considerations. For them, it is straightforward: there is 1 Information System and 1 Network. As the vast majority of collaborators are using the Information System remotely, they need the guarantee of good application performance over the network(s), anywhere, anytime.

Finally it has to be noticed that the cost of WAN is now very low compared to the cost of applications: the price for a VPN access to a small branch office with 10 users of 10 applications is similar to the license price for 1 application and 1 user (e.g. Salesforce or GoogleApps): not really worthy to take a risk here! When buying a family car, even if we decide for a low price model, who would build savings on the quality of the safety belts?

…/…

(PS: I'm not sure if you like clouds, but you should like this mist…)

 

Comments

[web development company]

Nice post,

Great evidence,

Thanks for bringing this up