SDN Makes Cloud Offshoring More Attractive

Are the Cayman Islands, known as a tax haven, next for cloud offshoring? Photo: twodolla/Flickr

Calligo may not be the first to take its cloud operations offshore, but in the age of software-defined networking (SDN), it could be the start of something bigger.

Its unclear if a small, niche player that offers the benefits having actual servers located on the Channel Islands can create a business that can compete with Amazons infrastructure as a service or the myriad private clouds people want to build, but the experiment is worth watching, writes GigaOms Stacey Higginbotham.

Whats on offer? Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) (running VMware CloudFoundry): check; Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) (tapping Nicira and SolidFire): check; a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform: check; and disaster recovery and a virtual desktop program: check, check.

All these offerings come by way of leased servers on Frances Channel Islands to provide a cloud option for companies that need to keep their data offshore. Been there, done that with HavenCo. (More on that below.)

Whats so interesting is that the decision to go offshore is made easier in the age of SDN.

GigaOm writes:

Calligo is using Niciras software to create software-defined networks inside its data centers and between them to create a seamless and unified cloud for clients while also ensuring that specific security and data routing protocols are kept in place. Much like Googles use of software-defined networks between its data centers, or NTTs experiments in creating a seamless failover environment spread between multiple data centers in Japan, Calligo is showing what a abstracting the network from the physical infrastructure can do.

[Calligo] says its possible to use Niciras software to essentially cobble together various layers of infrastructure into a seamless cloud from the clients perspective.

So by using whitebox networking gear, Calligo saves a bunch, the story goes. But heres what stands out most, cloud watchers: In many ways Calligo has built a software-defined data center. Higginbotham writes.

Read more here:
SDN Makes Cloud Offshoring More Attractive

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