A Retrospective on Workload Identifiers: From Data Center to Cloud-Native Networks

Abstract

As applications move to multiple clouds, the network has become a reactive element to support cloud consumption and application needs. Through each generation of network architectures, identifiers and the use of dynamic locators evolved in different levels of the protocol stack. The identifiers and locators type is defined by the isolation boundary and how the architecture considers semantic overload in the IP address. Each solution is an outcome of incrementalism, resulting in application delivery outgrowing the underlying network. This paper contributes an industrial retrospective of how the schemes and mechanisms for identification and location of network entities have evolved in traditional data centers and how they match cloud-native application requirements. Specifically, there is an evaluation of each application artifact that forced necessary changes in the identifiers and locators. Finally, the common themes are highlighted from observations to determine the investigation areas that may play an essential role in the future of cloud-native networking.

Keywords

• Workload identifiers
• network locators
• naming and addressing
• data center
• cloud-native