Cloud Networking: Extremely Fundamental to Cloud Computing

In today's fast-paced times, where i-pads, i-phones, MacBook's (Pro and Air) are becoming extremely popular as the 'new-age' computer devices, the terminology the 'cloud' has become extremely popular. However, what is this cloud that is constantly being referred to? An abstract term, the cloud is not a physical object which can be touched or felt. It is a network of servers, where each server has a different function to perform.

 For instance, if a person takes a picture using their Smartphone then the image is stored in the phone’s internal memory. However, if a person uploads the photo on Instagram, then they are uploading it on the cloud. In short, the cloud refers to a network of servers. While there are certain servers where which provide online services such as Adobe Creative Cloud, there are others which allow a person to store and even access the data, such as Dropbox or Instagram.

In most cases, people access the cloud daily, through the Google Drive, or SkyDrive to even iCloud or Evernote whenever they want to store information without making use of the internal storage of their phones. They instead can store their information on the cloud. By making use of the cloud, it offers people a tremendous amount of convenience and reliability. People are also less likely to lose data from the cloud.

The cloud network is extremely fundamental to cloud computing. Cloud networking essentially refers to the paradigm for building and managing secure private networks over the (public) internet by making use of global cloud computing infrastructure.

Thus, in cloud networking the traditional network functions as well as services which are inclusive of security, connectivity, control and management are pushed towards the cloud and delivered as a service. There are two main categories of cloud networking.

 These include Cloud-Based Networking (CBN) and Cloud-Enabled Networking (CEN). While Cloud-Based Networking (CBN) moves all of the core networking functions such as the actual packet path and addressing into the cloud and ensures to eliminate any need for local hardware (other than that which provides for an internet connection), Cloud-Enabled Networking (CEN) refers to the management and movement of only specific (certain) aspects of control (such as policy definition) into the cloud. However, it keeps packet-mode functions such as switching, routing and security services (local and in hardware) and connectivity.