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Cloud Network Security

What is Cloud Network Security?Cloud network security is a category of tools and capabilities that address the virtualized network security model. This includes cloud security model integration and threat modeling to provide an enhanced level of endpoint security for networks and applications. Cloud network security services can provide unified access to remote servers, control access to infrastructure resources, and establish secure connections between the internet, private clouds, and public cloud providers. The services also integrate network and application security capabilities within the cloud security model to provide robust coverage for both network and cloud applications.The cloud network security model benefits from the integrated capabilities of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and SD-WAN technologies that empower organizations to deploy their networks with self-service controls and security options.SASE security services also include traditional endpoint security services and solutions that analyze network traffic for threats such as phishing attacks, malware, and malicious traffic. The advantages of cloud network security include the flexibility to deploy IT resources across multiple sites to form a secure, global virtualized network topology. Moreover, continuous monitoring and alerting of network security configurations and resources eliminates costly network management tasks.SD-WAN and Cloud Network SecuritySDNs are the key component of cloud network security architectures that encompass the integrated capabilities of both Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and SD-WAN technologies.An SD-WAN is also known as a type of software-defined wide-area network. It’s virtualized so that the network is abstracted from the datacenter or branch office hardware to create an easily configurable and scalable overlay-wide area network distributed across local and global sites. The SD-WAN implementation of Software Defined Network (SDN) technology makes it more reliable, scalable and cost-effective than VPN-based WAN solutions because it takes a software-based approach to build and extend enterprise networks beyond the core SDN.Organizations today can use SD-WAN solutions to connect branch offices to their corporate networks instead of using traditional and expensive multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) connections, firewalls or proprietary hardware.SD-WAN virtual appliances, connected by encrypted tunnels, connect to sets of network services that provide enhanced functionality across the virtualized network. Moreover, traffic reaching an SD-WAN appliance can be classified based on application or service type which is then prioritized using centrally-managed policies to optimize network traffic.SD-WANs have many benefits for distributed organizations that leverage the cloud ranging from network topology simplification, internet traffic prioritization, and cost reduction to scalability and integrated security.Central SD-WAN management with traffic routing based on application policies lets IT managers automate deployment and configuration processes thereby reducing the complexity and resources required to manage a WAN. Enterprise applications can also be aggregated, integrated, and controlled from an SD-WAN portal, further simplifying SD-WAN management.With internet traffic prioritization, SD-WANs can identify critical data as it moves through the network, supplanting web surfing and video streaming, which in turn boosts network performance and efficiency. Content filtering capabilities can restrict access or allocate bandwidth to selected sites resulting in additional network efficiency.Finally, because SD-WANs eliminate physical equipment, organizations can save administration time and labor costs normally associated with networking hardware deployments. In addition, replacing expensive MPLS with cloud-based broadband connectivity options further reduces costs.Highlighting the Benefits of Cloud Network SecurityNetwork topology simplificationPolicy-based. internet traffic routingSecure remote and mobile network accessPublic and private cloud deploymentsCost-effective network scalability

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Kubernetes terminology

Although I'm not a DevOps guy, I wanted to learn more about this engineering.It's an area I always semi-understood but never took the time to explore beyond that.Kubernetes was available to me as an engineer, and it worked without knowing why half the time. So I decided it was time to explore it more in detail. And what better way to do so than to write some articles about it?In an upcoming couple of articles, we'll be deep diving into Kubernetes, what it is, what each component is, and even how we can set it up.IntroductionThe description given by Kubernetes is a portable, extensible, open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services. It facilitates both declarative configuration and automation.So, it's a perfect way to manage containerized deployment as a uniform standard. You might also hear the name K8S, which is the same as Kubernetes. (It comes from the eight letters between the K and the S). Google originally developed the system, and they open-sourced it back in 2014 you can read a good background story here.Why do we need this?First, we must keep in mind that we are talking about containerized deployments.You might be familiar with traditional deployment. This is when we get a physical server and deploy the code on that server we own. The problem with this was scalability and maintainability.As you can imagine, it was tough to maintain it when more resources were needed, or a machine failed over time.The follow-up to this was virtual deployments. It allows one to run multiple virtual machines on one physical server's CPU. This meant we could more easily scale them and move them to another physical server. As for containerized deployments, it's very close to virtual, but with one big difference. They share the OS between the applications. The big benefit is that they become decoupled from the infrastructure and can run across multiple clouds and OS distributions.So, where does Kubernetes come into play?You want to ensure your application is always up and running in production environments. This means one container might go down at a given stage. You want to ensure there's always a backup container up and running, so the application has no downtime.But can you imagine having to set this up yourself and manage each system yourself? This will become a nightmare. Thus, Kubernetes can help you orchestrate this more easily. It provides a framework to run systems and takes care of scaling and failovers. It also comes with deployment patterns and so on.Service discovery and load balancing: Kubernetes can expose containers using DNS name, so if traffic is high, Kubernetes can load balance your traffic to several containers to ensure the app is stable.Rollouts and rollbacks: You can state how you want your system to be deployed, which means you should first set up the new deployment and only then retire the old one, or you can pick another strategy. Besides this, you can opt to describe a rollback scenario.Bin packing: We can provide Kubernetes with a cluster of nodes and tell it how much CPU and memory each container needs. Kubernetes can fit containers on these nodes and help us use our resources in the best possible fashion.Self-healing: Kubernetes can take care of restarting containers that fail or even deprecate them and spool up new ones.Config management: It also provides a way to manage and store secrets and config to safely inject your stack without ever exposing it.