WAN engineers prepare networks as cloud computing adoption rises

By Shamus McGillicuddy, News Editor 26 Aug 2009 | SearchEnterpriseWAN.com

Wide area networks news, advice and technical information Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

According to a new survey by F5 Networks of 250 enterprise IT decision makers, 51% of companies are using public cloud computing, and 45% are using private cloud computing. Another 31% of companies are either trialing or implementing public clouds, while 38% are trialing or implementing private cloud computing.

With cloud adoption clearly starting to catch up with cloud hype, now is the time for wide-area network (WAN) engineers to start thinking about cloud computing's effect on the WAN.

"Bandwidth was the single greatest restriction on cloud computing in the past," said W. Kelly Reed, a network engineer with the Virginia-based logistics firm Norfolk Southern. "Today, with advances in MPLS networks, carriers and private enterprises have more control over the traffic traversing the WAN."

Don Lester, senior engineer at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center in Wenatchee, Wash., said that many external cloud computing offerings are reached via the Internet, which can put enterprises at the mercy of Internet performance.

Today, with advances in MPLS networks, carriers and private enterprises have more control over the traffic traversing the WAN. W. Kelly Reed Network Engineer, Norfolk Southern

"Then the Internet becomes part of your WAN, and there's nothing you can do about that," Lester said. "You can get redundant connections, but ultimately you are traversing from point A to point B and there are things that can happen."

One of the medical center's partner hospitals has started using a cloud-based application that it considers critical, he said. To guarantee performance, the hospital has installed two dedicated T1 lines for the application as well as a DS3 line that connects the hospital directly to the application provider, which is several states away.

Cloud computing, both internal and external, puts even more pressure on application teams to reduce the number of turns applications take and their chattiness, Reed said. This means that network engineers and application development teams need to collaborate earlier. And testing applications that traverse a cloud in a WAN emulation tool like Shunra becomes critical to identifying problems before the application runs across the cloud.

WAN optimization technology can also become critical as cloud computing increases, Reed said.

"Taking application turns and chatty applications out of the equation using tools such as Citrix Netscaler and WAN optimization solutions such as Riverbed, Blue Coat and Cisco allows applications now to transmit over the WAN without being impacted by over-utilization and latency," he said.

F5 Networks' survey also found that enterprises consider network security and access control as important core technologies for implementing cloud computing. Server and storage virtualization have always been recognized as important core technologies of cloud computing, and they remain that way. Eighty-eight percent of respondents identified them as such. But 89% said that network security is important for cloud deployments, and 90% identified access control as important.

"Access control and security should be high up on the list," Lester said. "It should be with everybody, but I don't know if everyone pays that much attention to it. But if you're going to trust an outside entity with your information, you need to make sure they not only have a technology model worthy of that trust but that they're a reputable company that is worthy of that trust as well."

Lester said he remains reluctant to use an external cloud to run critical applications. He pointed out that his hospital uses a SaaS-based payroll application that it accesses over the Internet. He said that application is important, but if it goes down, patient care isn't affected.

"Depending on how critical the application is, we could potentially have one way of connecting to it," he said, "but with a dedicated fallback connection as a backup."

Tags: Internet and application security,  Cloud computing and SaaS,  Remote access,  VIEW ALL TAGS

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT Internet and application security Cloud computing security: Balancing risks with convenience A year of networking dangerously: Security breaches at the brink Ensuring wireless connectivity with IPsec-secured access points WAN management: Palo Alto adds traffic shaping, QoS, to firewalls Network optimization, security convergence promise more WAN control Changing established VPN router crypto map for new encryption traffic Controller mixes WAN failover with SIP capabilities for VoIP GRE tunnel vs. IPsec tunnel: What is the difference? As legislation passes, enterprises need to get VPN ready WAN spending: Bright spots for 2009 Cloud computing and SaaS SAN replication trends a plus for cloud computing, but shifts burden to WAN managers Birth of a networked nation and WAN world Forecast calls for storage, network convergence in SaaS cloud computing Social networking becomes key component of enterprise strategy Timing, or lack of it, is everything to Nortel Cost-effective WAN fixes, not buzzwords the challenge at Interop 2009 Cloud computing's impact on the network: How to prepare Remote access Flu pandemic planning: Don't forget WAN security and remote access WAN optimization ensures productivity gains of workforce mobility Riverbed WAN mobile upgrade targets remote workers, SMBs Choosing WAN connectivity and services wisely Verizon report highlights a year of networking dangerously A year of networking dangerously: Security breaches at the brink Building a better SMB WAN: Think bandwidth, resiliency, service levels Remote, branch office VPN access with DSL Aruba's RAP-2 takes corporate WAN to the teleworker at $99 Rise of the occasional telecommuter will expand WAN demands

RELATED RESOURCES 2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary