Remote.It Adds Ability for Containers to Share Network Services

Remote.It this week added a Docker Network Jumpbox capability to enable containers to share access to network services via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.

Remote.It CEO Ryo Koyama said the network management platform the company provides via a cloud service provides access to any network service via a single line of code without requiring developers to open ports, configure container networks, gateways, firewalls, security groups, identity access management (IAM) roles or IP allow lists.

Rather than having to spend time planning, maintaining and resolving IP address, subnet, routing table and VLAN configurations, the Remote.It platform makes it simple for developers to programmatically provision networking services residing on any TCP/IP stack regardless of the physical network. This eliminates the need to manage sub-net address collisions or floating IP addresses, noted Koyama. Instead, network access is granted based on the user rather than a specific IP address.

That approach also ensures a zero-trust approach because network access is authenticated simultaneously with compute resources, said Koyama. IT teams can also create virtual collections of endpoints and users using a tagging capability to manage resources as they are brought up and taken down, he added.

While Docker containers have enabled developers to build and deploy applications faster, provisioning network services for containers within most IT environments is still largely archaic, noted Koyama. The Remote.It platform makes it possible to programmatically deploy thousands of compute resources in minutes either on a public cloud or in an on-premises IT environment and reduce mistakes, Koyama said.

It’s not clear whether platforms such as Remote.It will drive the convergence of network operations and the DevOps workflows that are typically used to build container applications. But as the pace at which these applications are being built and deployed continues to accelerate, the process of provisioning networking services has to get faster, too. In general, network management has not kept pace with advances in compute infrastructure that is now routinely provisioned in minutes, said Koyama. One of the primary reasons many IT organizations are not as agile as they could be is that the provisioning of network services remains largely manual. A container can be ripped and replaced in a matter of minutes, but if it needs to access additional networking services, the amount of time required to complete that task is still often measured in hours, sometimes days.

Arguably, the level of manual effort conspires to slow down the rate at which cloud-native applications are being built and deployed. It’s not clear whether the rise of cloud-native applications will drive a realignment of how networks are managed within IT organizations. But with the rise of application networking as a distinct discipline, it may be only a matter of time before network operations teams are focused mainly on managing physical switches and routers while the overlay is managed by a centralized DevOps or platform engineering team.

Mike Vizard

Mike Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist with over 25 years of experience. He also contributed to IT Business Edge, Channel Insider, Baseline and a variety of other IT titles. Previously, Vizard was the editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise as well as Editor-in-Chief for CRN and InfoWorld.

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