DDI for Multicloud: Improving Opex, UX and App Deployment

When it comes to handling of new applications and workloads for modern digital infrastructures, multicloud is an unquestionable reality. However, the real value of cloud is being held back by siloed data and manual processes which are both error-prone and time-consuming.

Success of hybrid multicloud projects is very much reliant on resiliency, accessibility, security and performance of cloud infrastructures and services. For this, integrating the resources deployed in clouds with a DDI (DNS–DHCP–IPAM) solution is critical, as it brings the visibility, automation and control required for the infrastructure to be run and managed efficiently.

Challenges of multicloud

Cloud deployments are a main strategic IT initiative companies are implementing as part of their digital transformation endeavors. They have been accelerated in recent months, due in particular to the explosion of apps and remote workers caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. But many businesses are struggling with their multicloud projects, experiencing network misconfigurations and a general loss of control as they try to cope with multiple data silos, multiple access points, varied cloud APIs and skills shortages. The three main challenges identified by a recent IDC survey were lack of unified management and monitoring (55%), building a common workflow (58%), and inability to drive one security policy across different cloud providers (55%).

As infrastructure spreads from on to off-premise, visibility into virtual networks becomes limited, preventing effective management of IP resources e.g. for allowing interconnection of applications located in different clouds. In addition, poor control over IP addresses and DNS names affects latency and application availability due to IP overlapping and routing issues. User experience for enterprise cloud services is impacted as a consequence, as is the delivery of applications globally. Last but not least, as soon as cloud workloads go beyond simple website hosting, security of networks becomes an important issue.

Where DDI brings value

As networks complexify, operational efficiency becomes increasingly dependent on cloud orchestration. For correct deployment, running and retirement of software-defined infrastructures components, the IP network is key. If IPAM components are excluded while orchestrating IT services, processes become error-prone and time-consuming. So the IP address management needs to happen at the foundational level of the application orchestration workflow.

The market-leading DDI form EfficientIP brings the following value to multicloud:

• Enhanced control – due to an accurate dynamic data repository
  Consolidated “IP source of truth”, data on apps, devices and IP-related information from on-premise and clouds – ensures consistency of IP address plan, and limits life cycle overheads of the provisioning and deprovisioning process
• Improved efficiency – with single viewpoint management
  Cross-platform management of millions of IP addresses and multi-vendor DNS/DHCP services in a centralized managed platform – aids resource planning, scalability challenges and app/service deployment velocity
• Cloud independence – thanks to one-click reversibility
  Organizations can move to different DNS servers of different cloud providers through APIs without needing to reformat all workflows – enables multi-cloud interoperability, allowing customers to test a workload in one platform and move it to another or bring it back on-premise
• Strengthened security – with policy enforcement and app access control
  Corporate policies are enforced across the entire infrastructure – protects against data exfiltration, improves application access control, and feeds the security ecosystem with centralized zoning information
• Improved UX and resilience – via optimal application aware traffic routing
  Edge DNS GSLB feature dynamically steers application traffic to the most suitable datacenter based on application health – ensures each app is always reachable, thus further enhancing UX and disaster recovery
• Powerful end-to-end automation – using rich metadata
  The centralized IP data repository, containing valuable metadata, is made available to ecosystem players – enables zero touch network operations for significant time savings, prevention of misconfigurations, and planning of future off-network extensions such as virtual private cloud (VPC)
• Fast deployment – with orchestration
  SOLIDserver API-first DDI integrates seamlessly to leading orchestrators and configuration managers to accelerate app/service deployment – leads to faster time to market and eases DevOps and Infrastructure as Code initiatives via integration to an automation abstraction layer

Helping organizations compete effectively

Next-generation infrastructures are reliant on simplicity, cost efficiencies, flexibility and scalability. To this effect, there’s no doubt that investing in a multi-cloud-ready DDI solution will lead to decreased opex, better user experience, and faster mass rollout of apps. Importantly in these challenging times for businesses, as stated in the IDC spotlight: Rising Prominence of DDI in Making Hybrid Multi-Cloud Strategies Secure and Successful, it “sustains services availability and accelerates an organization’s time to market to compete effectively in the digital economy”.