What is Cloud Networking?

Name: What is Cloud Networking?
Author: Bernie Kuan

Learn about the fundamental concepts of cloud networking

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Course: On-Demand

At its core, a network is a collection of devices connected together to exchange data and share resources. You can create a network with as few as two computers directly connected through an ethernet cable. This type of network is a local area network or LAN. The two devices are physically close or local to each other. Besides using a direct ethernet cable connection, you can connect many devices to each other through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections. In this case, you would still benefit from a LAN's ability to communicate with other devices at high speeds because they're physically close to one another. Wide area networks, or WANs, connect devices over larger geographic areas, even spanning the globe. You can connect devices to a WAN through telecommunication lines, satellites, and the internet. A WAN allows you to share data and resources among multiple locations. For example, the internet is considered a WAN managed by the internet service providers or ISPs that users subscribe to. Using a network connection from your local computer, you can connect to the WAN linked through many data centers owned and managed by these ISPs. You can think of a network as a collection of connected devices talking to each other. Let's look deeper into how this communication works. Networks are maintained by networking hardware and software components. We'll look first at networking hardware. Most large networks are powered by data centers containing servers stacked on top of one another within a rack or cabinet. To communicate with one another, the servers are equipped with network interface cards or NICS, hardware specifically designed to enable communication with other devices in a network. Each NIC is assigned a unique media access control or MAC address by the manufacturer. The MAC address is visible to others on the network and identifies the device so that other devices can communicate with it to exchange data, share resources, and access the internet. NICs can also be assigned a unique internet protocol or IP address that locates the individual device on the internet. When a device is connected to the internet, it can communicate with other devices by searching for their assigned IP address. Unlike MAC address, IP addresses are not hard tethered to hardware. They can be reassigned and mapped to different devices within the network. For example, if a particular server's NIC malfunctions, an IP assigned to that NIC can be reassigned to a new NIC or to a new working computer. Another important piece of networking hardware is the network address translator or NAT. NATs are physical devices such as routers and firewalls. They act as gateways that help connect devices on a network to the internet. As its name suggests, NATs translate private IP addresses to public IP addresses used across the internet. While both private and public IP addresses can be assigned to a NIC to route data connections in a network to the proper devices, private IP addresses are only valid within a private network. If a computer isn't part of the private network, it can't connect to the device, not even if it knows the device's private IP address. But computers within the private network can connect to the device using its private IP address. A private IP address must be unique within the private network. But another private network is free to use the same IP address because devices from different private networks can't see each other. This differs from a public IP address, which can be seen by anyone connected to the public internet. Similar to a set of private IP addresses within a private network, public IP addresses are unique across the internet and identify devices they are assigned to so that other devices can connect to them. IP addresses are usually seen in the IP version 4 format with four decimal values between 0 and 255. An example of an IP v4 address is 104.103.102.101. Short for internet protocol version 4, IP v4 was developed as a way to assign addresses to devices and enable communication between different networks. Using this format, the IP v4 system allows for approximately 4.3 billion unique addresses. This may seem like a large number, but as the internet continued to grow, it became clear that this was not enough to support the billions of devices that needed to connect to the network. By using NATs, businesses and individuals can connect multiple devices to the internet using a single public IP address. This helps to conserve the limited supply of IP addresses. NATs also help to improve security by hiding private IP addresses of devices on the private network, which makes it more difficult for external parties to access specific devices. In addition to conserving IP addresses and improving security, NATs have other benefits. For example, because NATs allow multiple devices to share a single connection to the internet, they can help reduce the load on servers and other resources on the private network. NATs can also help improve network performance by enabling devices to communicate with each other more efficiently.

Advanced Provider : Bernie Kuan 4 Lessons · 21m in English

Course Description

Cloud networking has transformed the way in which organizations do business by enabling the delivery of computing resources such as servers, storage, and applications over the internet. It’s a flexible and cost-effective way to manage, store, and process data. As cloud networking becomes more commonly implemented across organizations, it’s critical to understand what it is and how it works so that you can make decisions about how it’s used. The fundamental concepts of cloud networking are not new. The same knowledge applied in traditional networking can easily be transferred to cloud networking operations.

In these lessons, we’ll cover the fundamental concepts of cloud computing. We’ll explore the relationship between traditional networking, which has been used for the last few decades, and how it has evolved with the increased usage of the cloud. We’ll describe the hardware and protocol components that make traditional and cloud networking possible. And we’ll explore the various types of cloud networking implementations being used by organizations to obtain a more comprehensive view of cloud networking.

What You'll Learn

Explore the hardware and protocol components used in cloud networking
Understand the basics of cloud networking and how it differs from traditional networking
Explain the role of virtualization technology in cloud networking
Examine the relationship between traditional networking and its evolution toward the cloud
Distinguish between cloud-based networking and cloud-enabled networking
Identify the various types of cloud networking implementations used by organizations

Key Takeaways

Cloud networking enables the delivery of computing resources such as servers, storage, and applications over the internet.
It provides a flexible and cost-effective way to manage, store, and process data.
The fundamental concepts of cloud networking are not new, and knowledge from traditional networking can easily be transferred to cloud networking operations.
Virtualization technology plays a key role in making cloud networking possible.
Understanding what cloud networking is and how it works supports better decisions about how it is used across an organization.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

It covers the fundamental concepts of cloud computing, the relationship between traditional and cloud networking, the hardware and protocol components that make both possible, and the various types of cloud networking implementations used by organizations.

Who is this course for?

It is for those who want to understand what cloud networking is and how it works so they can make decisions about how it is used within their organization.

Do I need prior networking experience?

The course explains that the fundamental concepts of cloud networking are not new and that knowledge applied in traditional networking can easily be transferred to cloud networking operations.

What is the difference between cloud-based and cloud-enabled networking?

The course includes a lesson dedicated to comparing cloud-based networking and cloud-enabled networking, helping learners distinguish between these implementations.

What skills will I gain from this course?

The course builds skills in cloud computing, cloud computing architecture, cloud infrastructure, cloud technologies, cloud-native architecture, and networking basics.