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# Embracing the Hybrid Cloud: Unlocking Success with Ansible

Containers made runtimes portable; now make your network portable. Discover how Skupper and Ansible automate secure, cross-cloud communication without the headache of complex VPNs or firewalls.

- **Speakers:** [Alex Soto](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@alex-soto)
- **Event:** World Congress 2024
- **Published:** August 20, 2024
- **Duration:** 26:42
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/932-embracing-the-hybrid-cloud-unlocking-success-with-ansible

## Summary

Modern enterprises rely on hybrid cloud architectures, distributing workloads across AWS, GCP, Azure, and on-premises environments to optimize resources and avoid vendor lock-in. However, securely connecting these fragmented clusters typically involves complex, expensive networking solutions like custom VPNs or cloud-specific VPCs that require heavy administrative privileges and deep network expertise.<br><br>To overcome these network bottlenecks, developers can leverage Skupper, an open-source layer 7 service interconnect, combined with the comprehensive automation power of Ansible. Skupper establishes a secure application-level connectivity layer across disparate Kubernetes clusters, completely bypassing the need for complex NAT rules or firewall alterations. By encapsulating the network setup within Ansible playbooks and inventory files, engineering teams can implement infrastructure as code to automatically deploy seamless cross-cloud communication without demanding elevated cluster access or intervention from platform operators.<br><br>An excellent practical application of this pattern is deploying a frontend web service in Google Cloud that transparently queries a PostgreSQL database running in AWS using standard local Kubernetes service configurations. The Skupper proxy routes the traffic seamlessly under the hood while applying mutual TLS (mTLS) encryption out-of-the-box, ensuring continuous data protection. This unified methodology champions autonomous developer agility over rigid network administration. As the speaker highlights, while containers made application runtimes portable, integrating these modern networking tools ensures the realization of true hybrid cloud flexibility, proving that finally, "your network is also portable."

**Keywords:** hybrid cloud architecture, cross-cluster connectivity, kubernetes network automation, ansible playbook deployment, skupper service interconnect, layer 7 application routing, mutual tls encryption, vendor lock-in prevention, infrastructure as code, multi-cloud database routing, developer-controlled networking, vpc configuration alternatives, openshift cluster management, edge device connectivity

## Chapters

1. **The necessity of hybrid cloud architectures** (00:50) — Large enterprises spread workloads across multiple public clouds and on-premise environments to maximize computing resources.
1. **Traditional hybrid cloud connectivity challenges** (02:21) — Public IP networking, manual virtual private networks, and proprietary cloud services introduce severe maintenance burdens and vendor lock-in.
1. **Introducing Skupper for application connectivity** (04:22) — Skupper operates as an abstraction proxy providing secure layer seven networking without requiring complex firewall rule modifications.
1. **How Skupper routes traffic across clusters** (06:45) — Virtual services and proxies tunnel traffic over an AMQP protocol to seamlessly connect disjointed physical data centers.
1. **Configuring Skupper manually via CLI** (11:23) — Developers utilize simple command-line workflows to initialize secure tokens and explicitly expose private database deployments.
1. **Automating Skupper deployments using Ansible** (13:23) — Infrastructure-as-code techniques allow developers to manage large cluster inventories effortlessly through automated deployment playbooks.
1. **Live demo connecting AWS and GCP clusters** (15:05) — An Ansible deployment playbook spins up a backend service on Google Cloud Platform that successfully queries an isolated AWS database.
1. **Key benefits of layer seven network portability** (24:15) — Running layer seven abstraction platforms grants teams developer autonomy and zero-code network portability with built-in encryption.

## Related Moments

- [Connecting Kubernetes clusters across clouds using Skupper proxies](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/432-winning-the-hybrid-cloud) (from "Winning the Hybrid Cloud")
- [Integrating Knative and Skupper for multi-cloud efficiency](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/432-winning-the-hybrid-cloud) (from "Winning the Hybrid Cloud")
- [Configuring Skupper networks in four standard steps](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/883-embracing-the-hybrid-cloud-unlocking-success-with-open-source-technologies) (from "Embracing the Hybrid Cloud: Unlocking Success with Open Source Technologies")
- [Introducing Skupper for layer seven network abstraction](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/883-embracing-the-hybrid-cloud-unlocking-success-with-open-source-technologies) (from "Embracing the Hybrid Cloud: Unlocking Success with Open Source Technologies")
- [Orchestrating application deployments using remote cloud hardware](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/901-multilingual-nlp-pipeline-up-and-running-from-scratch) (from "Multilingual NLP pipeline up and running from scratch")
- [Executing a live multicloud routing demonstration](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/883-embracing-the-hybrid-cloud-unlocking-success-with-open-source-technologies) (from "Embracing the Hybrid Cloud: Unlocking Success with Open Source Technologies")

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