It’s become a common question about the integration of a corporate network into the range of Cloud platform alternatives. In a hybrid scenario, this topic needs to be considered thoroughly while planning for a cloud journey.
With this article, We would like to offer you a recap of the possible integration scenario with SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. This overview covers communication possibilities using SAP Data Centers.
SAP HANA Business Cloud supports one of the most proven and standardized connectivity options to get customers’ corporate networks integrated with the privately managed cloud atmosphere. Three alternatives are offered today: VPN (IPSec site-to-site), Direct connection (e.g. termination of the MPLS network) as well as SAP Cloud Peering.
The layout below provides a summary of the above-mentioned options and offers an understanding of the network partition (SAP Customers) and the responsibilities of the entailed parties.
In addition to the integration with the corporate network, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud offers the ability to reveal necessary Applications or Internet services (HTTPS based) directly to the public internet with LoadBalancers. This is delivered on demand.
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Let’s take a closer look at every option.
VPN (IPSec site-to-site).
This is one of the most popular and fastest means to accumulate a secure connection over the Public Internet. It enables connection to different network sections within a short time frame and removes substantial investments (e.g. renting out specialized network channels).
This connection brings a lot of advantages, here are a few:
1) Quick execution: Establishing a secure (AES-256 encryption) tunnel via VPN appliances (like Cisco ASA, Cisco ASR, Palo Alto Network Firewalls, and so on) and even software application VPN entrances (e.g. FreeSWAN).
2) Small investments: Most or even all customers currently have accessibility to public internet channels and their network architecture permits extending the current network with an added VPN connection.
3) No bandwidth costs: No extra traffic charges, for PoCs (non-PROD) makes for a good advantage.
As IPSec VPN uses the general public internet channel, the clients need to take into consideration that it may not have transmission capacity or latency assurances. This is an essential subject to represent throughout the planning.
Taking into consideration all of the above, I’m concluding that this is a terrific choice to run non-PROD work (like Proof of Concepts, Project implementations without Productive systems) or for a time period, while the customers are developing more reliable solutions (see them listed below) for a Production usage.
Direct connection (like MPLS, telco-provided VPN)
The direct link represents one of the two recommended options for connecting to a productive business-critical setting. From the diagram below you can see that by choosing this type of connection, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud consumers (along with their Telco companies) can use different types of network communication channels (MPLS, VPN) and create a high-available solution.
This scenario provides customers with the flexibility of selecting their better Telco provider (or several) and brings a great opportunity to create a failover solution for the Network connection. This comes by having repetitive L3 Network routers on SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud along with HSRP (Hot Standby Routing Protocol), in order to make an automatic and transparent failover solution for End-users.
SAP Cloud Peering
SAP Cloud Peering is a reliable and secured connectivity option for the customer to SAP Cloud Services leveraging SAP’s international interconnection provider system. SAP Cloud Peering is a very secure connection option since the traffic experiences the Telco supplier’s network and never comes across the public internet. It combines the advantages of fast deploying service along with the security and reliability of specialized networks. It perfectly fits the consumers who currently use network services by one of the global affiliation suppliers (e.g. Verizon, Equinix, etc).
You can inspect the availability of a particular provider in a Datacenter located here.
On top of that, the data about the SAP Cloud Peering connectivity option can be found by means of the following link.
SAP Cloud Peering is recommended for production use a gives great flexibility and advantages leveraging a Multi-Cloud environment.
Final Words
That’s all for today. Our article is a great area to get going when it comes to learning more about the power of SAP HEC. Also, if you want to learn more, we are here to help you.
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