Contrary to the prophecies of many cloud absolutists, hybrid environments continue to power SaaS operations worldwide. Hybrid environments are a blend of cloud and on-premise services that are operated and supported as a single environment. Today, much enterprise data resides and is generated on-premises, in customer environments, and even in remote IoT systems. Edge computing manages this data with low latency, data privacy, and remote survivability. It has become a critical variable in the IT equation that heavily influences these hybrid architectures.
As a result, the time has come for hybrid SaaS environments to embrace cloud-to-edge architectures where a centralized application integrates with data and applications distributed across remote networks and hosts. The next evolutionary paradigm for hybrid clouds involves extending containerization to the edge.
The prevailing approaches to cloud and legacy on-premises IT management are problematic. They prevent SaaS providers from attaining cloud-to-edge architectures and realizing their benefits.
Legacy Approaches Derailing SaaS Modernization
Translating SaaS-level standards of security, uptime, latency, and scalability to hybrid environments is no easy task. Connecting on-premises environments to cloud applications can be challenging, involving on-premise firewall configurations, network address translation issues, and manual processes reliant on the expertise and availability of on-prem IT teams. Even hardware appliances and VPNs only provide temporary solutions and are inadequate for the scalability needs of cloud-to-edge architectures.
Also, managing countless connections and appliances can be an arduous affair. Not to mention the heightened challenges of security, downtime, latency, and increased dependency on the IT team at every step of the application configuration and management process.
Unlocking Hybrid Cloud SaaS with the Trustgrid Platform
The Trustgrid Platform enables SaaS providers to gain cloud-like control and automation capabilities across all customer environments—whether it be a public/private cloud, branch office, or data center. The platform consists of three products —Trustgrid Connect, Remote Access, and EdgeCompute – orchestrated through a common management portal.
With Trustgrid Connect, SaaS application providers can unlock high throughput and secure networking to connect to remote applications and customer data. Trustgrid Remote Access provides zero trust network access (ZTNA) to manage and support remote applications. And developers and DevOps teams leverage Trustgrid EdgeCompute to deploy, update, and monitor containers and virtual machines at the edge.
DevOps teams use the cloud management portal to configure and monitor Trustgrid Platform, which includes network functions and edge applications. The portal provides a comprehensive view of the ‘extended SaaS infrastructure’ for admins to manage VMs and containers, update software, and troubleshoot applications remotely.
In addition, the portal secures existing APIs with encryption and enables the creation of new APIs from edge data sets. Trustgrid relieves software development and DevOps teams from networking, provisioning, and managing edge computing capabilities and helps them focus on what they do best – building great software.
Trustgrid Connect: Seamless Cloud-to-On-Premises Networking
Delivering secure and streamlined connectivity across any hybrid environment, Trustgrid Connect is a network-as-a-service that enables plug-and-play deployments and bypasses the need for on-site networking expertise. It enables plug-and-play deployments, ideal for connecting cloud services into on-prem environments not fully under the control of an application provider. It bridges distributed applications and data sources with the cloud by building a multi-tenant network fabric between the cloud(s) and edge environments. In these scenarios, it serves as a cloud-delivered WAN that is far easier to deploy and manage than site-to-site VPNs and MPLS.
The solution is capable of building both mesh and hub-and-spoke architectures and can seamlessly integrate into VRFs and VLANs. Because the service is multi-tenanted and designed for cloud applications connecting to hundreds of remote sites, it securely segments all cloud-to-edge networks while enabling complete network visibility, control and support from a single pane of glass.
Trustgrid Connect has layer 3/4 networking and separate control and data planes. It uses certificate-based authentication, provides continuous patching and updates, and automated failover and disaster recovery. It simplifies network address translation management and allows 1-touch deployments with minimal firewall reconfiguration. An uptime SLA of 99.99% is also available.
Trustgrid Remote Access: Granular Access for Support
Support is one of the biggest challenges for cloud-to-edge architectures. Addressing the challenges around security and connectivity, Trustgrid empowers support and DevOps teams with zero-trust network access (ZTNA) via Trustgrid Remote Access. Legacy VPN and remote desktop tools pose security risks and limits in accessing complex distributed environments. They lack granular access controls to secure sensitive application components, making them vulnerable to stolen credentials and session hijacking. Moreover, the risks are amplified when extending remote access to 3rd party vendors for support.
In contrast, Trustgrid Remote Access simplifies patching, troubleshooting, and configuration using a zero-trust agentless web interface to grant fine-grained access to applications running in any cloud and on-premise environment. When an agentless approach won’t work, the tool supports open-source agents such as OpenVPN or Wireguard. Users can custom configure access policies from within the tool and utilize existing roles, groups, and permissions from 3rd party identity providers. In addition to supporting access to apps on all popular operating systems, it integrates with any OpenID compatible IdP (Azure AD, Okta, Google, and more.)
Remote Access even enables users to support systems behind firewalls that may not be accessible over the internet, including secure access to remote container deployments and maintains auditable logs of all application access.
Trustgrid EdgeCompute: Seamless Edge Containerization
Trustgrid EdgeCompute delivers edge computing capabilities to SaaS applications as they build a hybrid cloud infrastructure.
The solution addresses edge computing challenges via computing infrastructure, APIs, and management tools. Plug-and-play edge deployment eliminates the need for on-site networking and container expertise. EdgeCompute caters to low latency, remote survivability, local data processing, and data residency requirements.
EdgeCompute has cloud-managed containers, supports Docker, KVM virtual appliances, CI/CD integration, and API building. It enables seamless edge computing connections.
Trustgrid EdgeCompute modernizes SaaS with a managed platform, enabling DevOps teams to focus on their product. DevOps teams can update and operate Docker containers at the edge. They can simplify policy management, set up and manage distributed points of presence, connect microservices resources, and perform security and traffic inspections.
Modernize SaaS with a Turnkey Edge Computing Platform
Trustgrid’s platform aids providers in upgrading their SaaS infrastructure by efficiently connecting and managing their applications in hybrid environments. It also enables full software lifecycle management for edge-based application components and extends network-wide support remotely via ZTNA.
Trustgrid is a unique solution that combines secure networking, monitoring, and support with edge containerization. This enables modern cloud-to-edge application architectures.
Read: Build Cloud to Edge Architectures with Docker Containers