Virtual machines are a staple of cloud service provider offerings -- software-only servers that enable running whatever appropriate technology stack s required. But data center virtualization has lacked a crucial tool, the ability to virtualize network routing and traffic management.
Virtual networking provides for a managed abstraction layer between end hosts and an existing network. Managed by a distributed controller system this layer transforms the physical network into a pool of network capacity and enables the programmatic creation of thousands of isolated virtual networks to connect traffic in a cloud.
In order to build its virtual network controller, Nicira created a “tunneling protocol” called Stateless Transport Tunneling, which lets users run one network protocol over a network that is built for another. This lets users transport data inside packets that use the Internet Protocol, the protocol that connects machines on the internet.
This Virtual Network approach means bandwidth, firewalling, and service bus protocols can be managed in software -- furthering the flexibility of cloud architectures.
- Posted by Tom/Bluedog
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