Enterprise customers have leveraged VMware solutions like NSX in their on-premise environments to create virtual networks on physical servers. With the public cloud available, these solutions can now be deployed in various cloud service provider environments. This also allows for portability and migration of VMware workloads from the on-premise environments to the cloud.
But it’s not without costs- new cloud infrastructure to learn, provision, and manage. Cloud native networking toolsets to add to an already overburdened IT staff, and the costs of new stacks of cloud networking technologies. The last thing your business needs is more IT infrastructure overhead like virtual agents to deploy or more hardware to maintain. Plus, there’s the question of how to efficiently design these solutions- tackling traffic inspection, ingress traffic, and more.
Alkira Cloud Networking as a Service is the first global unified multi-cloud network delivered as-a-service. Alkira allows customers to quickly onboard their on-premise infrastructure by leveraging various methods, including AWS Direct Connect, Azure Express Routes, and IPsec/SD-WAN Connections from their DCs, at the same time, customers also connect their cloud workloads (VPCs, VNets) to the Alkira Cloud Exchange Points achieving seamless high-bandwidth multi-cloud connectivity for their applications. Alkira’s solution also allows customers who would like to inspect the traffic between on-premise to cloud or multi-cloud environments to use a policy-driven framework to inspect traffic as per the requirements.
In this blog, we will cover the flexibility that the Alkira solution offers and can integrate and co-exist with any of the connectivity options for VMware solutions on public cloud.
Use cases
Extending Data Center to public cloud
Customers can leverage the scale and performance of the public clouds and extend their workloads on-prem to the public cloud.
DR Solutions
VMware provides DR capabilities in its solution, which can be used in the public cloud since infrastructure can be provisioned redundantly.
Migration
The migration of VMware workloads from on-premise environments to the public cloud is seamless and does not require redesign.
Alkira Connectivity Options for VMware solutions in Public Cloud
Connecting VMware Solution in Azure (AVS)
Connectivity for AVS is as described in the diagram below. Alkira automates the connectivity for the Azure VNet, which further connects to the AVS cloud.This method allows customers to connect to their on-premise VMware workloads and connect seamlessly to other VNets or workloads in other CSPs.
The customer would need to add the connectivity to the VNet using the ER GW on the Azure side and add the route server in the VNet to allow for transit connectivity.
With Alkira, this process becomes streamlined and dramatically simplified compared to manually constructing with cloud native tools. Simply connect and the automation built-in to Alkira CXPs handles the rest.
Figure 1: AVS connectivity using Alkira CNaaS Solution
Connecting VMware Solution in GCP (GCVE)
Connectivity for Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) is also similar to the Azure VMware solution. This option requires a VPC to build connectivity between the Alkira CXP and the VMware cloud. In the GCP case, Alkira CXP handles the connectivity to the VPC and on-prem route advertisements towards the VPC.
The customer will need to connect the VPC to GCVE using the private access connectivity option available under the VPC private service connection.
Figure 2: Connecting GCVE using Alkira CNaaS solution
Connecting VMware Solution in AWS
AWS connectivity model includes using a TGW to connect to the VMware workload VPC.Alkira can help onboard this infrastructure by leveraging the TGW and building connectivity. The routes are advertised using BGP; this way, connectivity to resources on-premise is handled dynamically, leveraging the Alkira CXP as the transit.
The customer would need to build connectivity between the TGW and the VMware managed VPC in AWS by connecting as an attachment to the TGW.
Figure 3: Connecting VMware solution on AWS using Alkira CNaaS solution
VMWare VeloCloud SD-WAN Integration:
Deploying an end-to-end architecture accommodating enterprise networking and security requirements is critical to any successful cloud and multi-cloud transformation. To that end, VMWare and Alkira have joined forces to modernize and dramatically simplify the cloud and multi-cloud networking experience. VMWare VeloCloud SD-WAN is fully integrated into Alkira, allowing enterprises to seamlessly establish network connectivity between the VeloCloud SD-WAN fabric and the cloud workloads attached to the Alkira solution. Application traffic between the SD-WAN fabric and the cloud can be symmetrically steered to the next-generation firewalls residing within the Alkira solution using Alkira intent-based policies. The Alkira Portal offers complete visibility, governance, control, and troubleshooting tools across the entire cloud network deployment to provide enterprises with the necessary operational controls. At the same time, VMWare remains a single pane of glass for all VeloCloud SD-WAN operations, including the VeloCloud virtual SD-WAN appliances automatically deployed within Alkira.
Alkira Benefits
High bandwidth connectivity
Alkira provides the benefits of High bandwidth connectivity to VMware workload applications from on-prem customers can scale up and down based on their traffic requirements. This can help users complete migration and deployment of these workloads in the public cloud.
Reduced Latency
Depending on where the applications exist, customers can connect to the Alkira CXP in the nearest region and then leverage Alkira Backbone to have low latency while connecting to these VMware workloads.
Automated Connectivity
Customers can also leverage terraform to automate the provisioning of the Alkira infrastructure for building connectivity to the Alkira CXP and the VMware solution in the cloud environments.
Multi Cloud Access
Customers who have workloads in different public clouds and have a requirement to access these solutions which reside within one cloud can do so leveraging the Alkira infrastructure which can connect across multiple clouds/multiple regions within a single cloud.
With Alkira, multi-cloud is no longer an obstacle or a new set of burdens for the IT team to learn, manage, and support. The automation and pre-engineered Alkira solution enables businesses to take on multi-cloud with confidence and utilize the best cloud platform for each application and resource. It’s all done through a singular cloud agnostic architecture provided entirely as a service by Alkira.
Summary
Alkira Cloud Networking as a Service infrastructure provides customers with an easy and secure solution to connect their VMware workloads in the public cloud.
Reach out and schedule a demo today to learn more about how Alkira can help simplify cloud networking for your organization.
Ahmed Abeer is a Sr. Product Manager at Alkira, where he is responsible for building a best-in-class Multi-Cloud Networking and Security Product. He has been in Product Management for more than ten years in different big and small organizations. He has worked with large enterprise and service provider customers to enable LTE/5G MPLS network infrastructure, automate Layer 3 Data Center, enable Next-Gen Multi-Cloud architecture, and define customers’ Multi-Cloud strategies. Ahmed’s technical expertise in Cloud Computing and Layer 2/Layer 3 network technologies. Ahmed is a public speaker at various conferences & forums and holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering
Deepesh Kumar is a Solutions Architect and product specialist in the computer networking industry with over 8 years of experience. He currently works as part of the post sales team at Alkira and focuses on working with customers to design and deploy the Alkira solution. Prior to working here, he worked at Viptela which was acquired by Cisco Systems. He holds a masters degree from San Jose State University.
