A major part of our day-to-day operation is enabling our users to connect out
to applications
that live usually out on the internet.
We have a lot of these applications.
In fact, we have a name for this in our world that's called Software as a
Service, meaning
it's a software that I didn't have to deploy onto my own servers in my own data
center.
I just subscribe, usually, and spend some amount of money a month to subscribe WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
I just subscribe, usually, and spend some amount of money a month to subscribe
to this software
platform and then my users directly connect via the internet.
But here's the question.
It's one thing to say that my users have an internet circuit, and so they're
going
to go through that internet circuit to reach the SaaS provider.
But what if we have multiple internet circuits available?
This is especially a topology we might see more and more of thanks to SD-WAN,
because WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
because
I might deploy an internet circuit to a site and then another internet circuit,
and maybe
I'm building my SD-WAN tunnels across these internet circuits to remote
locations, or
maybe I'm just using a tunnel out the MPLS circuit and a tunnel out this
internet for
the sake of my WAN, but then I have this other internet provider here as well.
So, we've got a lot of different options where we might see multiple internet
service providers
at play.
And depending on where in the world this is and the service providers that are WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And depending on where in the world this is and the service providers that are
providing
connectivity, the question is which one of these is going to be better to use
for the
sake of accessing the software as a service provider.
Now I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to look at two internet
circuits and say,
oh, those are equivalent.
If they're both the same bandwidth, they're both 100 megabits per second and
they're both
pretty reliable, that, well, that doesn't matter, right?
Flip of Coin, just go out the internet to connect to the SaaS service provider. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Flip of Coin, just go out the internet to connect to the SaaS service provider.
Here's the problem with that logic.
The internet is not just one big blob.
It's actually thousands of blobs that are out there, and so we might have a
much longer
path to get to this service provider depending on which internet circuit we use
.
For example, what if this SaaS provider actually shares this internet circuit,
service provider?
So they're connected to the same service provider directly, and as a result, if WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So they're connected to the same service provider directly, and as a result, if
we send
traffic out this way, we're going to have to go from one service provider to
another
service provider to another service provider to get to this SaaS provider.
And again, especially when we think about places around the world, if you're
coming from
one country and you're going to a whole other country, these types of
situations might
develop where we have two very different experiences by going out to different WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
develop where we have two very different experiences by going out to different
internet circuits,
even though they have a lot of the same traits and qualities such as bandwidth
and reliability.
So here's the idea.
Cisco with SD-WAN, they have this cloud-on-ramp set of technologies.
Cloud-on-ramp takes a few different forms, and the first thing we're going to
look at is
cloud-on-ramp for software as a service, the exact situation that we're talking
about WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
about
here.
Again, not all certain internet circuits are created equal, and we want to find
the best
most optimal path to get to a specific SaaS service provider.
So the idea here is that our SD-WAN devices will be sending HTTP probes out
towards this
SaaS provider that we have configured to be monitoring.
And based on this, we're going to have an idea of where exactly we should be
going, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
going,
or which internet circuit we should be relying on if we indeed have two
different internet
circuits.
We're going to measure this and know that one of these locations has a better
or one
of these circuits has a much better quality of experience by extending
connections out
in this fashion.
So that's the idea of cloud-on-ramp for SaaS, and it's especially going to be
used when
we have two what we call DIAs or direct internet access points.
So if we have two DIAs at a particular site, then this technology is going to WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So if we have two DIAs at a particular site, then this technology is going to
make a lot
of sense.
But what if we only have a single circuit?
Is there any value in using this?
And the answer is going to be it depends a little bit, but we do have a
solution that we
could potentially rely on, and it's going to involve the concept of a regional
hub.
So our WAN circuits and our SD-WAN environments can be very large, especially WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So our WAN circuits and our SD-WAN environments can be very large, especially
if we're a global
organization.
And what we might end up finding is that we have remote sites that have tunnel
connectivity
back to a regional hub.
So let's say that I have this remote site, and I have an internet circuit, and
I'm trying
to connect out to my software as a service type of environment.
Meanwhile I've got SD-WAN tunnels that form out this way towards my regional WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Meanwhile I've got SD-WAN tunnels that form out this way towards my regional
hub.
Well that regional hub likely has an internet circuit as well that has a path
to the software
as a service vendor.
And so what we can do with Enramp for SAS is to truly say, hey which one's
better?
To go this way, this is option one, or to go through one of these tunnels and
out the
internet circuit, that would be option two. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
internet circuit, that would be option two.
And look at this, we have a third option as well.
So we can evaluate this based on the tunnels.
Now keep in mind that my metric has to take into account the WAN circuit as
well, meaning
that if I measure this path through my own internet circuit, and this regional
hub is saying,
hey I've got a pretty good connection as well to this. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
hey I've got a pretty good connection as well to this.
Well that's great, and I'll accept I still have to go through the WAN tunnel.
And so I have to take that into account as well.
So it's the WAN circuit plus the internet experience.
And so I'm comparing this versus taking my direct path.
So this is certainly an option with single circuit types of deployments where I
might find
that it's actually better for me to extend connectivity out through my SD-WAN WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
that it's actually better for me to extend connectivity out through my SD-WAN
pathing
to get to a regional hub and then turn around and allow it to send me to the
software
as a service provider.
Now we keep mentioning this, we're evaluating metrics, we're evaluating the
quality, and
this all comes down to a measurement that we use that is known as the Viptela
quality
of experience.
And as of the time of this video, we do still indeed have the PTIAs part of the WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And as of the time of this video, we do still indeed have the PTIAs part of the
name.
And part of the reason for that is because usually we don't call it this.
We call it the VQOE.
And this is a metric that ranges from 0 to 10.
So we're going to evaluate these paths and figure out, okay maybe this is just
a 4 extending
out to my local or through my local DIA.
But if I go through, go with my regional hub, they have a, and by the way, this WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
But if I go through, go with my regional hub, they have a, and by the way, this
is high.
You do want a high quality of experience.
So maybe we have a 10 going out via the hub.
So the question is, okay, well, what about my circuit?
I'm going to have to compare this and try to figure out, okay, if this is like
a, maybe
an 8, well, maybe it is better for me to take two really good hops rather than
one really
bad one.
And so that's going to be the decision point that our SD-WAN edges are going to WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
be making
when they're trying to decide which path to send it out with this technique.
Now we do have a couple of other solutions to be aware of as well, one of which
is known
as another on ramp.
So again, it's cloud on ramp.
And this one is for IaaS, infrastructure as a service.
Infrastructure as a service means that I have a cloud environment except
instead of it
being where the provider, the application developer has deployed it onto their WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
being where the provider, the application developer has deployed it onto their
own environment,
I now have to deploy my application onto my own virtual machines.
But I still want to deploy this into the cloud space.
So for example, Amazon Web Services and Azure allow me to spin up these virtual
machines
and then I just connect it back into my network in some capacity.
Now SD-WAN allows me to be really smart about this and the cool thing about
this is this WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
this is this
is very much automated through the use of V-Manage.
I can go into V-Manage and configure it to access my cloud environment and it
will deploy
virtual SD-WAN edges of these virtual routers into the space and connect it
back into my
own SD-WAN infrastructure.
So now I can have a physical router out here.
These are physical, these are virtual. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
These are physical, these are virtual.
And I can also connect it into whatever this environment is and now I can build
tunnels
straight into the cloud environment.
Look at that.
In a lot of cases, I have to normally leverage V-PNs through the internet to
connect to my
cloud space.
Now I can encrypt my own traffic going across the internet or potentially
another WAN
circuit type.
But in the end, I have connectivity via my IPsec tunnels into my AWS or Azure WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
But in the end, I have connectivity via my IPsec tunnels into my AWS or Azure
space.
Now the last product that Cisco has in this portfolio, at least again, as of
the time of
this video, is cloud on ramp for multi-cloud.
This is an interesting product and it actually is intended to eventually
replace cloud on
ramp for IaaS.
The idea here is that we want to take our cloud connectivity up to another
level and we're WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
level and we're
going to leverage a provider type known as software define cloud interconnect
or this
SD-CI provider.
The SD-CI provider has native connections into cloud spaces and this solution
is going
to support not just Amazon web services and Microsoft Azure, but also Google's
cloud
platform as well.
So this SD-CI provider is one that can connect us into the cloud regardless of WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So this SD-CI provider is one that can connect us into the cloud regardless of
where in the
world we are, which can be very beneficial because if we think about this
situation, it
can be difficult to make sure that we have actual network connectivity between
whatever this
physical router is and the cloud space, short of just going across the internet
.
So we leverage an SD-CI and as of the time of this video, Cisco natively integr
ates
with a couple of SD-CI providers, namely Megaport and Equinix. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
with a couple of SD-CI providers, namely Megaport and Equinix.
They might continue to expand this offering or they might not sometimes they do
sometimes
they don't.
So definitely do the research there when making decisions for your organization
and what
you want to purchase.
But in the end, what we can do is leverage cloud on ramp for multi cloud to
take our SD-WAN
routers and integrate it into the SD-CI and this allows us to connect in again WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
routers and integrate it into the SD-CI and this allows us to connect in again
to our
multi cloud environment.
So it's no longer just about deploying virtual routers into our own cloud space
.
It's using a little bit more sophisticated of a method and a little more
scalable of a
method.
Something that we can hopefully take advantage of regardless of where in the
world our SD-WAN
devices are.
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