Networking fundamentals
1. Networking fundamentals
When you think of networking, you might think of making connections with others in your work industry or social interest group, like a book club. In cloud security, you might think of connecting to online resources. But there’s so many more aspects! And, because networking is a huge part of cybersecurity, lots of companies are turning to the cloud for networking services. In this video, we’ll uncover how traditional networking concepts translate to the cloud. Traditional networking infrastructure uses hardware and devices like routers and switches. Remember that a router is a network device that connects multiple networks together. A switch is a device that makes connections between specific devices on a network by sending and receiving data. With networking in the cloud, instead of configuring hardware routers and switches, as a cloud cyber security professional, you implement routers and switches using software. This process is called software-defined networking, or SDN. CSPs use SDN for cloud services, where the routers and switches are hosted in data centers. SDN virtualizes these network devices, meaning the networking components are abstracted from the physical devices powering the network. You can configure SDN through either their cloud provider’s console, or by using an application programming interface, or API. An API is a library function or system access point with well-defined syntax and code that communicates with other applications and third parties. So, instead of buying a hardware router, you can define a router in the cloud by calling an API. The API then requests access to the router for the organization. SDN is useful because it reduces the amount of maintenance an organization needs to keep networks running. The CSP manages the physical devices, so you can focus on developing and securing their applications. SDN is also scalable. You can add or subtract networking resources on-demand as you need them. SDN also incorporates network monitoring, which can be used to detect distributed threats like denial of service attacks, and unauthorized network scans. This security capability makes SDN valuable for cloud security teams. Along with these advantages, the cloud uses load balancing to distribute traffic. Load balancing distributes user traffic across several cloud servers, where the load balancer moves traffic to the appropriate backend service, like the cloud resources running your application. Distributing traffic prevents one server from becoming overwhelmed with traffic, which leads to slow performance. Load balancers also help ensure high availability for your resources. There are two types of load balancers: application and network. Both load balancers operate at different layers of the Open Systems Interconnection, OSI, model. The OSI model is a standardized concept that describes the seven layers computers use to communicate and send data over the network. Security professionals use this model to communicate and pinpoint security threats when they occur. Application load balancers use one IP address to run workloads. They operate on layer 7 —or the application layer— for HTTP or HTTPS traffic. The application layer connects users to the internet using software applications. When you access a website during peak shopping seasons, the application load balancer is what gets you and hundreds of other users to the webpage quickly. Network load balancers operate on layer 4 of the OSI model, the transport layer. This layer is responsible for the delivery and speed of data between devices. The network load balancer handles traffic from the UDP and Transmission Control Protocol, or TCP. This means the load balancer takes information from a router and forwards it to the correct TCP or UDP server. You just learned a lot about networking in the cloud, including the parts and benefits of SDN and load balancing. Networking is a major component of cybersecurity and cloud computing, so this knowledge will help you along your cloud journey. And as a cloud security professional, it’ll be important for you to understand how traditional networking concepts translate to the cloud.2. Let's practice!
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