Oh Hello VPN-Cubed 2.0

Oh Hello VPN-Cubed 2.0: "VPN-Cubed 2.0 has arrived. Why 2.0? This release is a direct result of over two years of interaction with our customers understanding the specific requirements of use-cases from various industry verticals and geographies. VPN-Cubed 2.0 represents a major step forward adding functionality like the new Manager Firewall and API compatibility (more on those later).

As Pat outlined in his User Cloud posts (Part 1 Part 2), cloud computing (of course I'm talking IaaS), is a multi-layer environment with distinct separation of concerns between the physical providers, virtual providers, and the cloud users. VPN-Cubed focuses on the cloud user or cloud tenant. The model for traditional network devices is the big metal boxes we have worked with all these years. On the flip side, virtual networking, driven by the needs of enterprise application topologies, is a new use-case and implementing it takes some real lateral thinking. Virtual networks can be anywhere, anytime and they provide critical control functions for enterprises in the increasingly agile and often anonymous world of virtual/cloud infrastructure. VPN-Cubed 2.0 is the enterprise-ready networking solution for the User Cloud.

What's new in 2.0?
Below are some of the user experience improvements in this release. We have also updated the IPsec subsystem in the Datacenter Connect Editions.

Manager Firewall

We have added firewall capabilities at the Manager level to control traffic into and out of the VPN-Cubed Overlay Network. This adds an additional layer of security and control to your cloud deployments. The Manager Firewall is controlled via the Manager UI using IPTables syntax.

Manager API

The API provides programmatic access to the Manager and the overlay network. Configuration steps previously done via the Manager UI can now be performed via the command line or by script. See the Scriptable Overlay Networks post for more information on how the API can work with Context-Cubed.

The API tool can be downloaded (ZIP TAR) on the VPN-Cubed Edition pages along with documentation (Cloud Only Datacenter Connect).

Increased Access to Logs

Links to the logs is now provided via the UI making it easier for users to perform required monitoring and maintenance.

External Ping

Datacenter Connect Editions now come with an External Ping capability for configurations where a nearly permanent IPsec tunnel is required. The External Ping function sets up a continuous ping from the Manager to a destination behind the datacenter-based extranet device. The ping serves to keep the tunnel up by continually sending tunnel traffic.

Topology Naming

Many of our customers have complex deployments with multiple Managers and multiple overlay networks. Topology naming allows alpha numeric naming of individual topologies and Managers displayed on the Manager UI.

All new features are explained in the updated configuration documentation available for download in each Edition's launch instructions section on the website. Visit the VPN-Cubed homepage to see which Edition is right for your use-case.

"