When cloud technology emerged, a company could pass an isolated and simple workload through the cloud relatively easily. These test projects used to be small and contained and were a low risk since the application was usually selected because it was not a critical and essential application of the business. The birth of hybrid technology has changed the scenario completely.
Hybrid Technology and Trends
Currently, more and more critical workloads are moving from the company’s data center to the cloud. This experience is a drastic change in network traffic patterns. Instead of going to a private data center, the application traffic is served by an external cloud provider. As a result, the performance of the application can be degraded because the data must cross the corporate wide area network (WAN) before reaching the Internet, and therefore increase the latency and response times.
Collaborative traffic and Telecommunication providers
Also, the volume of data that had to go back and forth between the application in the cloud and the end users in the organization was small. Therefore, the cost and bandwidth required to link the company-owned infrastructure and the cloud environment through the wide area network (WAN) was entirely covered by a multi-protocol switching agreement using labels MPLS of a telecommunications provider. Currently, however, collaboration (especially in video) and business mobility are mainly responsible for increasing the amount of network traffic in general. Collaborative traffic tends to be more “heavy,” and business mobility adds merely more devices that are capable of generating traffic.
Performance and security of the applications
For the first time in history, the volume of data that moves between the internal infrastructures of an organization and cloud providers is higher than that which moves between internal data center networks. How can they maintain MPLS network costs? Can a hybrid WAN offer a solution? It helps organizations and at the same time guarantees the performance and security of the applications in the cloud in the new world of hybrid technology.
WAN connections based solely on MPLS are becoming obsolete
The increase in hybrid technology has made WAN connections based solely on MPLS almost obsolete. The hybrid WAN refers to the introduction of the network environment of different forms of connectivity as add-ons or alternatives to the MPLS. These may include options such as direct Internet access, metro Ethernet, long-term evolution technology (LTE) or, most recently, Internet overlays that provide MPLS standard connectivity and performance at Internet price. Whatever the chosen alternative, all organizations are driven to find alternatives to MPLS, without which the hybrid technology will not be profitable.
How do the data get there?
The use of a public cloud over the Internet may seem simple. In fact, all public cloud providers provide the connection capability to achieve it. But since data sets and workloads are increasingly critical or sensitive, the use of the Internet to connect external infrastructures may not be considered safe or effective enough regarding the quality it offers.
Knowledge of expert networks is required to configure a hybrid WAN that is fast, secure and that integrates well with the existing infrastructure. It is much easier to configure the cloud environment than it is to adapt the network adequately to host it.
