The Growing Imperative for Hybrid Cloud Visibility

For years, organizations have struggled to maintain consistent visibility across their hybrid IT landscapes. The fragmented nature of these environments, coupled with the inherent complexities of cloud networking, makes it difficult to understand how traffic flows, identify potential security vulnerabilities, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Solutions like IP Fabric are designed to address these challenges by providing a unified view of the entire network, regardless of where workloads reside.

Previous IP Fabric releases laid the groundwork for cloud coverage, enabling teams to understand cloud networking within the broader context of their overall infrastructure. Version 7.9 takes this a step further by modeling cloud-native networking and security constructs as core components of the digital twin. This allows for detailed traffic flow analysis through cloud security boundaries and private connectivity paths.

Unlocking Cloud-Native Insights

Specifically, the latest release adds discovery capabilities for Azure Firewall instances, Private Link services, and Private Endpoints. For Google Cloud Platform users, the platform now supports multi-project discovery and models GCP Interconnect handoffs. This granular visibility is crucial for understanding how applications interact with cloud resources and identifying potential bottlenecks or security risks.

The inclusion of IPv6 path analysis is particularly significant, as many organizations are in the process of deploying IPv6 alongside their existing IPv4 infrastructure. IP Fabric 7.9 allows network teams to validate IPv6 connectivity, pinpoint areas where it breaks down, and ensure seamless communication between IPv4 and IPv6 segments. The platform’s ability to model both protocols within a single digital twin provides a comprehensive view of network behavior.

According to Bykov, this enhanced visibility empowers platform engineering teams to visualize complex application workloads from multiple perspectives, including the impact of security policies and advanced routing configurations. This holistic view is essential for optimizing application performance and ensuring a secure and reliable user experience.

Addressing the Cloud Abstraction Challenge

A key challenge in achieving hybrid cloud visibility is the inherent abstraction employed by cloud providers. Services like Azure Firewall deliver packet filtering without exposing the underlying infrastructure, and Private Link creates connectivity paths without requiring detailed knowledge of routing mechanics. While this abstraction simplifies cloud consumption, it can create a blind spot for operations teams who need to understand the impact of these services on application traffic.

IP Fabric’s approach is to model the *behavior* of these cloud services – the control plane – without attempting to replicate the underlying implementation details. The platform represents what Azure Firewall *does* to traffic, rather than trying to map Microsoft’s internal infrastructure. Similarly, it shows how Private Link affects connectivity without revealing the provider’s routing fabric.

“Abstraction is vital for managing complex infrastructure, and the ease of using network and security functions without dealing with underlying complexity is a major benefit,” Bykov explained. “However, those functions still make decisions about traffic that impact applications, and understanding those control elements is what matters most to our customers.”

Compliance Validation in a Hybrid World

The lack of visibility in hybrid environments can have significant implications for compliance. IP Fabric recently collaborated with a large financial institution migrating to Azure, helping them ensure that cloud-based firewalls enforced the same security policies as their on-premises systems to avoid violations of PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).

“PCI compliance is a top concern for any organization that processes credit card information,” Bykov emphasized. “Failure to comply can result in substantial fines – up to $100,000 per incident – as well as increased transaction and legal fees.”

IP Fabric’s latest release provides visibility into cloud network devices, including firewalls, as well as native cloud constructs like projects and serverless services. This allows compliance teams to validate rule consistency across both on-premises and cloud environments from a single interface.

Beyond Architecture: The Importance of Hybrid Pathing

The debate surrounding hybrid infrastructure often frames it as a temporary state or an architectural compromise. Bykov firmly rejects this notion. “What else is there *but* hybrid?” he asks. “A heterogeneous and hybrid environment is essential to meet the diverse needs of our clients.”

The rationale is pragmatic. Different workloads have varying requirements for latency, data residency, cost, and performance. Cloud excels in certain scenarios, while on-premises infrastructure remains optimal for others. The network’s role is to seamlessly deliver traffic between these environments, regardless of workload location.

“The network’s fundamental purpose is to deliver traffic from point A to point B, serving the application,” Bykov stated. “Just as there’s no single best programming language, each infrastructure option is better suited for different applications.”

Version 7.9 addresses hybrid pathing through enriched metadata for interconnection technologies, modeling Azure ExpressRoute circuits, GCP Interconnect attachments, and the BGP sessions that exchange routes between domains. This metadata enables the platform to trace traffic transitions from enterprise routing protocols into cloud virtual networks, revealing which routes are advertised, which peering points carry specific traffic flows, and how routing policy affects path selection.

The hybrid boundary represents a concentrated risk point. While failures at these handoffs are less frequent than within a single domain, the impact is far greater. A misconfigured route advertisement or a failed interconnect can disrupt all traffic between environments. “While these handoff issues aren’t common, they can be severely impactful,” Bykov noted. “When troubleshooting, we need to examine the entire haystack, not just a small portion.”

Frequently Asked Questions About IP Fabric 7.9 and Hybrid Cloud Assurance

• What is network assurance and why is it important in a hybrid cloud environment?

  Network assurance is the practice of proactively monitoring and managing network performance, security, and compliance. In a hybrid cloud environment, it’s crucial for maintaining visibility and control across fragmented infrastructure.

• How does IP Fabric 7.9 improve visibility into Azure and Google Cloud Platform environments?

  IP Fabric 7.9 adds discovery and path analysis for cloud-native security constructs like Azure Firewall and GCP Interconnect, providing a comprehensive view of traffic flows and security policies.

• What is a digital twin and how does it contribute to network automation?

  A digital twin is a virtual representation of your physical network infrastructure. It provides a centralized platform for modeling, analyzing, and automating network operations.

• Can IP Fabric help with PCI compliance in a hybrid cloud environment?

  Yes, IP Fabric allows you to validate rule consistency between on-premises and cloud-based firewalls, ensuring compliance with PCI-DSS standards.

• What is the benefit of IPv6 path analysis in a dual-stack environment?

  IPv6 path analysis helps identify connectivity issues and ensure seamless communication between IPv4 and IPv6 segments, supporting a smooth transition to IPv6.