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Deploying a Federated Network: The Only Guide You'll Need

Modern businesses need to achieve efficiency both for their own operations and for their customers. This means placing data and apps at optimal locations in terms of cost-effectiveness and latency reduction.

However, managing data and allocating resources are both complex tasks when workloads are broadly distributed and constantly in motion. The solution is to deploy a federated network that centralizes the control of data and resources to one unified administration plane.

Key Takeaways:

Network federation is a framework for the sharing of resources between multiple networks or locations such that they operate as a single integrated virtual network.
Implementing federation as a network practice requires a central management framework from which to configure and enforce policies spanning the entire network.
When used to its fullest potential, a network built on federated practices can facilitate effective governance and disaster recovery, and even harness the latest machine learning advancements.

What Is a Federated Network?

A federated network is one in which multiple separate networks or infrastructure locations share resources that are federated via a centralized management framework. A non-federated distributed network, on the other hand, merely encompasses multiple networks without implementing technologies that federate them.

Federated networking plays an important role in modern cloud ecosystems. By integrating network federation practices in a multicloud deployment, all clouds in that deployment can work together as one cohesive environment.

Network federation brings several key benefits to the enterprise IT space that improve processes for both developers and operators:

Streamlined operations
Improved visibility
Network consistency
Strengthened security
Interoperability

On the other hand, implementing a federated network entails meeting challenges such as ensuring that the network is built on a data-centric model that facilitates standardization of data across all locations in the network, and addressing concerns regarding speed and business continuity. Following a few proven practices in implementing network federation can help IT decision-makers sidestep some possible pitfalls.

Implementing Federation Across Networks

Federation over a distributed network requires management, control, and data planes to be distributed over multiple networks or locations and managed as a single entity. To accomplish this, a centralized point of administration is necessary.

Nutanix Prism is a platform tool that serves as a centralized control plane from which to manage and monitor distributed network locations from one console. Prism provides the resource management tools needed to accomplish full federation of a network, including the ability to observe resources at any scale and even self-service capabilities that allow developers to provision their own resources at the push of a button.

Prism also comes equipped with infrastructure setup solutions that can streamline the deployment of a federated network. Infrastructure monitoring, global VM-centric visualization, and role-based access control are all crucial aspects of network federation in the cloud — and they are all easy to set up with one-click simplicity through Prism.

Centralization is key when striving to accomplish the degree of data standardization that is necessary for the full federation of a network. When comprehensive centralized control solutions are already in place on your platform of choice, the implementation of federated practices can be a much quicker and smoother transition.

Yielding the Best Outcomes From a Federated Network

Using a federation is about not only visibility and control but also security and governance. Getting the most out of a federated network means using built-in capabilities for enforcing networking and security policies across all locations.

Federation also makes it easy to modify configurations and therefore address inefficiencies that might otherwise lead to time-consuming errors. Once configured, the federated nature of the network makes it possible to deploy updated policies to numerous locations at the push of a button.

Another positive outcome that emerges from network federation is quick disaster recovery. Though breaches and outages themselves are worst-case scenarios, operating in a federated environment ensures that recovery is simple and that compliance is maintained every step of the way.

While a federated network by its traditional definition makes data and resource management simpler for developers and operators, another way to yield positive outcomes from federation is by automating the network entirely.

Research from Marketsandmarkets shows that the global federated machine learning market size may grow to $210 million by 2028. It’s clear that many organizations are reaping the benefits of federated processes not only as a means of achieving centralized control in a network but also of automating federation via AI technology.

The Right Platform for Deploying a Federated Network in the Cloud

The benefits of network federation are clear to organizations looking to maintain better, more efficient control and governance over data resources. The question remains, though, as to what the next steps are for an enterprise leader who needs to build network federation into a distributed cloud ecosystem spanning multiple clouds both publicly and on premises in a hybrid model.

Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) presents a solution with the ability to accommodate a wide variety of virtual network services across clouds, without the risk of vendor lock-in at any stage. With Nutanix Prism on NCP, organizations have access to one-click infrastructure with built-in federation features.

The goal of any business attempting to navigate its way through a modern landscape exploding with data and applications is to find a way to simply run its own data and apps anywhere. With a functional federated network, that goal becomes a reality that an organization can achieve over and over again.

Learn more about the benefits of DevOps for business and how a federated network helps facilitate the DevOps approach.

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