GCP – Introducing Network Connectivity Center: A revolution in simplifying on-prem and cloud networking

As you shift to a cloud-first strategy, you have to manage the complexity of connecting resources across on-prem locations and the cloud to ensure access to all workloads from anywhere. This often means network teams have to configure and manage multiple networks while delivering consistent access, policies, and services across global cloud regions. To offer networking services everywhere, you need a simple programmatic model that seamlessly spans the cloud, on-prem data centers, and branch locations.   

Today, we are announcing the preview of Network Connectivity Center, which delivers planet-scale network management to simplify complex networks for your on-prem and cloud connectivity needs. Network Connectivity Center provides a single management experience to easily create, connect, and manage heterogeneous on-prem and cloud networks leveraging Google’s global infrastructure. Network Connectivity Center serves as a vantage point to seamlessly connect VPNs, partner and dedicated interconnects, as well as third-party routers and Software-Defined WANs, helping you optimize connectivity, reduce operational burden and lower costs—wherever your applications or users may be.

“As an industry leader, a fast & reliable network is essential to maintain our productivity across a large number of our globally distributed work centers,” said Miguel Mejia, WAN Engineering Lead, Colgate-Palmolive. “We understand Google Cloud’s Network Connectivity Center (NCC) could help us achieve broader access to Google’s global network and also enable us to connect our remote site users & applications in a consistent manner.”

Network Connectivity Center offers an easy way to create, expand, and manage on-prem and cloud networks all in one place. Network Connectivity Center delivers the following: 

1. Single connectivity model
Network Connectivity Center offers the unique ability to easily connect and manage VPNs, interconnects, and SD-WANs to enable users to access workloads seamlessly. Network Connectivity Center resources run on Google’s global infrastructure to deliver high performance, reliability, and security so enterprises can leverage the same benefits. 

2. Flexible cloud connectivity
Network Connectivity Center delivers a unified connectivity experience by allowing enterprises to use Google’s global infrastructure, leveraging new or existing partners and dedicated interconnects, Cloud VPN connections, and third-party routers/SD-WAN to transfer data reliably across on-premises sites and cloud resources. 

3. VPN-based multicloud connectivity 
Network Connectivity Center unlocks VPN-based cloud connectivity directly and via a set of partners allowing enterprises the flexibility of choice to create, connect and consume resources spanning multiple clouds. These resources are reliably connected using Google’s infrastructure and can be operated directly via Network Connectivity Center or select partner solutions.

4. SD-WAN Integration/Third-party router 
Network Connectivity Center can be used as the default landing point when integrating SD-WAN and other routing solutions with Google’s infrastructure. When doing so, enterprises get a simple and reliable way to consume connectivity on-demand while extending the benefits of their SD-WAN and routing solutions to Google Cloud.

5. Real-time visibility for your global network 
Network Connectivity Center offers a single pane of glass for connecting your VPNs, partner and dedicated interconnects and on-prem networks. It also pairs seamlessly with Network Intelligence Center for end-to-end visibility so you can monitor, visualize, and troubleshoot the network. With Network Intelligence Center, you can monitor real-time performance and network health, view traffic flows, and verify connectivity intent. 

Cisco partnership
In April 2020, Cisco and Google Cloud announced Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Hub with Google Cloud to help our customers create an end-to-end network that enables secure and on-demand connectivity.

Our expanded partnership with Cisco brings the best of both Cisco and Google Cloud technologies together with a turnkey networking solution. Cisco and Google Cloud’s joint solution leverages Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Hub and Google Cloud Network Connectivity Center to connect branch sites and on-prem data centers to the cloud using Google’s high performance, global infrastructure  and Cisco SD-WAN’s vManage. Via Cisco Cloud OnRamp, users can also extend Cisco SD-WAN’s fabric through an automated process to Google Cloud. With tighter integrations between Cisco and Google Cloud, the availability of this solution brings a new set of capabilities that dramatically simplifies complex heterogeneous networks, protects mission critical applications, and minimizes operational burden and costs. 

“Google Cloud and Cisco continue driving innovation for our joint customers to enable secure and automated SD-WAN access from applications and services running on Google Cloud Platform,” said JL Valente, vice president, product management, for Cisco Enterprise Routing, SD-WAN and Cloud Networking. “Our latest integration not only extends the Cisco SD-WAN fabric to Google Cloud to automate provisioning of site-to-cloud connectivity effortlessly, but also gives customers the choice of using Google Cloud for providing a highly reliable, high performance global cloud network for site-to-site connectivity that can be deployed in minutes.”

We are excited to simplify the management of on-prem and cloud networks with Network Connectivity Center. 

Google Cloud will be at Cisco Live! , visit our showcase to learn more about Network Connectivity Center.