FEATURE: NETWORK AUTOMATION
I
ndeed, Forrester recently carried
out a survey of enterprise
infrastructure technology decision-
makers which revealed that more than
half (59%) of businesses are set to
adopt a hybrid cloud model in the next
12 months.
Making the transition from a public or
private cloud to a hybrid model means
that organisations will have to operate
in a multi-cloud, multi-platform
environment which will often include
traditional on-premises components
in conjunction with Microsoft Azure,
Amazon Web Services (AWS), and
other OpenStack cloud technologies.
However, while cloud brings
tremendous speed, business agility,
and cost savings, by offering an
automated process for spinning
up storage and compute, network
configuration like DNS across hybrid
environments is often complex, and
still managed manually.
In this new cloud environment,
manual processes around DNS, DHCP
and IP management, collectively
known as DDI, can often have a
negative impact on cloud agility. In
addition, such legacy approaches
can cause inconsistencies across
hybrid deployments, and an increase
in vulnerabilities that can lead to
outages, security breaches and a poor
experience for end-users.
Legacy DNS infrastructure, for example,
is one of the most exploited parts of a
network, and can often be the hidden
crack in the foundation that derails a
business; especially one using dynamic,
next-generation initiatives such as
public and hybrid cloud. As illustrated by
the case of the Millennium Towers luxury
high-rise in San Francisco, a problem at
the foundation can be hard to diagnose,
and can have a costly, devastating
impact on the wider infrastructure.
To avoid such an impact on a network’s
security, integrity and efficiency, it’s
important for organisations to consider
the benefits of investing in a unified
platform to centralise the management
of the core services that lie at its
foundation.
A promise far removed from
reality
The differences between spinning up
a new compute instance and actually
getting a working instance on to a
production network, into service, and
in sync with the traditional network
infrastructure, can mean that the hype
and promise of the cloud is often far
removed from reality.
Automation of core DDI network services
in the cloud can often lag behind
compute and storage processes, which
can delay application rollout and can
increase the number of inconsistencies
in network policies.
If DNS and IP addresses in the cloud
aren’t being managed from a central
resource, IT teams may find themselves
faced with an incomplete and out-of-
date view of their networks, their virtual
private clouds (VPCs), IP addresses, and
the DNS records being assigned. The
use of multiple platforms in the hybrid
environment also means that there is no
correlation and consistency of common
resources such as DNS zones and
networks.
TO AVOID SUCH AN IMPACT ON A NETWORK’S
SECURITY, INTEGRITY AND EFFICIENCY, IT’S
IMPORTANT FOR ORGANISATIONS TO CONSIDER THE
BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN A UNIFIED PLATFORM
TO CENTRALISE THE MANAGEMENT OF THE CORE
SERVICES THAT LIE AT ITS FOUNDATION
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