Let’s start with a paradox – The potential of the cloud is limitless BUT the cloud is currently being limited. One way to overcome this limitation is through edge networking. What the public cloud providers have built is a marvel of modern technology. Millions of coordinated systems running across dozens of regions not only provide the massive amounts of computing and storage needed to power pretty much every application, but they also offer a vast array of advanced services at a lower cost than any organization could achieve with homegrown solutions.
The paradox is that many enterprise applications hosted in public clouds must integrate with edge locations (data centres, manufacturing floors, hospitals, retail, etc) that hold the data these apps require to function. But managing these edge locations requires an entirely different set of tools than the cloud supports. Bringing everything together becomes a limiting factor in the adoption of cloud-hosted applications. This problem is found most commonly in industries where SaaS applications are enabling a digital transformation.
Integrating Cloud and Edge with Trustgrid’s Edge Networking Solution
Because of this, hybrid cloud infrastructure that mixes both cloud and data center resources is now a challenge for those SaaS providers who are dependent on customer-controlled data. While the problem is fairly common, integrating and optimizing these infrastructures is still more of an art than a science for many software providers.
This is where Trustgrid enters the picture. Trustgrid has turned that art INTO science by managing these architectures through a platform-based approach that treats all environments (cloud, data center, or branch office) equally and reduces the mix of tools, expertise, and processes down to two solutions – a public cloud provider and Trustgrid.
The Trustgrid platform was built as a multidisciplinary solution to elegantly address the complexities of edge networking. It functions as a connectivity solution that combines site-to-site networking capabilities along with the ability to run Docker containers on the network, at the edge.
Edge Networking for Multi-Tenant Use Cases
Together these features enable applications to function as if all components are in the cloud even when some components may live at the edge. Connectivity is handled over encrypted, low latency networking and can be used in multi-tenant use cases to provide a one-to-many network between the SaaS application and each of its unique customers.
Additionally, deployed containers running at the network’s edge can be managed and supported via the platform’s Zero Trust remote access features. This gives an organization the ability to deploy and manage its entire hybrid cloud infrastructure, from cloud to customer environments, through a single pane of glass.
Eliminating the Need for Specialized Networking Experts
Each of these disciplines is brought together in a way that eliminates the need for highly specialized networking experts to build and maintain this new hybrid cloud data fabric.
Using the networking elements of the platform to stitch together cloud and on-premise end-points creates a connective tissue between SaaS applications and remote data sources that was previously left to a variety of point solutions building siloed networks with lots of manual labor. Using the containerized application platform provides the ability to take those endpoints and build distributed application architectures that eliminate the need to have all data backhauled between locations.
Edge Networking for Reliable Data Exchange and Remote Application Management
By creating an environment-agnostic layer of connectivity with automated management capabilities, applications are able to exchange data reliably and manage remote application components freely without worrying about where they are located or how the required transit is occurring.
In summary, Trustgrid enables data and applications to remain where they make the most sense (cloud, data center, branch office, etc) with its edge networking solution. SaaS applications can be built and sold knowing that where a customer’s data lives don’t matter. Administrative controls are applied consistently from a central authority