Technology White Paper

Making Cloud Computing Soar

with Managed Internet Access
Cloud Computing White Paper

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................. 3

2. Strategic Telecommunications Challenges Related to Cloud Computing Connectivity ................ 3

3. Resilient Access to Public Cloud Services ............................................................................................ 4

4. Planning Connectivity for Private Cloud Computing and Hosted Servers/Services ....................... 5

5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 6

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Cloud Computing White Paper

1. Executive Summary

Cloud computing has established itself in 2010 as a viable long-term business networking paradigm,
and organizations of any size and anywhere on the globe can benefit from its innovations. Many
organizations are using cloud networks to facilitate business continuity and disaster recovery and cut
costs by using hosted servers, as well as making use of cloud-based services such as storage or Web-
based applications such as customer relationship management applications.

In this context, the uptime potential for key organizational services and cost savings can be
promising should these projects be planned accordingly to ensure availability, as these services are
commonly hosted at a cloud services organization or at off-site hosting facilities. This document
discusses the options available to organizations to ensure access to cloud-based projects.

2. Strategic Telecommunications Challenges Related to Cloud Computing Connectivity

At the core of cloud computing is the concept of outsourcing and/or insourcing, which implies that
information, services and equipment reside off-site. This situation is a key challenge, as Internet
connectivity now becomes the critical point of failure.

Depending on Internet access means that an entire site’s access to cloud-

based deployments can easily be limited or compromised, and few
organizations are ready to handle this scenario in a seamless, automated
fashion for both public and private cloud access.

The common scenarios which can limit or compromise access to cloud

applications include the following:
 Complete loss of Internet connectivity as only one carrier is deployed at
a site
 Complete loss of Internet connectivity as two or more carrier links are
installed for failover because:
o the failover process is manual and handled by personnel
o on-premise equipment is not redundant
o carrier links have not been properly selected and terminate at
the same ISP point of presence, resulting in the same points
of failure and eliminating redundancy. It is commonplace in
North America to find organizations with two T1 circuits for a
site in failover, but since only one telco operates in that region,
all ISPs use the same lines.
 Carrier link saturation:
o Bandwidth has not been properly planned resulting in over-
taxation of existing circuits due to increased Internet use for
cloud applications.
o Policies have not been clearly defined for acceptable Internet
access and/or are not being enforced with the appropriate
tools.

©2010 Elfiq Networks 3 www.elfiq.com

Cloud Computing White Paper

3. Resilient Access to Public Cloud Services

Many organizations have transitioned in recent years to hosted solutions residing in the cloud,
including hosted Microsoft Exchange/SharePoint, Salesforce.com, Google Applications (Calendar,
Gmail, etc.), Amazon EC2 server hosting and many more.

Publicly available cloud-based services and applications require one basic—and at the same time
critical—service: Internet access. Regardless of the hosted solution, unreliable Internet access will
deliver poor ROI for the use of these services. In fact every office or site using these services is in the
same exact situation, where traditional site-to-site redundancy no longer applies.

Site usage for Internet access now becomes more critical because network administrators need to
plan ahead how much bandwidth will be required for each site using cloud applications. Considering
that Web-based content commonly found on the Internet is becoming media-rich, carrier link
saturation is now a common problem in many organizations, and with deficient bandwidth comes a
lower return on investment in public cloud-based projects.

The key to successful public cloud application deployments is to plan ahead for the required
incremental bandwidth and costs related to this addition to the network. Link balancing appliances
can significantly improve a site’s bandwidth posture by resolving the three primary challenges
related to hosted cloud applications:

 Implementing multiple ISP links from

multiple carriers employing multiple
carrier technologies connecting to
different point of presence sites will
virtually eliminate any risk of downtime.
Should a carrier link be unavailable,
one or more other carrier links will be
available for the failover process.

 Since cloud-based applications can be

download-intensive, it is recommended
to complement existing symmetrical
carrier links with asymmetrical carrier
links such as DSL, cable modem and
SMB fiber circuits. These carrier links
typically offer a very high download
throughput, which is very beneficial in
these scenarios.

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Cloud Computing White Paper

 Routine setups found at customer sites employing link balancing appliances include a T1 or
fiber circuit, a DSL link and a cable modem. The T1 will remain available for key corporate
services such as VPNs and email, while the DSL and cable modem circuits, because of their
high throughput for downloading, will be preferred for certain cloud-based applications such
as a hosted CRM. The cable modem and DSL add an extra layer of redundancy by combining
different carrier networks and technologies in case one of the two fails, and it is common to
see the T1 and DSL terminate at the same point of presence.

4. Planning Connectivity for Private Cloud Computing and Hosted Servers/Services

Private cloud network offerings have been growing to accommodate organizations that use cloud-
based applications based on internal performance and/or security requirements. Services such as
Amazon’s EC2 offer VPN access to private clouds so organizations can have either an on-demand
server, which would be in a secure controlled environment, or a permanent disaster-
recovery/business continuity set of hosted services.

In this context, bandwidth availability and

management become even more critical as
the private cloud services need to be able
to deliver on their abilities. Causes of
bandwidth loss such as an ISP link failing
or existing bandwidth being saturated by
local users will be significant deterrents to
the project’s success.

The solution to this type of situation is the

same as with public cloud computing. Link
balancers will aggregate multiple ISP
carriers, but for this context the primary use
will be for restarting the VPN session when
the designated carrier link fails (see green
dotted lines in the diagram on the right).
This failover capability will guarantee that
the private cloud system will be available
99.99% of the time or better.

Link balancers can manage traffic with

Quality of Service so the ISP link with the
VPN session will have the appropriate
amount of bandwidth to operate as
expected, and other sources of traffic will
be directed to alternate carrier links.
Condition-based configurations are
recommended so guarantees can be
maintained even when a carrier link is not responding.

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Cloud Computing White Paper

5. Conclusion

The evolution of cloud computing is beginning to deliver on its promise, and many organizations
have started capitalizing on its benefits. The cloud paradigm has one constant factor to account for
in any scenario: bandwidth use and availability. Bandwidth is the key to tie all the components
together, and without it cloud computing simply cannot operate.

Properly planning the telecommunications infrastructure using the concepts discussed in this
document will ensure that organizations’ investments in cloud computing are not crippled by
unexpected downtime caused by carrier or equipment failures or carrier saturation. With private
cloud deployments, the principle remains the same, to provide access to users, except that the
complexity of the projects will be greater since multiple data centers are commonly employed.

©2010 Elfiq Networks 6 www.elfiq.com

Cloud Computing White Paper

Produced by Elfiq Networks

Elfiq Networks is a technology leader and innovator in the field of WAN link management and
balancing. With successful installations in over 73 countries, Elfiq’s Link Balancer products help
organizations of any type and size perform more competitively every day with the ability to use
multiple Internet and private links easily and securely.

For more information on Elfiq Networks’ products and technologies, please contact:

Elfiq Networks
1155 University, #712
Montreal, Quebec, H3B 3A7
Canada
Telephone: 888-GO-ELFIQ/514-667-0611
Internet: www.elfiq.com
Email: info@elfiq.com

October 2010

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©2010 Elfiq Networks 7 www.elfiq.com