Techniques for a initializing a certificates service in a reduced footprint data center

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for implementing a certificates service in a reduced footprint data center. A certificates service data plane can be implemented on a computing device of a reduced footprint data center. The certificates service data plane can include a security certificate usable to establish a secure communication channel. The secure communication channel can be established with a service executing in a virtual cloud network of the reduced footprint data center. The service can include a corresponding security certificate to the security certificate. The certificates service data plane can receive a certificate signing request from the service using the secure communication channel and issue a signed certificate to the service using the secure communication channel.

Description

PATENT Attorney Docket No.: 088325-1481553 (429250PC) Client Reference No.: ORC24138733-WO-PCT-2 (IaaS #728.15) TECHNIQUES FOR A INITIALIZING A CERTIFICATES SERVICE IN A REDUCED FOOTPRINT DATA CENTER CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This international application claims priority to and the benefit of the following applications, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes: 1. U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63 / 564,195, filed on March 12, 2024, entitled "SCALABLE FOOTPRINT FOR DEDICATED CLOUD TECHNIQUES"; 2. U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63 / 568,061, filed on March 21, 2024, entitled "NETWORKING FOR A SCALABLE DEDICATED CLOUD FOOTPRINT"; 3. U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63 / 568,234, filed on March 21, 2024, entitled "SCALABLE FOOTPRINT FOR DEDICATED CLOUD TECHNIQUES"; 4. U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63 / 633,966, filed on April 15, 2024, entitled "SCALABLE FOOTPRINT FOR DEDICATED CLOUD TECHNIQUES"; 5. U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63 / 637,691, filed on April 23, 2024, entitled "SCALABLE FOOTPRINT FOR DEDICATED CLOUD TECHNIQUES"; 6. U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63 / 660,377, filed on June 14, 2024, entitled "DRCC ARCHITECTURE UPDATE"; 7. U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63 / 681,059, filed on August 8, 2024, entitled "TECHNIQUES FOR A CERTIFICATES SERVICE IN AN OVERLAY NETWORK"; and 8. U.S. Non-provisional Patent Application No.19 / 075,727, filed on March 10, 2025, entitled "TECHNIQUES FOR A INITIALIZING A CERTIFICATES SERVICE IN A REDUCED FOOTPRINT DATA CENTER." FIELD

[0002] This disclosure is generally concerned with data centers. More specifically, this disclosure relates to data centers in which a Certificates service is initialized using secure communication channels.BACKGROUND

[0003] Cloud service providers (CSPs) can offer computing infrastructure for customers using resources in several data centers. As cloud computing demand increases, CSPs can improve the availability of cloud resources by scaling the data centers. However, scaling can result in large data center footprints with a significant number of computing devices requiring a commensurate amount of resources to operate as well as reserving significant computing resources for the effective management of the cloud resources themselves. BRIEF SUMMARY

[0004] Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to cloud computing networks. More particularly, the present disclosure describes architectures, infrastructure, and related techniques for implementing a block storage service in a reduced footprint data center. A typical CSP may provide cloud services to multiple customers. Each customer may have the ability to customize and configure the infrastructure provisioned to support their allocated cloud resources. To manage the infrastructure provisioning for multiple customers, the CSP may reserve computing resources within a data center to provide certain "core" services to both customers and to other services operated by the CSP. For example, services like block storage, object storage, and identity and access management are implemented within a "service enclave" of the data center. The service enclave may connect via a substrate network of computing devices (virtual machines and / or bare metal instances) hosted within the data center. The substrate network may be a part of the "underlay network" of the data center, which includes the physical network connecting bare metal devices, smart network interface cards (SmartNICs) of the computing devices. By contrast, CSP customers have infrastructure provisioned in an "overlay network" comprising one or more VCNs of virtualized environments to provide resources for the customer (e.g., compute, storage, etc.).

[0005] The service enclave exists on dedicated hardware within the data center. Because of this, the service hosted within the service enclave are difficult to scale. Whereas additional racks and servers can be implemented within the data center to expand the resources available to CSP customers, the dedicated computing resources for the service enclave are typically of a fixed size that depends on the largest predicted size of the data center. Expanding the service enclave can require a complicated addition of computing resources that may impact the availability of thecore services to customers. Additionally, unused resources within the service enclave (e.g., if the service enclave is sized too large for the customer demand from the data center) cannot be easily made available to the customers, since the service enclave does not typically allow network access from the customer overlay network.

[0006] Even as the demand for cloud services grows, CSPs may want to deploy data centers to meet that demand that initially have the smallest physical footprint possible. Such a footprint can improve the ease of both deploying the physical components and configuring the initial infrastructure while still allowing the data center to scale to meet customer demand. In the reduced footprint, rather than dedicate a portion of the computing hardware to providing the service enclave, the "core services" that are hosted in the service enclave can instead be implemented in the overlay network. By doing so, the core services can be scaled as the data center footprint expands. The computing devices used to construct the reduced footprint data center can be homogenized, improving the initial configuration and easing the expansion of the footprint when additional, homogeneous devices are added. In addition, by eliminating the substrate network, flexible overlay network shapes are made available for both CSP core services and customers.

[0007] One service that can be moved to the Overlay network is a public key infrastructure (PKI) service. The PKI service may support authorization and authentication operations for entities within the Substrate network, including certificates to establish TLS channels for Substrate hosts, including bare metal hosts and agents executing on other Substrate devices like SmartNICs and integrated lights out managers (ILOMs). An ILOM can be a processor or processing platform integrated with bare metal hosts in a data center that can provide functionality for managing and monitoring the hosts remotely in cases where the general functionality of the host may be impaired (e.g., fault occurrence). The PKI service can include one or more root certificate authorities (CAs) for signing certificate requests from the hosts that utilize PKI service. Another related service that can be moved to the Overlay network is a Certificates service that can also provide certificates for TLS and private CAs for customers of the CSP. For example, a Certificates service may provide authorization / authentication functionality for TLS / mTLS connections for other CSP services like a load balancer as a service (LBaaS). The PKI service and Certificates service can function in conjunction with both anIdentity service including an Identity data plane (IDDP) implemented in the Overlay network and an Identity and Access Management service (IAM) that is implemented

[0008] Because of the overlapping functionality of the PKI service and the Certificates service, in a reduced footprint data center the services in the Overlay network may merge to provide authorization / authentication and certificates services for both of the use cases described above. However, moving the Certificates service and PKI service to the Overlay network can create a circular dependency with IDDP and IAM. For example, when the IDDP or IAM services are first provisioned in a reduced footprint data center, the Certificates service in the Overlay may not yet be deployed to provide certificate functionality for connections with IDDP or IAM, including connections between IDDP or IAM and the Certificates data plane to handle certificates requests. In addition, some functionality will remain in the Substrate, including SmartNIC and ILOM agents, while other core services may need authorization using Certificates to support mTLS for connections with a Substrate Access VCN.

[0009] Embodiments described herein relate to methods, systems, and computer-readable media that implement a Certificates service data plane in an Overlay network of a reduced footprint data center and provide functionality for breaking the circular dependencies between the Certificates service and other services implemented in the reduced footprint data center. A method can include implementing a certificates service data plane on a computing device of the reduced footprint data center and receiving, at the certificates service data plane from an agent executing on an additional computing device communicatively connected to the computing device, a certificates signing request. The certificates signing request can include identity information corresponding to an identity of the agent. The method can also include the certificates service data plane obtaining identity validation information. The certificates service data plane can validate the identity of the agent by at least comparing the identity information with the identity validation information. The certificates service data plane can issue a signed certificate to the agent.

[0010] Another embodiment is directed to a compute system including one or more processors and one or more memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to perform the method described above.

[0011] Yet another embodiment is directed to a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to perform the method described above. In addition, embodiments may be implemented by using a computer program product, comprising computer program / instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform any of the methods described in the disclosure.

[0012] Additional aspects of the disclosure include are provided in the following examples:

[0013] Example 1: A method including implementing a certificates service data plane on a computing device of a reduced footprint data center; receiving, at the certificates service data plane from an agent executing on an additional computing device communicatively connected to the computing device, a certificates signing request, the certificates signing request including identity information corresponding to an identity of the agent; obtaining, by the certificates service data plane, identity validation information; validating, by the certificates service data plane, the identity of the agent by at least comparing the identity information with the identity validation information; and issuing, by the certificates service data plane to the agent, a signed certificate.

[0014] Example 1.1: The method of Example 1, wherein the additional computing device comprises a smart network interface card.

[0015] Example 1.2: The method of Example 1.1, wherein the smart network interface card is connected to a server device of the reduced footprint data center.

[0016] Example 1.3: The method of Example 1, wherein the additional computing device comprises an integrated lights out manager.

[0017] Example 1.4: The method of Example 1, wherein obtaining the identity validation information comprises obtaining the identity validation information from a trusted platform module connected to the computing device.

[0018] Example 1.5: The method of Example 1.4, wherein the identity validation information is provisioned on the trusted platform module during a bootstrapping operation of the reduced footprint data center.

[0019] Example 1.6: The method of Example 1.4, wherein the identity validation information comprises a root certificate corresponding to a root certificate authority.

[0020] Example 2: A computing system including one or more processors, and one or more memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to perform any of the methods of Examples 1-1.6 above.

[0021] Example 3: non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system , cause the computing system to perform any of the methods of Examples 1-1.6 above. In addition, embodiments may be implemented by using a computer program product, comprising computer program / instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the methods of Examples 1-1.6. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0022] FIG.1 is a block diagram illustrating an example system architecture of a reduced footprint data center including an initialization device, according to some embodiments.

[0023] FIG.2A is a block diagram illustrating a conventional data center including a plurality of server racks reserved for particular functionality.

[0024] FIG.2B is a block diagram illustrating a reduced footprint data center in which services are in an overlay network, according to some embodiments.

[0025] FIG.3 is a block diagram illustrating the expansion of a reduced footprint data center, according to some embodiments.

[0026] FIG.4 is a block diagram illustrating networking connections between an overlay network and an underlay network in a reduced footprint data center, according to some embodiments.

[0027] FIG.5 is a block diagram illustrating an example architecture of an overlay network providing a certificates service in a reduced footprint data center, according to some embodiments.

[0028] FIG.6 is a block diagram illustrating an example architecture of a certificates service, according to some embodiments.

[0029] FIG.7 is a flow diagram of an example process for implementing a certificates service in an overlay network of a reduced footprint data center, according to some embodiments.

[0030] FIG.8 is a flow diagram of an example process for initializing a certificates service in a reduced footprint data center, according to some embodiments.

[0031] FIG.9 is a block diagram illustrating one pattern for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system, according to at least one embodiment.

[0032] FIG.10 is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system, according to at least one embodiment.

[0033] FIG.11 is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system, according to at least one embodiment.

[0034] FIG.12 is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system, according to at least one embodiment.

[0035] FIG.13 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system, according to at least one embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] The adoption of cloud services has seen a rapid uptick in recent times. Various types of cloud services are now provided by various different cloud service providers (CSPs). The term cloud service is generally used to refer to a service or functionality that is made available by a CSP to users or customers on demand (e.g., via a subscription model) using systems and infrastructure (cloud infrastructure) provided by the CSP. Typically, the servers and systems that make up the CSP's infrastructure and which is used to provide a cloud service to a customer are separate from the customer's own on-premises servers and systems. Customers can thus avail themselves of cloud services provided by the CSP without having to purchase separate hardware and software resources for the services. Cloud services are designed to provide a subscribing customer easy, scalable, and on-demand access to applications and computing resources without the customer having to invest in procuring the infrastructure that is used for providing the services or functions. Various different types or models of cloud services may be offered such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS),and others. A customer can subscribe to one or more cloud services provided by a CSP. The customer can be any entity such as an individual, an organization, an enterprise, and the like.

[0037] As indicated above, a CSP is responsible for providing the infrastructure and resources that are used for providing cloud services to subscribing customers. The resources provided by the CSP can include both hardware and software resources. These resources can include, for example, compute resources (e.g., virtual machines, containers, applications, processors), memory resources (e.g., databases, data stores), networking resources (e.g., routers, host machines, load balancers), identity, and other resources. In certain implementations, the resources provided by a CSP for providing a set of cloud services CSP are organized into data centers. A data center may be configured to provide a particular set of cloud services. The CSP is responsible for equipping the data center with infrastructure and resources that are used to provide that particular set of cloud services. A CSP may build one or more data centers.

[0038] The following definitions are useful for portions of a data center built by a CSP:

[0039] Underlay Network - The physical network that sits below the Overlay Network and virtual cloud networks (VCNs) therein. The existing Substrate network is a portion of the Underlay Network. ILOM ports, management and SmartNIC substrate addresses are also part of the underlay network.

[0040] Overlay Network – The network environment that is available for use by executing services and applications, including virtualization environments, that provide the functionality of the data center to both customers and the CSP. The Overlay Network can include VCN(s), virtualization environments, and networking connections from these VCNs in the reduced footprint data center to other cloud computing services of the CSP (e.g., services provided in other data center environments). Specific details about network virtualization and VCNs as part of Infrastructure as a Service are provided below with respect to FIGS.9-13.

[0041] Substrate Network - A portion of the Underlay Network that contains host devices (e.g., bare metal computing devices and / or VMs) running only Substrate Services. In existing environments these host devices may not have SmartNICs. The host devices may be managed by service teams responsible for one or more of the Substrate Services.

[0042] Substrate Services - The list of services that currently run in the Substrate Network, while most of these run in Service Enclave (Block Storage, Object Storage, Identity Service etc.) some substrate service live outside of the service enclave. Currently substrate services have a mix of services that must talk to the underlay network (e.g. Network Monitoring) and services that due to historical reasons reside in service enclave (e.g. Object Storage). With the elimination of dedicated substrate host, we expect substrate services to converge into only services that must communicate with the underlay network.

[0043] SmartNIC – A computing component that combines a network interface card with additional functionality for network virtualization to create layers of network abstraction that can be run on top of the physical networking components (e.g., the Underlay Network). The SmartNIC can include processors and memory that can perform computing operations to provide the additional functionality.

[0044] Integrated lights out managers (ILOMs) - An ILOM can be a processor or processing platform integrated with bare metal hosts in a data center that can provide functionality for managing and monitoring the hosts remotely in cases where the general functionality of the host may be impaired (e.g., fault occurrence).

[0045] BIOS Device(s) – A computing device or a plurality of computing devices on a server rack in the reduced footprint data center. The BIOS Device(s) may be designed to enable independent and resilient operations during various boot scenarios and network disruptions. The BIOS Device(s) may be configured to facilitate the initial boot processes for the reduced footprint data center, provide essential services during recovery, and ensure the region's stability, especially in power-constrained environments. The BIOS Device hosts a range of functions, all of which can allow the autonomous operation of the region. For example, these functions can include DNS resolution, NTP synchronization, DHCP / ZTP configuration, and various security and provisioning services. By offering these capabilities, the BIOS Device ensures that the rack can bootstrap itself, recover from power or network- related events, and maintain essential connectivity and management functions without relying on external resources. For example, each server rack can have one BIOS device, or can have two or three BIOS devices. In various embodiments, the BIOS device can havesimilar hardware specifications (e.g., number of processors, amount of memory, amount of attached storage devices) as other server devices on the rack.

[0046] A reduced footprint data center can have a new architecture for a region in which the initial network footprint is as small as feasible (e.g., six racks, four racks, and possibly even a single rack of server devices) while still providing core cloud services and scalability for customer demands. In particular, a reduced footprint data center may not segregate resources for the Service Enclave (SE) from the Customer Enclave (CE). Instead, the Butterfly region will place SE services (e.g., Block Storage, Object Storage, Identity), which primarily operate in a Substrate Network, into an Overlay Network. This means that a reduced footprint data center may not have dedicated hosts for the Substrate Network, but can require particular solutions for connectivity with the Substrate services now in the Overlay. In addition, a small portion of fundamental boot services is needed to ensure initial route configuration for the services in the Overlay during startup and / or recovery. Since the "core services" now operate in the Overlay network, services like Block Storage can have circular dependencies with other services like Compute. For example, Compute uses Block Storage to provide boot volumes for the VMs on which Block Storage operates, and Block Storage uses a Device Encryption Key service to decrypt the boot volumes that uses Compute for its VMs.

[0047] FIGS.1-4 provide an overview of the concepts embodied by a reduced footprint data center.

[0048] FIG.1 is a block diagram illustrating an example system architecture of a reduced footprint data center 100 including an initialization device 102. As shown in FIG.1, the reduced footprint data center 100 can include six racks of server devices. The racks may be referred to as "Butterfly" racks. The reduced footprint data center 100 can include Butterfly rack 110, Butterfly rack 120, Butterfly rack 130, Butterfly rack 140, Butterfly rack 150, and Butterfly rack 160. In some embodiments, the racks can be identical. For example, Butterfly rack 110 can include the same number of computing and / or networking devices as each other Butterfly rack 120-160.

[0049] Butterfly rack 110 can include two top-of-rack (TOR) switches 106, 108. The TOR switches 106, 108 can each include one or more networking switches configured to providenetwork communication between the server devices and other computing devices within Butterfly rack 110 as well as one or more networking connections to the other Butterfly racks 120-160 and or other networks including customer network 114.

[0050] The Butterfly rack 110 can also include one or more BIOS device(s) 102. The BIOS device can be a server device configured to execute one or more processes to provide a set of "core services" within the reduced footprint data center 100 during startup / boot processes. The BIOS device(s) 102 can configure one or more components of the reduced footprint data center 100 during startup. For example, the BIOS device(s) 102 can send network configuration information to a networking device within the Butterfly racks 110-160. The networking device can be a SmartNIC attached to a server device within the Butterfly racks 110-160. As another example, the BIOS device(s) 102 can send network configuration information to a substrate access VCN. The substrate access VCN can be deployed to one or more hosts within the reduced footprint data center 100. For example, VMs executing in the Butterfly racks 110-160 can be configured to be a substrate access VCN. The substrate access VCN can be configured to provide networking routes between one or more other VCNs (e.g., customer VCNs) and the networking devices (e.g., SmartNICs) and other networking components of the substrate services that now execute in their own VCN in the Overlay.

[0051] In some embodiments, the BIOS device(s) 102 can also be configured to host one or more services like a key exchange service (KeS), a device encryption key (DEK) service, or other core services. In addition, the BIOS device(s) 102 can include boot volumes for VMs that are started on host devices in the reduced footprint data center 100. For example, BIOS device(s) 102 can provide boot volumes for VMs on hypervisors hosted on server device(s) 104.

[0052] The Butterfly rack 110 can include one or more additional server device(s) 104. The server device(s) 104 can each include one or more processors and one or more memories that together can store and execute instructions for implementing computing services as described herein, including, for example, compute, storage, VMs, CSP services, customer services and / or applications, and the like. As depicted in FIG.1, each of the Butterfly racks 110-160 can include an identical complement of server device(s) and TORs. In some embodiments, each of the Butterfly racks 110-160 can include a BIOS device, although the techniques described herein can be implemented using only a single BIOS device within the reduced footprint data center 100.Each server device of the server device(s) 104 can include a trusted platform module (TPM). The TPM on each device can be a microcontroller or other processor (or multiple processors) along with storage for performing cryptographical operations like hashing, encryption / decryption, key and key pair generation, and key storage. The TPM may generally conform to a standard characterizing such devices, for example, ISO / IEC 11889.

[0053] The reduced footprint data center 100 can also include a networking rack 112. The networking rack 112 can include one or more networking devices including switches, gateways, routers, and the like for communicatively coupling the Butterfly racks 110-160 to each other and to customer network 114. The customer network 114 can include an on-premises network connected to the reduced footprint data center 100. In some embodiments, the customer network 114 can provide network connectivity to a public network, including the Internet. As described below with respect to FIG. 2, the networking rack 112 may not be part of an initial "Small" reduced footprint data center and may be added to support the scaling of the reduced footprint data center 100.

[0054] FIG.2A is a block diagram illustrating a conventional data center 200 including a plurality of server racks reserved for particular functionality. In a conventional data center 200, the plurality of server racks can each include multiple server devices as well as networking equipment (e.g., TORs) and power supply and distribution equipment. The conventional data center 200 shown in FIG.2A can have a standard footprint of 13 server racks as shown, although additional server racks are possible in larger data centers.

[0055] To provide networking isolation between customer data and CSP data for CSP services executing in the conventional data center 200, a portion of the server racks can be reserved as a service enclave, so that the computing devices on those server racks can host and provide CSP services within the conventional data center 200 without also hosting customer data. As shown in FIG.2A, server racks 1-4 may be included as service enclave racks 202.

[0056] Similarly, a portion of the server racks can be provided as a customer enclave, so that the computing devices on those server racks can host customer services, applications,and associated customer data. Racks 5-7 can be part of the customer enclave racks 204 within conventional data center 200.

[0057] The isolation between the service enclave and the customer enclave can be enforced by software-defined perimeters that define edge devices and / or software within the enclave as distinguished from hardware / software elements outside of the enclave. Access into and out of each enclave may be controlled, monitored, and / or policy driven. For example, access to the service enclave may be based on authorization, limited to authorized clients of the CSP. Such access may be based on one or more credentials provided to the enclave.

[0058] The conventional data center 200 can also include database racks 206 (racks 8-9) and networking racks 208 (racks 10-13). The database racks 206 can include computing devices and storage devices that provide storage and management for databases, data stores, object storage, and similar data persistence techniques within the conventional data center 200. The networking racks 208 can include networking devices that provide connectivity to the computing devices within conventional data center 200 and to other networks (e.g., customer networks, the internet, etc.).

[0059] FIG.2B is a block diagram illustrating a reduced footprint data center 210 in which services are in an overlay network, according to some embodiments. The reduced footprint data center 210 may be an example of reduced footprint data center 100 of FIG.1, including six Butterfly racks, each having a plurality of server devices, networking devices, and power distribution devices.

[0060] Unlike the conventional data center 200, in which particular server racks are reserved as service enclave racks 202 and customer enclave racks 204, the reduced footprint data center 210 can have an Overlay network 212 that spans computing devices in all of the server racks. For example, server devices on Butterfly Rack 1 and Butterfly Rack 6 can host VMs for a VCN in the Overlay network 212. The Overlay network 212 can then include both core services 214 and customer services 216. The core services 214 can include one or more VCNs for the CSP services that would be hosted within the Service Enclave of conventional data center 200 (e.g., on service enclave racks 202). In the reduced footprint data center 210,the core services 214 can exist in the overlay network 212 on any one or more of the server devices within Butterfly racks. Similarly, customer services 216 can exist in the overlay network 212 on host devices on any of the Butterfly racks. In some embodiments the core services 214 may be hosted on specific devices of the reduced footprint data center. For example, the core services 214 may be hosted on Butterfly racks 1-3, while the customer services 216 may be hosted on Butterfly racks 4-6. In other embodiments, the core services 214 and the customer services 216 may be hosted on any of the Butterfly racks, as depicted in FIG.2B.

[0061] FIG.3 is a block diagram illustrating the expansion of a reduced footprint data center 300, according to some embodiments. The reduced footprint data center 300 can include a plurality of reduced footprint server racks 302. Each of the plurality of reduced footprint server racks 302 can be an example of one of the Butterfly racks 110-160 described above with respect to FIG.1.

[0062] The plurality of reduced footprint server racks 302 can be connected in a ring network 304 using directional network connection between each seat of TOR switches on each of the server racks. For example, a first TOR switch at each rack can be connected to a first TOR switch of two adjacent server racks, such that data communication from the server rack flows in one direction. A second TOR switch at each rack can be connected to a second TOR switch of two adjacent server racks, providing data communication between the racks in the opposite direction. The first TOR switch and the second TOR switch at each rack can be connected to one another and to each server device on the rack, providing multiple, redundant network paths from any server device of any one server rack to another server device on another server rack. The ring network 304 can therefore allow low latency and highly available network connections between resources hosted on any computing device (e.g., server device) in the plurality of reduced footprint server racks 302.

[0063] To scale the reduced footprint data center 300 from the initial footprint provided by reduced footprint server racks 302, additional server racks can be connected to the reduced footprint server racks 302. A networking rack 306 can be implemented at the reduced footprint data center 300. The networking rack 306 can be an example of networking rack112 described above with respect to FIG.1. The networking rack 306 can include a plurality of networking ports that can be used to connect to one or more of the plurality of reduced footprint server racks. For example, the networking rack 306 can be connected to a first reduced footprint server rack using connection 308. The networking rack 306 can be, for example, a two chassis system having 4 LCs each with 34x400G ports for a total of 384x100G links in each chassis.

[0064] Once the networking rack 306 has been implemented and connected, the additional server racks 310 can be installed in the reduced footprint data center 300. The additional server racks 310 can be different from the reduced footprint server racks of the plurality of reduced footprint server racks 302. For example, the additional server racks 310 can include a different number of server devices, with each server device including a different amount of computing and / or storage resources (e.g., processors, processing cores, dynamic memory, non-volatile storage, etc.). Once the additional server racks 310 have been connected to the networking rack 306, a cloud service hosted on the plurality of reduced footprint server racks 302 can be expanded to utilize the computing resources of the additional server racks 310. As one example, a cloud service (e.g., Compute) hosted in the plurality of reduced footprint server racks 302 can have a portion of its data plane provisioned on one of the server devices of the additional server racks 310, thereby allowing the Compute service to instantiate VMs on the additional server racks 310.

[0065] FIG.4 is a block diagram illustrating an example network architecture of networking connections between one or more VCNs (substrate service VCNs) in an Overlay network 402 and the Underlay network 422 in a reduced footprint data center 400, according to some embodiments. The reduced footprint data center 400 can be an example of other reduced footprint data centers described herein, including reduced footprint data center 100 of FIG.1.

[0066] In the reduced footprint data center 400, the CSP services that were previously implemented in the SE (e.g., hosted on service enclave racks 202 of FIG.2) can now execute in one or more substrate service VCNs 404-408. For example, substrate service VCN-1404 can be a VCN for a Compute service control plane, substrate service VCN-2406 can be aVCN for a PKI service, and substrate service VCN-N 408 can be a VCN for a Block Storage service. SE service control and data planes can be separated into different VCNs. The substrate service VCNs 404-408 can exist in the Overlay network 402. The Overlay network 402 can also include customer VCN(s) 416, which can be limited in their connectivity to the Underlay network 422.

[0067] Each substrate service VCN can have its own route table that defines the network traffic routing rules for forwarding network traffic within the network of the reduced footprint data center 400. As shown in FIG.4, substrate service VCN-1 can have VCN-1 route table 410, substrate service VCN-2 can have VCN-2 route table 412, and substrate service VCN-N 408 can have VCN-N route table 414. The routing information of each of the substrate service VCNs 404-408 can be initially configured when the reduced footprint data center 400 is first built so that network traffic to / from the core SE services can be routed between the Overlay network 402 and the Underlay network 422.

[0068] The Underlay network 422 can include various devices and other networking endpoints that are connected via the physical networking components of the reduced footprint data center 400. As shown in FIG.4, the Underlay network 422 can include, without limitation, ILOM(s) 424, Bastions 426, NTP server(s) 428, BIOS services 430, and VNIC(s) 432. The ILOM(s) 424 can be computing devices and network targets that provide access to the server devices of reduced footprint data center 400 for both in-band and out-of- band management. For example, the ILOM(s) 424 can allow for remote management of the associated server devices within the server racks of reduced footprint data center 400 that is separate from the networking pathways defined for the region. The Bastions 426 can be services executing on the server devices of the reduced footprint data center 400 that provide network access via the Underlay network 422 and do not have public network addresses. The Bastions 426 can provide remote access to computing resources within the reduced footprint data center 400 in conjunction with a Bastion service that operates on the Underlay network 422. The Bastion service may be an SE service that is not moved to the Overlay network 402 in the reduced footprint data center 400. Similarly, network time protocol (NTP) servicers 428 may operate in the Underlay network 422 to provide accurate timing to devices andservices within the reduced footprint data center 400. BIOS services 430 can include services that are hosted on the one or more initialization devices on the server racks in the reduced footprint data center 400. For example, BIOS services 430 can include a key encryption service usable to encrypt / decrypt data on the server devices of reduced footprint data center 400 during the initial boot process. As another example, the BIOS services 430 can include a network configuration service that can provide the initial network configuration for devices within the reduced footprint data center 400. The VNIC(s) 432 can include network interfaces defined by SmartNICs connected to the server devices within the reduced footprint data center 400.

[0069] With SE services moved from to the Overlay network 402, the SE services may still need network connectivity with the Underlay network 422 to properly function. To provide this connectivity, a substrate access VCN 418 can be implemented within the reduced footprint data center 400. The substrate access VCN 418 can include a dynamic routing gateway (DRG) that allows communication between the substrate service VCNs 404-408 and the Underlay network 422. The substrate access VCN 418 can then have a DRG route table 420 that can define a single route rule for reaching the Underlay network 422 from the substrate service VCNs 404-408.

[0070] To avoid circular dependencies when the reduced footprint data center 400 is first built or recovers from a shutdown event, an initialization device (e.g., BIOS device 102 of FIG.1) can be used to configure the network addresses and routes for a substrate access VCN 418, a dynamic route gateway within the substrate access VCN 418, and / or one or more SmartNICs of the Underlay network 422. When the server devices of each reduced footprint data center 400 server racks are booted, the substrate access VCN 418 can be deployed to communicatively connect the one or more substrate service VCNs 404-408 with the Underlay network 422. The initialization device can send network configuration information to the substrate access VCN 418 to configure the DRG route table 420 to provide initial network addresses (e.g., IP addresses) for each endpoint of the substrate service VCNs 404-408 in the Overlay network 402 until a DHCP service and other networking services are available in their respective substrate service VCNs.

[0071] In addition, the initialization device can send networking configuration information to define one or more static routes for the dynamic routing gateway as part of the DRG routing table 420. The static routes can characterize a networking connection between the Underlay network 422, including a SmartNIC connected to each server device of the reduced footprint data center (e.g., server device(s) 104 of FIG.1), and each substrate service VCN 404-408.

[0072] Finally, the initialization device can send network configuration information to each of the SmartNICs to provide each SmartNIC a network address (e.g., a network address for the SmartNICs' endpoints in the Underlay network 422). Configuring each of these components of the reduced footprint data center can be done in response to the initialization device receiving indications that the corresponding component has been brought up to an active state (e.g., SmartNIC powered on and reachable over the Underlay network 422, substrate access VCN 418 deployed to one or more hosts within the reduced footprint data center 400, etc.). Certificates Service in Overlay Network

[0073] One service that can be moved to the Overlay network is a public key infrastructure (PKI) service. The PKI service may support authorization and authentication operations for entities within the Substrate network, including certificates to establish TLS channels for Substrate hosts, including bare metal hosts and agents executing on other Substrate devices like SmartNICs and integrated lights out managers (ILOMs). An ILOM can be a processor or processing platform integrated with bare metal hosts in a data center that can provide functionality for managing and monitoring the hosts remotely in cases where the general functionality of the host may be impaired (e.g., fault occurrence). The PKI service can include one or more root certificate authorities (CAs) for signing certificate requests from the hosts that utilize PKI service. Another related service that can be moved to the Overlay network is a Certificates service that can also provide certificates for TLS and private CAs for customers of the CSP. For example, a Certificates service may provide authorization / authentication functionality for TLS / mTLS connections for other CSP services like a load balancer as a service (LBaaS). The PKI service and Certificates service can function in conjunction with both anIdentity service including an Identity data plane (IDDP) implemented in the Overlay network and an Identity and Access Management service (IAM) that is implemented

[0074] Because of the overlapping functionality of the PKI service and the Certificates service, in a reduced footprint data center the services in the Overlay network may merge to provide authorization / authentication and certificates services for both of the use cases described above. However, moving the Certificates service and PKI service to the Overlay network can create a circular dependency with IDDP and IAM. For example, when the IDDP or IAM services are first provisioned in a reduced footprint data center, the Certificates service in the Overlay may not yet be deployed to provide certificate functionality for connections with IDDP or IAM, including connections between IDDP or IAM and the Certificates data plane to handle certificates requests. In addition, some functionality will remain in the Substrate, including SmartNIC and ILOM agents, while other core services may need authorization using Certificates to support mTLS for connections with a Substrate Access VCN.

[0075] To break the circular dependencies noted above and to provide secured connectivity for services now in the overlay, the merged Certificates service can implement ephemeral certificates that can be issued by the Certificates data plane without relying on Certificates control plane. To support the services that remain in the Underlay network like SmartNIC and ILOM agents, a root CA can be added to Certificates service with ephemeral certificates enabled. In a conventional certificates service, certificates are provisioned via the Certificates control plane and retrieved from the Certificates data plane. With ephemeral certificates, entities in the Overlay network, including core services, can obtain certificates directly from the Certificates data plane. Agents on SmartNICs and / or ILOMs can be configured to call Certificates data plane to get certificates for corresponding instances. The Certificates data plane can verify the instance identity using cryptographically secured information on, for example, a trusted platform module (TPM). Since an Identity service may not be available, accessing authentication / authorization information on a TPM can allow the Certificates service to verify the instance identity before issuing a certificate to the agent on the SmartNIC or ILOM.

[0076] For core services now operating in the Overlay network, including Identity data plane, the core services can call Certificates data plane using mTLS. The mTLS connection can be established with an mTLS certificate that is initially provisioned with the core services andCertificates service when they are first deployed in the reduced footprint data center. For example, a bootstrap environment may be used to provision infrastructure components and deploy software for the services when first initializing the reduced footprint data center. At this time, the services can be provisioned with an mTLS certificate that can be used for authentication / authorization based on the mTLS connection used to make a certificate signing request.

[0077] Numerous advantages can be realized by removing services from the Substrate. Services teams can eliminate duplicated work (e.g., networking configuration for Underlay and Overlay connectivity), a CSP can completely eliminate some services, compute and storage capacity becomes fungible across all services in the Overlay, and service connectivity is greatly simplified. Services teams can be agnostic about the configuration of their services. If the hosts are provisioned to communicate with the Substrate Access VCN, then the services function as any other customer service. Importantly, a reduced footprint data center does not dedicate a significant fraction of its computing resources to CSP services from the beginning in an unchangeable way. If the CSP services can be scaled down to meet customer needs, the freed resources can be provided to the customer without the need for a physical scale-up. In a complementary way, CSP services can also scale-up in the same way as customer services, since the CSP services now reside in the CE Overlay network. In the particular case of a Certificates service, the service provides functionality in a unified way in the Overlay network without bare- metal resources devoted to PKI for the Substrate. Doing so allows for the implementation of Certificates on the reduced Butterfly footprint.

[0078] FIG.5 is a block diagram illustrating an example architecture of an overlay network 502 providing a certificates service in a reduced footprint data center 500, according to some embodiments. The certificates service can include a certificates control plane 508 and a certificates data plane 506. The certificates data plane 506 can be hosted in a certificates VCN 510 that is communicatively connected to a substrate access VCN 512. The certificates VCN 510 can be an example of the substrate services VCNs 404-408 described above with respect to FIG. 4, while the substrate access VCN 512 can be an example of substrate access VCN 418 of FIG. 4. Additional details about VCNs within a data center providing infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is provided below with respect to FIGS. 9-13.

[0079] The certificates service can include root CAs and issue certificates to requesting entities within the reduced footprint data center, including customers 514, services like KMS 518, identity data plane (IDDP) 522, secrets service 526, and LBaaS 530, as well as entities in the substrate network 504 like agent 542 of SmartNIC(s) 540 and agent 546 of ILOM(s) 544. The certificates service can issue certificates in response to certificate signing requests (CSRs) using the root CAs.

[0080] The entities that remain in the substrate network 504 in the reduced footprint data center 500 can send certificate signing requests (CSRs) to certificates DP 506. When issuing certificates to these entities, certificates DP 506 can be configured to use ephemeral certificates that do not require initial provisioning using certificates CP 508. Instead, certificates DP 506 can issue the certificate directly. To authenticate the identity of the entity (e.g., an instance corresponding to agent 542 on SmartNIC(s) 540 or to agent 546 on ILOM(s) 544), the certificates CP 506 can obtain identity information (e.g., a cryptographic key stored in a TPM) for the agent (e.g., agent 542 or agent 546). For example, the identity information can be a cryptographic hash of identity information corresponding to the agent. The identity information can be stored in the TPM as part of an initial configuration of the bare metal host devices of the reduced footprint data center 500 when first building the reduced footprint data center 500. By using the TPM certificate authentication 550, the certificates DP 506 can confirm the identity of the requesting agent without relying on IDDP 522 or having information provisioned by certificates CP 508. The certificates DP 506 can be provisioned with the root CA for the instances corresponding to the agents 542, 546 so that the issued certificates establish a chain of trust for the agents 542, 546.

[0081] As depicted in FIG.5, services operating in the overlay network 502 can each be hosted in their own VCN. For example, KMS 518 can be hosted in KMS VCN 516, IDDP 522 can be hosted in IDDP VCN 520, secrets service 526 can be hosted in secrets VCN 524, and LBaaS 530 can be hosted in LBaaS VCN 528. After the services are provisioned in the reduced footprint data center 500, the services can request certificates that are usable for authentication with other services. However, when IDDP 522 is first provisioned in the reduced footprint data center 500, certificates service may not be able to call IDDP 522 when authenticating a CSR from another service. To provide authentication, the requesting service can establish an mTLS connection withcertificates DP 506 (as shown by mTLS certificate authentication 552). To establish the mTLS connection, certificates DP 506 and each of the core services configured to use mTLS certificate authentication 552 can be provisioned with corresponding mTLS certificates. For example, during building of the reduced footprint data center 500, a bootstrapping environment can be used to deploy components of the core services and the certificates service DP into the reduced footprint data center 500, including the corresponding mTLS certificates for each core service. The corresponding mTLS certificates can be used to establish the trusted and secure mTLS channel. Based on the successful mTLS connection, the certificates DP 506 can confirm the identity of the requesting service and issue the requested certificate.

[0082] FIG.6 is a block diagram illustrating an example architecture of a certificates service 600, according to some embodiments. The certificates service 600 can include a certificates CP 604 (e.g., certificates CP 508 of FIG. 5) and a certificates DP 604 (e.g., certificates DP 506 of FIG.5). The architecture of certificates service 600 depicts the flow for implementing ephemeral certificate signing by the certificates DP 604. For example, a CA administrator 608 can instruct certificates CP 602 to enable ephemeral certificate signing. The certificates CP 602 can in turn use a communication path to certificates DP 604 to enable the ephemeral certificate signing by certificates DP 604, rather than certificates CP 602 provisioning the certificates at certificates DP 604 itself. The configuration of certificates DP 604 can expose an API for certificates DP 604 to handle CSRs. Once ephemeral certificates signing has been enabled at certificates DP 604, CSRs from corresponding CA user 608 can be sent to certificates DP 604. Certificates DP 604 can authenticate, sign, and issue the signed certificates in response to the CSRs. By allowing certificates DP 604 to directly support CSR signing, the PKI agents (e.g., agents 542, 546 of FIG. 5) in the Underlay network and / or Substrate network (e.g., Substrate network 504). Certificates DP 604 handling CSR signing also allows the certificates service 600 to have high throughput and availability within the reduced footprint data center.

[0083] FIG.7 is a flow diagram of an example process 700 for implementing a certificates service in a reduced footprint data center, according to some embodiments. The certificates service may be an example of the certificates service including certificates CP 508 and certificates DP 506 described above with respect to FIG.5. The operations of process 700 may be performed by one or more computing devices of a reduced footprint data center,including server device(s) 104 of FIG.1, that host components of the certificates service and / or other services operating in the reduced footprint data center. In some embodiments, a computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of a distributed computing system, can cause the distributed computing system to perform the process 700. The operations of process 700 may be performed in any suitable order, and process 700 may include more or fewer operations than those depicted in FIG.7.

[0084] Some or all of the process 700 (or any other processes and / or methods described herein, including process 800, or variations, and / or combinations thereof) may be performed under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions and may be implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or more computer programs, or one or more applications) executing collectively on one or more processors, by hardware or combinations thereof. The code may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in the form of a computer program comprising a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors. The computer-readable storage medium may be non-transitory.

[0085] The process 700 may begin at block 702 by implementing a certificates service data plane (e.g., certificates DP 506) on a computing device of a reduced footprint data center. The certificates service data plane can be hosted within a service VCN (e.g., certificates VCN 510) in an Overlay network (e.g., Overlay network 502).

[0086] At block 704, the certificates service data plane can receive a certificates signing request from an agent executing on an additional computing device communicatively connected to the computing device. For example, the additional computing device may be a SmartNIC (e.g., SmartNIC 540 of FIG. 5) hosting an agent (e.g., agent 542 of FIG.5) of an instance. In some embodiments, the SmartNIC may be connected to the server device of the reduced footprint data center on which the certificates service data plane is hosted. In some embodiments, the additional computing device can include an ILOM, which may be a processor or processing platform of the computing device that is separate from the processors used to perform the computing tasks of the computing device. The certificates signing request can include identityinformation corresponding to an identity of the agent. For example, the certificates signing request can include an instance identifier for an instance corresponding to the agent. In some examples, the identity information can be used to generate a cryptographic hash or other cryptographic information using one more cryptographic hashing functions.

[0087] At block 706, the certificates service data plane can obtain identity validation information. For example, the identity validation information can include cryptographic information corresponding to the instance identity. In some embodiments, obtaining the identity validation information can include obtaining the identity validation information from a trusted platform module connected to the computing device. For example, the TPM can store a cryptographic hash or cryptographic key that corresponds to the identity information of the agent. In some embodiments, the identity validation information can include a root certificate corresponding to a root certificate authority.

[0088] At block 708, the certificates service data plane can validate the identity of the agent by at least comparing the identity information with the identity validation information. For example, the certificates service data plane can use the identity information to generate a hash and compare the hash to the identity validation information from the TPM, which will match if the identity information corresponds to the identity validation information and the agent instance is who it presents itself as in the CSR.

[0089] At block 710, the certificates service data plane can issue a signed certificate to the agent. The signed certificate can include a signature generated by certificates service data plane and included with the certificate presented as part of the CSR received by certificates service data plane. The signed certificate can be issued base in part on the successful validation of the identity of the agent that sent the CSR.

[0090] FIG.8 is a flow diagram of an example process 800 for initializing a certificates service in a reduced footprint data center, according to some embodiments. The certificates service may be an example of the certificates service including certificates CP 208 and certificates DP 206 described above with respect to FIG.2. The operations of process 800 may be performed by one or more computing devices of a reduced footprint data center, including server device(s) 104 of FIG.1, that host components of the certificates service and / or other services operating in the reduced footprint data center.

[0091] The process 800 may begin at block 802 by implementing a certificates service data plane on a computing device of a reduced footprint data center. The certificates service data plane can include a security certificate usable to establish a secure communication channel. For example, the certificates service data plane can be initially provisioned with one or more mTLS certificates that are usable to establish an mTLS connection to a service that holds a corresponding mTLS certificate.

[0092] At block 804, a service executing in a virtual cloud network of the reduced footprint data center can establish the secure communication channel with the certificates service data plane. The service can include a corresponding security certificate to the security certificate. In some embodiments, the secure communication channel can include a mutual transport layer security channel. Establishing the secure communication channel can rely on the fact that security and the corresponding security certificate are verified / validated by both the certificates service and the service, respectively. In doing so, the fact that the secure communication channel is established provides authentication of the service to the certificates service.

[0093] At block 806, the certificates service data plane can receive a certificate signing request from the service using the secure communication channel. Because the secure communication channel provides authentication for the service to the certificates service, the certificates service data plane can sign the certificate information included in the certificate signing request without performing additional verification operations on the CSR (since the Identity services that would allow for this verification may not yet be operating in the reduced footprint data center).

[0094] At block 808, the certificates service data plane can issue a signed certificate to the service using the secure communication channel. The signed certificate can be sent to the requesting service over the secure communication channel. Example Infrastructure as a Service Architectures

[0095] As noted above, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is one particular type of cloud computing. IaaS can be configured to provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In an IaaS model, a cloud computing provider can host the infrastructure components (e.g., servers, storage devices, network nodes (e.g., hardware), deployment software, platform virtualization (e.g., a hypervisor layer), or the like). In somecases, an IaaS provider may also supply a variety of services to accompany those infrastructure components (example services include billing software, monitoring software, logging software, load balancing software, clustering software, etc.). Thus, as these services may be policy-driven, IaaS users may be able to implement policies to drive load balancing to maintain application availability and performance.

[0096] In some instances, IaaS customers may access resources and services through a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet, and can use the cloud provider's services to install the remaining elements of an application stack. For example, the user can log in to the IaaS platform to create virtual machines (VMs), install operating systems (OSs) on each VM, deploy middleware such as databases, create storage buckets for workloads and backups, and even install enterprise software into that VM. Customers can then use the provider's services to perform various functions, including balancing network traffic, troubleshooting application issues, monitoring performance, managing disaster recovery, etc.

[0097] In most cases, a cloud computing model may require the participation of a cloud provider. The cloud provider may, but need not be, a third-party service that specializes in providing (e.g., offering, renting, selling) IaaS. An entity might also opt to deploy a private cloud, becoming its own provider of infrastructure services.

[0098] In some examples, IaaS deployment is the process of putting a new application, or a new version of an application, onto a prepared application server or the like. It may also include the process of preparing the server (e.g., installing libraries, daemons, etc.). This is often managed by the cloud provider, below the hypervisor layer (e.g., the servers, storage, network hardware, and virtualization). Thus, the customer may be responsible for handling (OS), middleware, and / or application deployment (e.g., on self-service virtual machines (e.g., that can be spun up on demand)) or the like.

[0099] In some examples, IaaS provisioning may refer to acquiring computers or virtual hosts for use, and even installing needed libraries or services on them. In most cases, deployment does not include provisioning, and the provisioning may need to be performed first.

[0100] In some cases, there are two different challenges for IaaS provisioning. First, there is the initial challenge of provisioning the initial set of infrastructure before anything is running.Second, there is the challenge of evolving the existing infrastructure (e.g., adding new services, changing services, removing services, etc.) once everything has been provisioned. In some cases, these two challenges may be addressed by enabling the configuration of the infrastructure to be defined declaratively. In other words, the infrastructure (e.g., what components are needed and how they interact) can be defined by one or more configuration files. Thus, the overall topology of the infrastructure (e.g., what resources depend on which, and how they each work together) can be described declaratively. In some instances, once the topology is defined, a workflow can be generated that creates and / or manages the different components described in the configuration files.

[0101] In some examples, an infrastructure may have many interconnected elements. For example, there may be one or more virtual private clouds (VPCs) (e.g., a potentially on-demand pool of configurable and / or shared computing resources), also known as a core network. In some examples, there may also be one or more inbound / outbound traffic group rules provisioned to define how the inbound and / or outbound traffic of the network will be set up and one or more virtual machines (VMs). Other infrastructure elements may also be provisioned, such as a load balancer, a database, or the like. As more and more infrastructure elements are desired and / or added, the infrastructure may incrementally evolve.

[0102] In some instances, continuous deployment techniques may be employed to enable deployment of infrastructure code across various virtual computing environments. Additionally, the described techniques can enable infrastructure management within these environments. In some examples, service teams can write code that is desired to be deployed to one or more, but often many, different production environments (e.g., across various different geographic locations, sometimes spanning the entire world). However, in some examples, the infrastructure on which the code will be deployed may need to first be set up. In some instances, the provisioning can be done manually, a provisioning tool may be utilized to provision the resources, and / or deployment tools may be utilized to deploy the code once the infrastructure is provisioned.

[0103] FIG.9 is a block diagram 900 illustrating an example pattern of an IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. Service operators 902 can be communicatively coupled to a secure host tenancy 904 that can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 906 and a secure hostsubnet 908. In some examples, the service operators 902 may be using one or more client computing devices, which may be portable handheld devices (e.g., an iPhone®, cellular telephone, an iPad®, computing tablet, a personal digital assistant (PDA)) or wearable devices (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounted display), running software such as Microsoft Windows Mobile®, and / or a variety of mobile operating systems such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 8, Palm OS, and the like, and being Internet, e-mail, short message service (SMS), Blackberry®, or other communication protocol enabled. Alternatively, the client computing devices can be general purpose personal computers including, by way of example, personal computers and / or laptop computers running various versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and / or Linux operating systems. The client computing devices can be workstation computers running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX® or UNIX-like operating systems, including without limitation the variety of GNU / Linux operating systems, such as for example, Google Chrome OS. Alternatively, or in addition, client computing devices may be any other electronic device, such as a thin-client computer, an Internet-enabled gaming system (e.g., a Microsoft Xbox gaming console with or without a Kinect® gesture input device), and / or a personal messaging device, capable of communicating over a network that can access the VCN 906 and / or the Internet.

[0104] The VCN 906 can include a local peering gateway (LPG) 910 that can be communicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 912 via an LPG 910 contained in the SSH VCN 912. The SSH VCN 912 can include an SSH subnet 914, and the SSH VCN 912 can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 916 via the LPG 910 contained in the control plane VCN 916. Also, the SSH VCN 912 can be communicatively coupled to a data plane VCN 918 via an LPG 910. The control plane VCN 916 and the data plane VCN 918 can be contained in a service tenancy 919 that can be owned and / or operated by the IaaS provider.

[0105] The control plane VCN 916 can include a control plane demilitarized zone (DMZ) tier 920 that acts as a perimeter network (e.g., portions of a corporate network between the corporate intranet and external networks). The DMZ-based servers may have restricted responsibilities and help keep breaches contained. Additionally, the DMZ tier 920 can include one or more load balancer (LB) subnet(s) 922, a control plane app tier 924 that can include app subnet(s) 926, a control plane data tier 928 that can include database (DB) subnet(s) 930 (e.g., frontend DBsubnet(s) and / or backend DB subnet(s)). The LB subnet(s) 922 contained in the control plane DMZ tier 920 can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 926 contained in the control plane app tier 924 and an Internet gateway 934 that can be contained in the control plane VCN 916, and the app subnet(s) 926 can be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 930 contained in the control plane data tier 928 and a service gateway 936 and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 938. The control plane VCN 916 can include the service gateway 936 and the NAT gateway 938.

[0106] The control plane VCN 916 can include a data plane mirror app tier 940 that can include app subnet(s) 926. The app subnet(s) 926 contained in the data plane mirror app tier 940 can include a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) 942 that can execute a compute instance 944. The compute instance 944 can communicatively couple the app subnet(s) 926 of the data plane mirror app tier 940 to app subnet(s) 926 that can be contained in a data plane app tier 946.

[0107] The data plane VCN 918 can include the data plane app tier 946, a data plane DMZ tier 948, and a data plane data tier 950. The data plane DMZ tier 948 can include LB subnet(s) 922 that can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 926 of the data plane app tier 946 and the Internet gateway 934 of the data plane VCN 918. The app subnet(s) 926 can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 936 of the data plane VCN 918 and the NAT gateway 938 of the data plane VCN 918. The data plane data tier 950 can also include the DB subnet(s) 930 that can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 926 of the data plane app tier 946.

[0108] The Internet gateway 934 of the control plane VCN 916 and of the data plane VCN 918 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 952 that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet 954. Public Internet 954 can be communicatively coupled to the NAT gateway 938 of the control plane VCN 916 and of the data plane VCN 918. The service gateway 936 of the control plane VCN 916 and of the data plane VCN 918 can be communicatively coupled to cloud services 956.

[0109] In some examples, the service gateway 936 of the control plane VCN 916 or of the data plane VCN 918 can make application programming interface (API) calls to cloud services 956 without going through public Internet 954. The API calls to cloud services 956 from the servicegateway 936 can be one-way: the service gateway 936 can make API calls to cloud services 956, and cloud services 956 can send requested data to the service gateway 936. But, cloud services 956 may not initiate API calls to the service gateway 936.

[0110] In some examples, the secure host tenancy 904 can be directly connected to the service tenancy 919, which may be otherwise isolated. The secure host subnet 908 can communicate with the SSH subnet 914 through an LPG 910 that may enable two-way communication over an otherwise isolated system. Connecting the secure host subnet 908 to the SSH subnet 914 may give the secure host subnet 908 access to other entities within the service tenancy 919.

[0111] The control plane VCN 916 may allow users of the service tenancy 919 to set up or otherwise provision desired resources. Desired resources provisioned in the control plane VCN 916 may be deployed or otherwise used in the data plane VCN 918. In some examples, the control plane VCN 916 can be isolated from the data plane VCN 918, and the data plane mirror app tier 940 of the control plane VCN 916 can communicate with the data plane app tier 946 of the data plane VCN 918 via VNICs 942 that can be contained in the data plane mirror app tier 940 and the data plane app tier 946.

[0112] In some examples, users of the system, or customers, can make requests, for example create, read, update, or delete (CRUD) operations, through public Internet 954 that can communicate the requests to the metadata management service 952. The metadata management service 952 can communicate the request to the control plane VCN 916 through the Internet gateway 934. The request can be received by the LB subnet(s) 922 contained in the control plane DMZ tier 920. The LB subnet(s) 922 may determine that the request is valid, and in response to this determination, the LB subnet(s) 922 can transmit the request to app subnet(s) 926 contained in the control plane app tier 924. If the request is validated and requires a call to public Internet 954, the call to public Internet 954 may be transmitted to the NAT gateway 938 that can make the call to public Internet 954. Metadata that may be desired to be stored by the request can be stored in the DB subnet(s) 930.

[0113] In some examples, the data plane mirror app tier 940 can facilitate direct communication between the control plane VCN 916 and the data plane VCN 918. For example, changes, updates, or other suitable modifications to configuration may be desired to be applied to the resources contained in the data plane VCN 918. Via a VNIC 942, the control plane VCN 916can directly communicate with, and can thereby execute the changes, updates, or other suitable modifications to configuration to, resources contained in the data plane VCN 918.

[0114] In some embodiments, the control plane VCN 916 and the data plane VCN 918 can be contained in the service tenancy 919. In this case, the user, or the customer, of the system may not own or operate either the control plane VCN 916 or the data plane VCN 918. Instead, the IaaS provider may own or operate the control plane VCN 916 and the data plane VCN 918, both of which may be contained in the service tenancy 919. This embodiment can enable isolation of networks that may prevent users or customers from interacting with other users’, or other customers’, resources. Also, this embodiment may allow users or customers of the system to store databases privately without needing to rely on public Internet 954, which may not have a desired level of threat prevention, for storage.

[0115] In other embodiments, the LB subnet(s) 922 contained in the control plane VCN 916 can be configured to receive a signal from the service gateway 936. In this embodiment, the control plane VCN 916 and the data plane VCN 918 may be configured to be called by a customer of the IaaS provider without calling public Internet 954. Customers of the IaaS provider may desire this embodiment since database(s) that the customers use may be controlled by the IaaS provider and may be stored on the service tenancy 919, which may be isolated from public Internet 954.

[0116] FIG.10 is a block diagram 1000 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. Service operators 1002 (e.g., service operators 902 of FIG.9) can be communicatively coupled to a secure host tenancy 1004 (e.g., the secure host tenancy 904 of FIG. 9) that can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1006 (e.g., the VCN 906 of FIG.9) and a secure host subnet 1008 (e.g., the secure host subnet 908 of FIG. 9). The VCN 1006 can include a local peering gateway (LPG) 1010 (e.g., the LPG 910 of FIG. 9) that can be communicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 1012 (e.g., the SSH VCN 912 of FIG.9) via an LPG 910 contained in the SSH VCN 1012. The SSH VCN 1012 can include an SSH subnet 1014 (e.g., the SSH subnet 914 of FIG. 9), and the SSH VCN 1012 can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1016 (e.g., the control plane VCN 916 of FIG. 9) via an LPG 1010 contained in the control plane VCN 1016. The control plane VCN 1016 can be contained in a service tenancy 1019 (e.g., the service tenancy 919 of FIG.9), and the dataplane VCN 1018 (e.g., the data plane VCN 918 of FIG.9) can be contained in a customer tenancy 1021 that may be owned or operated by users, or customers, of the system.

[0117] The control plane VCN 1016 can include a control plane DMZ tier 1020 (e.g., the control plane DMZ tier 920 of FIG. 9) that can include LB subnet(s) 1022 (e.g., LB subnet(s) 922 of FIG.9), a control plane app tier 1024 (e.g., the control plane app tier 924 of FIG. 9) that can include app subnet(s) 1026 (e.g., app subnet(s) 926 of FIG.9), a control plane data tier 1028 (e.g., the control plane data tier 928 of FIG.9) that can include database (DB) subnet(s) 1030 (e.g., similar to DB subnet(s) 930 of FIG.9). The LB subnet(s) 1022 contained in the control plane DMZ tier 1020 can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 1026 contained in the control plane app tier 1024 and an Internet gateway 1034 (e.g., the Internet gateway 934 of FIG. 9) that can be contained in the control plane VCN 1016, and the app subnet(s) 1026 can be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1030 contained in the control plane data tier 1028 and a service gateway 1036 (e.g., the service gateway 936 of FIG.9) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1038 (e.g., the NAT gateway 938 of FIG. 9). The control plane VCN 1016 can include the service gateway 1036 and the NAT gateway 1038.

[0118] The control plane VCN 1016 can include a data plane mirror app tier 1040 (e.g., the data plane mirror app tier 940 of FIG.9) that can include app subnet(s) 1026. The app subnet(s) 1026 contained in the data plane mirror app tier 1040 can include a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) 1042 (e.g., the VNIC of 942) that can execute a compute instance 1044 (e.g., similar to the compute instance 944 of FIG.9). The compute instance 1044 can facilitate communication between the app subnet(s) 1026 of the data plane mirror app tier 1040 and the app subnet(s) 1026 that can be contained in a data plane app tier 1046 (e.g., the data plane app tier 946 of FIG. 9) via the VNIC 1042 contained in the data plane mirror app tier 1040 and the VNIC 1042 contained in the data plane app tier 1046.

[0119] The Internet gateway 1034 contained in the control plane VCN 1016 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1052 (e.g., the metadata management service 952 of FIG.9) that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet 1054 (e.g., public Internet 954 of FIG. 9). Public Internet 1054 can be communicatively coupled to the NAT gateway 1038 contained in the control plane VCN 1016. The service gateway 1036contained in the control plane VCN 1016 can be communicatively coupled to cloud services 1056 (e.g., cloud services 956 of FIG.9).

[0120] In some examples, the data plane VCN 1018 can be contained in the customer tenancy 1021. In this case, the IaaS provider may provide the control plane VCN 1016 for each customer, and the IaaS provider may, for each customer, set up a unique compute instance 1044 that is contained in the service tenancy 1019. Each compute instance 1044 may allow communication between the control plane VCN 1016, contained in the service tenancy 1019, and the data plane VCN 1018 that is contained in the customer tenancy 1021. The compute instance 1044 may allow resources, that are provisioned in the control plane VCN 1016 that is contained in the service tenancy 1019, to be deployed or otherwise used in the data plane VCN 1018 that is contained in the customer tenancy 1021.

[0121] In other examples, the customer of the IaaS provider may have databases that live in the customer tenancy 1021. In this example, the control plane VCN 1016 can include the data plane mirror app tier 1040 that can include app subnet(s) 1026. The data plane mirror app tier 1040 can reside in the data plane VCN 1018, but the data plane mirror app tier 1040 may not live in the data plane VCN 1018. That is, the data plane mirror app tier 1040 may have access to the customer tenancy 1021, but the data plane mirror app tier 1040 may not exist in the data plane VCN 1018 or be owned or operated by the customer of the IaaS provider. The data plane mirror app tier 1040 may be configured to make calls to the data plane VCN 1018 but may not be configured to make calls to any entity contained in the control plane VCN 1016. The customer may desire to deploy or otherwise use resources in the data plane VCN 1018 that are provisioned in the control plane VCN 1016, and the data plane mirror app tier 1040 can facilitate the desired deployment, or other usage of resources, of the customer.

[0122] In some embodiments, the customer of the IaaS provider can apply filters to the data plane VCN 1018. In this embodiment, the customer can determine what the data plane VCN 1018 can access, and the customer may restrict access to public Internet 1054 from the data plane VCN 1018. The IaaS provider may not be able to apply filters or otherwise control access of the data plane VCN 1018 to any outside networks or databases. Applying filters and controls by the customer onto the data plane VCN 1018, contained in the customer tenancy 1021, can help isolate the data plane VCN 1018 from other customers and from public Internet 1054.

[0123] In some embodiments, cloud services 1056 can be called by the service gateway 1036 to access services that may not exist on public Internet 1054, on the control plane VCN 1016, or on the data plane VCN 1018. The connection between cloud services 1056 and the control plane VCN 1016 or the data plane VCN 1018 may not be live or continuous. Cloud services 1056 may exist on a different network owned or operated by the IaaS provider. Cloud services 1056 may be configured to receive calls from the service gateway 1036 and may be configured to not receive calls from public Internet 1054. Some cloud services 1056 may be isolated from other cloud services 1056, and the control plane VCN 1016 may be isolated from cloud services 1056 that may not be in the same region as the control plane VCN 1016. For example, the control plane VCN 1016 may be located in "Region 1," and cloud service "Deployment 9," may be located in Region 1 and in "Region 2." If a call to Deployment 9 is made by the service gateway 1036 contained in the control plane VCN 1016 located in Region 1, the call may be transmitted to Deployment 9 in Region 1. In this example, the control plane VCN 1016, or Deployment 9 in Region 1, may not be communicatively coupled to, or otherwise in communication with, Deployment 9 in Region 2.

[0124] FIG.11 is a block diagram 1100 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. Service operators 1102 (e.g., service operators 902 of FIG.9) can be communicatively coupled to a secure host tenancy 1104 (e.g., the secure host tenancy 904 of FIG. 9) that can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1106 (e.g., the VCN 906 of FIG.9) and a secure host subnet 1108 (e.g., the secure host subnet 908 of FIG. 9). The VCN 1106 can include an LPG 1110 (e.g., the LPG 910 of FIG.9) that can be communicatively coupled to an SSH VCN 1112 (e.g., the SSH VCN 912 of FIG. 9) via an LPG 1110 contained in the SSH VCN 1112. The SSH VCN 1112 can include an SSH subnet 1114 (e.g., the SSH subnet 914 of FIG.9), and the SSH VCN 1112 can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1116 (e.g., the control plane VCN 916 of FIG.9) via an LPG 1110 contained in the control plane VCN 1116 and to a data plane VCN 1118 (e.g., the data plane 918 of FIG.9) via an LPG 1110 contained in the data plane VCN 1118. The control plane VCN 1116 and the data plane VCN 1118 can be contained in a service tenancy 1119 (e.g., the service tenancy 919 of FIG.9).

[0125] The control plane VCN 1116 can include a control plane DMZ tier 1120 (e.g., the control plane DMZ tier 920 of FIG. 9) that can include load balancer (LB) subnet(s) 1122 (e.g., LB subnet(s) 922 of FIG.9), a control plane app tier 1124 (e.g., the control plane app tier 924 of FIG.9) that can include app subnet(s) 1126 (e.g., similar to app subnet(s) 926 of FIG.9), a control plane data tier 1128 (e.g., the control plane data tier 928 of FIG.9) that can include DB subnet(s) 1130. The LB subnet(s) 1122 contained in the control plane DMZ tier 1120 can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 1126 contained in the control plane app tier 1124 and to an Internet gateway 1134 (e.g., the Internet gateway 934 of FIG. 9) that can be contained in the control plane VCN 1116, and the app subnet(s) 1126 can be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1130 contained in the control plane data tier 1128 and to a service gateway 1136 (e.g., the service gateway of FIG. 9) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1138 (e.g., the NAT gateway 938 of FIG.9). The control plane VCN 1116 can include the service gateway 1136 and the NAT gateway 1138.

[0126] The data plane VCN 1118 can include a data plane app tier 1146 (e.g., the data plane app tier 946 of FIG.9), a data plane DMZ tier 1148 (e.g., the data plane DMZ tier 948 of FIG. 9), and a data plane data tier 1150 (e.g., the data plane data tier 950 of FIG. 9). The data plane DMZ tier 1148 can include LB subnet(s) 1122 that can be communicatively coupled to trusted app subnet(s) 1160 and untrusted app subnet(s) 1162 of the data plane app tier 1146 and the Internet gateway 1134 contained in the data plane VCN 1118. The trusted app subnet(s) 1160 can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1136 contained in the data plane VCN 1118, the NAT gateway 1138 contained in the data plane VCN 1118, and DB subnet(s) 1130 contained in the data plane data tier 1150. The untrusted app subnet(s) 1162 can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1136 contained in the data plane VCN 1118 and DB subnet(s) 1130 contained in the data plane data tier 1150. The data plane data tier 1150 can include DB subnet(s) 1130 that can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1136 contained in the data plane VCN 1118.

[0127] The untrusted app subnet(s) 1162 can include one or more primary VNICs 1164(1)-(N) that can be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 1166(1)-(N). Each tenant VM 1166(1)-(N) can be communicatively coupled to a respective app subnet 1167(1)-(N) that can be contained in respective container egress VCNs 1168(1)-(N) that can be contained inrespective customer tenancies 1170(1)-(N). Respective secondary VNICs 1172(1)-(N) can facilitate communication between the untrusted app subnet(s) 1162 contained in the data plane VCN 1118 and the app subnet contained in the container egress VCNs 1168(1)-(N). Each container egress VCNs 1168(1)-(N) can include a NAT gateway 1138 that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet 1154 (e.g., public Internet 954 of FIG.9).

[0128] The Internet gateway 1134 contained in the control plane VCN 1116 and contained in the data plane VCN 1118 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1152 (e.g., the metadata management system 952 of FIG.9) that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet 1154. Public Internet 1154 can be communicatively coupled to the NAT gateway 1138 contained in the control plane VCN 1116 and contained in the data plane VCN 1118. The service gateway 1136 contained in the control plane VCN 1116 and contained in the data plane VCN 1118 can be communicatively coupled to cloud services 1156.

[0129] In some embodiments, the data plane VCN 1118 can be integrated with customer tenancies 1170. This integration can be useful or desirable for customers of the IaaS provider in some cases such as a case that may desire support when executing code. The customer may provide code to run that may be destructive, may communicate with other customer resources, or may otherwise cause undesirable effects. In response to this, the IaaS provider may determine whether to run code given to the IaaS provider by the customer.

[0130] In some examples, the customer of the IaaS provider may grant temporary network access to the IaaS provider and request a function to be attached to the data plane app tier 1146. Code to run the function may be executed in the VMs 1166(1)-(N), and the code may not be configured to run anywhere else on the data plane VCN 1118. Each VM 1166(1)-(N) may be connected to one customer tenancy 1170. Respective containers 1171(1)-(N) contained in the VMs 1166(1)-(N) may be configured to run the code. In this case, there can be a dual isolation (e.g., the containers 1171(1)-(N) running code, where the containers 1171(1)-(N) may be contained in at least the VM 1166(1)-(N) that are contained in the untrusted app subnet(s) 1162), which may help prevent incorrect or otherwise undesirable code from damaging the network of the IaaS provider or from damaging a network of a different customer. The containers 1171(1)- (N) may be communicatively coupled to the customer tenancy 1170 and may be configured to transmit or receive data from the customer tenancy 1170. The containers 1171(1)-(N) may not beconfigured to transmit or receive data from any other entity in the data plane VCN 1118. Upon completion of running the code, the IaaS provider may kill or otherwise dispose of the containers 1171(1)-(N).

[0131] In some embodiments, the trusted app subnet(s) 1160 may run code that may be owned or operated by the IaaS provider. In this embodiment, the trusted app subnet(s) 1160 may be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1130 and be configured to execute CRUD operations in the DB subnet(s) 1130. The untrusted app subnet(s) 1162 may be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1130, but in this embodiment, the untrusted app subnet(s) may be configured to execute read operations in the DB subnet(s) 1130. The containers 1171(1)-(N) that can be contained in the VM 1166(1)-(N) of each customer and that may run code from the customer may not be communicatively coupled with the DB subnet(s) 1130.

[0132] In other embodiments, the control plane VCN 1116 and the data plane VCN 1118 may not be directly communicatively coupled. In this embodiment, there may be no direct communication between the control plane VCN 1116 and the data plane VCN 1118. However, communication can occur indirectly through at least one method. An LPG 1110 may be established by the IaaS provider that can facilitate communication between the control plane VCN 1116 and the data plane VCN 1118. In another example, the control plane VCN 1116 or the data plane VCN 1118 can make a call to cloud services 1156 via the service gateway 1136. For example, a call to cloud services 1156 from the control plane VCN 1116 can include a request for a service that can communicate with the data plane VCN 1118.

[0133] FIG.12 is a block diagram 1200 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. Service operators 1202 (e.g., service operators 902 of FIG.9) can be communicatively coupled to a secure host tenancy 1204 (e.g., the secure host tenancy 904 of FIG. 9) that can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1206 (e.g., the VCN 906 of FIG.9) and a secure host subnet 1208 (e.g., the secure host subnet 908 of FIG. 9). The VCN 1206 can include an LPG 1210 (e.g., the LPG 910 of FIG.9) that can be communicatively coupled to an SSH VCN 1212 (e.g., the SSH VCN 912 of FIG. 9) via an LPG 1210 contained in the SSH VCN 1212. The SSH VCN 1212 can include an SSH subnet 1214 (e.g., the SSH subnet 914 of FIG.9), and the SSH VCN 1212 can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1216 (e.g., the control plane VCN 916 of FIG.9) via an LPG 1210contained in the control plane VCN 1216 and to a data plane VCN 1218 (e.g., the data plane 918 of FIG.9) via an LPG 1210 contained in the data plane VCN 1218. The control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218 can be contained in a service tenancy 1219 (e.g., the service tenancy 919 of FIG.9).

[0134] The control plane VCN 1216 can include a control plane DMZ tier 1220 (e.g., the control plane DMZ tier 920 of FIG. 9) that can include LB subnet(s) 1222 (e.g., LB subnet(s) 922 of FIG.9), a control plane app tier 1224 (e.g., the control plane app tier 924 of FIG. 9) that can include app subnet(s) 1226 (e.g., app subnet(s) 926 of FIG.9), a control plane data tier 1228 (e.g., the control plane data tier 928 of FIG.9) that can include DB subnet(s) 1230 (e.g., DB subnet(s) 1130 of FIG. 11). The LB subnet(s) 1222 contained in the control plane DMZ tier 1220 can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 1226 contained in the control plane app tier 1224 and to an Internet gateway 1234 (e.g., the Internet gateway 934 of FIG.9) that can be contained in the control plane VCN 1216, and the app subnet(s) 1226 can be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1230 contained in the control plane data tier 1228 and to a service gateway 1236 (e.g., the service gateway of FIG. 9) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1238 (e.g., the NAT gateway 938 of FIG.9). The control plane VCN 1216 can include the service gateway 1236 and the NAT gateway 1238.

[0135] The data plane VCN 1218 can include a data plane app tier 1246 (e.g., the data plane app tier 946 of FIG.9), a data plane DMZ tier 1248 (e.g., the data plane DMZ tier 948 of FIG. 9), and a data plane data tier 1250 (e.g., the data plane data tier 950 of FIG. 9). The data plane DMZ tier 1248 can include LB subnet(s) 1222 that can be communicatively coupled to trusted app subnet(s) 1260 (e.g., trusted app subnet(s) 1160 of FIG.11) and untrusted app subnet(s) 1262 (e.g., untrusted app subnet(s) 1162 of FIG. 11) of the data plane app tier 1246 and the Internet gateway 1234 contained in the data plane VCN 1218. The trusted app subnet(s) 1260 can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1236 contained in the data plane VCN 1218, the NAT gateway 1238 contained in the data plane VCN 1218, and DB subnet(s) 1230 contained in the data plane data tier 1250. The untrusted app subnet(s) 1262 can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1236 contained in the data plane VCN 1218 and DB subnet(s) 1230 contained in the data plane data tier 1250. The data plane data tier 1250can include DB subnet(s) 1230 that can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1236 contained in the data plane VCN 1218.

[0136] The untrusted app subnet(s) 1262 can include primary VNICs 1264(1)-(N) that can be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 1266(1)-(N) residing within the untrusted app subnet(s) 1262. Each tenant VM 1266(N) can run code in a respective container 1267(1)-(N), and be communicatively coupled to an app subnet 1226 that can be contained in a data plane app tier 1246 that can be contained in a container egress VCN 1268. Respective secondary VNICs 1272(1)-(N) can facilitate communication between the untrusted app subnet(s) 1262 contained in the data plane VCN 1218 and the app subnet contained in the container egress VCN 1268. The container egress VCN can include a NAT gateway 1238 that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet 1254 (e.g., public Internet 954 of FIG.9).

[0137] The Internet gateway 1234 contained in the control plane VCN 1216 and contained in the data plane VCN 1218 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1252 (e.g., the metadata management system 952 of FIG.9) that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet 1254. Public Internet 1254 can be communicatively coupled to the NAT gateway 1238 contained in the control plane VCN 1216 and contained in the data plane VCN 1218. The service gateway 1236 contained in the control plane VCN 1216 and contained in the data plane VCN 1218 can be communicatively coupled to cloud services 1256.

[0138] In some examples, the pattern illustrated by the architecture of block diagram 1200 of FIG.12 may be considered an exception to the pattern illustrated by the architecture of block diagram 1100 of FIG.11 and may be desirable for a customer of the IaaS provider if the IaaS provider cannot directly communicate with the customer (e.g., a disconnected region). The respective containers 1267(1)-(N) that are contained in the VMs 1266(1)-(N) for each customer can be accessed in real-time by the customer. The containers 1267(1)-(N) may be configured to make calls to respective secondary VNICs 1272(1)-(N) contained in app subnet(s) 1226 of the data plane app tier 1246 that can be contained in the container egress VCN 1268. The secondary VNICs 1272(1)-(N) can transmit the calls to the NAT gateway 1238 that may transmit the calls to public Internet 1254. In this example, the containers 1267(1)-(N) that can be accessed in real- time by the customer can be isolated from the control plane VCN 1216 and can be isolated fromother entities contained in the data plane VCN 1218. The containers 1267(1)-(N) may also be isolated from resources from other customers.

[0139] In other examples, the customer can use the containers 1267(1)-(N) to call cloud services 1256. In this example, the customer may run code in the containers 1267(1)-(N) that requests a service from cloud services 1256. The containers 1267(1)-(N) can transmit this request to the secondary VNICs 1272(1)-(N) that can transmit the request to the NAT gateway that can transmit the request to public Internet 1254. Public Internet 1254 can transmit the request to LB subnet(s) 1222 contained in the control plane VCN 1216 via the Internet gateway 1234. In response to determining the request is valid, the LB subnet(s) can transmit the request to app subnet(s) 1226 that can transmit the request to cloud services 1256 via the service gateway 1236.

[0140] It should be appreciated that IaaS architectures 900, 1000, 1100, 1200 depicted in the figures may have other components than those depicted. Further, the embodiments shown in the figures are only some examples of a cloud infrastructure system that may incorporate an embodiment of the disclosure. In some other embodiments, the IaaS systems may have more or fewer components than shown in the figures, may combine two or more components, or may have a different configuration or arrangement of components.

[0141] In certain embodiments, the IaaS systems described herein may include a suite of applications, middleware, and database service offerings that are delivered to a customer in a self-service, subscription-based, elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. An example of such an IaaS system is the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) provided by the present assignee.

[0142] FIG.13 illustrates an example computer system 1300, in which various embodiments may be implemented. The system 1300 may be used to implement any of the computer systems described above. As shown in the figure, computer system 1300 includes a processing unit 1304 that communicates with a number of peripheral subsystems via a bus subsystem 1302. These peripheral subsystems may include a processing acceleration unit 1306, an I / O subsystem 1308, a storage subsystem 1318 and a communications subsystem 1324. Storage subsystem 1318 includes tangible computer-readable storage media 1322 and a system memory 1310.

[0143] Bus subsystem 1302 provides a mechanism for letting the various components and subsystems of computer system 1300 communicate with each other as intended. Although bus subsystem 1302 is shown schematically as a single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilize multiple buses. Bus subsystem 1302 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. For example, such architectures may include an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which can be implemented as a Mezzanine bus manufactured to the IEEE P1386.1 standard.

[0144] Processing unit 1304, which can be implemented as one or more integrated circuits (e.g., a conventional microprocessor or microcontroller), controls the operation of computer system 1300. One or more processors may be included in processing unit 1304. These processors may include single core or multicore processors. In certain embodiments, processing unit 1304 may be implemented as one or more independent processing units 1332 and / or 1334 with single or multicore processors included in each processing unit. In other embodiments, processing unit 1304 may also be implemented as a quad-core processing unit formed by integrating two dual- core processors into a single chip.

[0145] In various embodiments, processing unit 1304 can execute a variety of programs in response to program code and can maintain multiple concurrently executing programs or processes. At any given time, some or all of the program code to be executed can be resident in processor(s) 1304 and / or in storage subsystem 1318. Through suitable programming, processor(s) 1304 can provide various functionalities described above. Computer system 1300 may additionally include a processing acceleration unit 1306, which can include a digital signal processor (DSP), a special-purpose processor, and / or the like.

[0146] I / O subsystem 1308 may include user interface input devices and user interface output devices. User interface input devices may include a keyboard, pointing devices such as a mouse or trackball, a touchpad or touch screen incorporated into a display, a scroll wheel, a click wheel, a dial, a button, a switch, a keypad, audio input devices with voice command recognition systems, microphones, and other types of input devices. User interface input devices mayinclude, for example, motion sensing and / or gesture recognition devices such as the Microsoft Kinect® motion sensor that enables users to control and interact with an input device, such as the Microsoft Xbox® 360 game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. User interface input devices may also include eye gesture recognition devices such as the Google Glass® blink detector that detects eye activity (e.g., ‘blinking’ while taking pictures and / or making a menu selection) from users and transforms the eye gestures as input into an input device (e.g., Google Glass®). Additionally, user interface input devices may include voice recognition sensing devices that enable users to interact with voice recognition systems (e.g., Siri® navigator), through voice commands.

[0147] User interface input devices may also include, without limitation, three dimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointing sticks, gamepads and graphic tablets, and audio / visual devices such as speakers, digital cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams, image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode reader 3D scanners, 3D printers, laser rangefinders, and eye gaze tracking devices. Additionally, user interface input devices may include, for example, medical imaging input devices such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, position emission tomography, medical ultrasonography devices. User interface input devices may also include, for example, audio input devices such as MIDI keyboards, digital musical instruments and the like.

[0148] User interface output devices may include a display subsystem, indicator lights, or non- visual displays such as audio output devices, etc. The display subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), a flat-panel device, such as that using a liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display, a projection device, a touch screen, and the like. In general, use of the term "output device" is intended to include all possible types of devices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system 1300 to a user or other computer. For example, user interface output devices may include, without limitation, a variety of display devices that visually convey text, graphics and audio / video information such as monitors, printers, speakers, headphones, automotive navigation systems, plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

[0149] Computer system 1300 may comprise a storage subsystem 1318 that provides a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing software and data constructs that provide the functionality of the embodiments described in this disclosure. Thesoftware can include programs, code, instructions, scripts, etc., that when executed by one or more cores or processors of processing unit 1304 provide the functionality described above. Storage subsystem 1318 may also provide a repository for storing data used in accordance with the present disclosure.

[0150] As depicted in the example in FIG. 13, storage subsystem 1318 can include various components including a system memory 1310, computer-readable storage media 1322, and a computer readable storage media reader 1320. System memory 1310 may store program instructions that are loadable and executable by processing unit 1304. System memory 1310 may also store data that is used during the execution of the instructions and / or data that is generated during the execution of the program instructions. Various different kinds of programs may be loaded into system memory 1310 including but not limited to client applications, Web browsers, mid-tier applications, relational database management systems (RDBMS), virtual machines, containers, etc.

[0151] System memory 1310 may also store an operating system 1316. Examples of operating system 1316 may include various versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and / or Linux operating systems, a variety of commercially-available UNIX® or UNIX-like operating systems (including without limitation the variety of GNU / Linux operating systems, the Google Chrome® OS, and the like) and / or mobile operating systems such as iOS, Windows® Phone, Android® OS, BlackBerry® OS, and Palm® OS operating systems. In certain implementations where computer system 1300 executes one or more virtual machines, the virtual machines along with their guest operating systems (GOSs) may be loaded into system memory 1310 and executed by one or more processors or cores of processing unit 1304.

[0152] System memory 1310 can come in different configurations depending upon the type of computer system 1300. For example, system memory 1310 may be volatile memory (such as random access memory (RAM)) and / or non-volatile memory (such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.) Different types of RAM configurations may be provided including a static random access memory (SRAM), a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and others. In some implementations, system memory 1310 may include a basic input / output system (BIOS) containing basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer system 1300, such as during start-up.

[0153] Computer-readable storage media 1322 may represent remote, local, fixed, and / or removable storage devices plus storage media for temporarily and / or more permanently containing, storing, computer-readable information for use by computer system 1300 including instructions executable by processing unit 1304 of computer system 1300.

[0154] Computer-readable storage media 1322 can include any appropriate media known or used in the art, including storage media and communication media, such as but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage and / or transmission of information. This can include tangible computer- readable storage media such as RAM, ROM, electronically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD), or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible computer readable media.

[0155] By way of example, computer-readable storage media 1322 may include a hard disk drive that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk such as a CD ROM, DVD, and Blu-Ray® disk, or other optical media. Computer-readable storage media 1322 may include, but is not limited to, Zip® drives, flash memory cards, universal serial bus (USB) flash drives, secure digital (SD) cards, DVD disks, digital video tape, and the like. Computer-readable storage media 1322 may also include, solid-state drives (SSD) based on non-volatile memory such as flash-memory based SSDs, enterprise flash drives, solid state ROM, and the like, SSDs based on volatile memory such as solid state RAM, dynamic RAM, static RAM, DRAM-based SSDs, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSDs, and hybrid SSDs that use a combination of DRAM and flash memory based SSDs. The disk drives and their associated computer-readable media may provide non-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program services, and other data for computer system 1300.

[0156] Machine-readable instructions executable by one or more processors or cores of processing unit 1304 may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium can include physically tangible memory or storage devices that include volatile memory storage devices and / or non-volatile storage devices.Examples of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium include magnetic storage media (e.g., disk or tapes), optical storage media (e.g., DVDs, CDs), various types of RAM, ROM, or flash memory, hard drives, floppy drives, detachable memory drives (e.g., USB drives), or other type of storage device.

[0157] Communications subsystem 1324 provides an interface to other computer systems and networks. Communications subsystem 1324 serves as an interface for receiving data from and transmitting data to other systems from computer system 1300. For example, communications subsystem 1324 may enable computer system 1300 to connect to one or more devices via the Internet. In some embodiments communications subsystem 1324 can include radio frequency (RF) transceiver components for accessing wireless voice and / or data networks (e.g., using cellular telephone technology, advanced data network technology, such as 3G, 4G or EDGE (enhanced data rates for global evolution), WiFi (IEEE 802.11 family standards, or other mobile communication technologies, or any combination thereof)), global positioning system (GPS) receiver components, and / or other components. In some embodiments communications subsystem 1324 can provide wired network connectivity (e.g., Ethernet) in addition to or instead of a wireless interface.

[0158] In some embodiments, communications subsystem 1324 may also receive input communication in the form of structured and / or unstructured data feeds 1326, event streams 1328, event updates 1330, and the like on behalf of one or more users who may use computer system 1300.

[0159] By way of example, communications subsystem 1324 may be configured to receive data feeds 1326 in real-time from users of social networks and / or other communication services such as Twitter® feeds, Facebook® updates, web feeds such as Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, and / or real-time updates from one or more third party information sources.

[0160] Additionally, communications subsystem 1324 may also be configured to receive data in the form of continuous data streams, which may include event streams 1328 of real-time events and / or event updates 1330, that may be continuous or unbounded in nature with no explicit end. Examples of applications that generate continuous data may include, for example, sensor data applications, financial tickers, network performance measuring tools (e.g., networkmonitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile traffic monitoring, and the like.

[0161] Communications subsystem 1324 may also be configured to output the structured and / or unstructured data feeds 1326, event streams 1328, event updates 1330, and the like to one or more databases that may be in communication with one or more streaming data source computers coupled to computer system 1300.

[0162] Computer system 1300 can be one of various types, including a handheld portable device (e.g., an iPhone® cellular phone, an iPad® computing tablet, a PDA), a wearable device (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounted display), a PC, a workstation, a mainframe, a kiosk, a server rack, or any other data processing system.

[0163] Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, the description of computer system 1300 depicted in the figure is intended only as a specific example. Many other configurations having more or fewer components than the system depicted in the figure are possible. For example, customized hardware might also be used and / or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, firmware, software (including applets), or a combination. Further, connection to other computing devices, such as network input / output devices, may be employed. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate other ways and / or methods to implement the various embodiments.

[0164] Although specific embodiments have been described, various modifications, alterations, alternative constructions, and equivalents are also encompassed within the scope of the disclosure. Embodiments are not restricted to operation within certain specific data processing environments, but are free to operate within a plurality of data processing environments. Additionally, although embodiments have been described using a particular series of transactions and steps, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the described series of transactions and steps. Various features and aspects of the above-described embodiments may be used individually or jointly.

[0165] Further, while embodiments have been described using a particular combination of hardware and software, it should be recognized that other combinations of hardware and software are also within the scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments may be implementedonly in hardware, or only in software, or using combinations thereof. The various processes described herein can be implemented on the same processor or different processors in any combination. Accordingly, where components or services are described as being configured to perform certain operations, such configuration can be accomplished, e.g., by designing electronic circuits to perform the operation, by programming programmable electronic circuits (such as microprocessors) to perform the operation, or any combination thereof. Processes can communicate using a variety of techniques including but not limited to conventional techniques for inter process communication, and different pairs of processes may use different techniques, or the same pair of processes may use different techniques at different times.

[0166] The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, be evident that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modifications and changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broader spirit and scope as set forth in the claims. Thus, although specific disclosure embodiments have been described, these are not intended to be limiting. Various modifications and equivalents are within the scope of the following claims.

[0167] The use of the terms "a" and "an" and "the" and similar referents in the context of describing the disclosed embodiments (especially in the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms "comprising," "having," "including," and "containing" are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning "including, but not limited to,") unless otherwise noted. The term "connected" is to be construed as partly or wholly contained within, attached to, or joined together, even if there is something intervening. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., "such as") provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate embodiments and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the disclosure unless otherwise claimed. Nolanguage in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the disclosure.

[0168] Disjunctive language such as the phrase "at least one of X, Y, or Z," unless specifically stated otherwise, is intended to be understood within the context as used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may be either X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and / or Z). Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to, and should not, imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.

[0169] Preferred embodiments of this disclosure are described herein, including the best mode known for carrying out the disclosure. Variations of those preferred embodiments may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. Those of ordinary skill should be able to employ such variations as appropriate and the disclosure may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, this disclosure includes all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by the disclosure unless otherwise indicated herein.

[0170] All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.

[0171] In the foregoing specification, aspects of the disclosure are described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosure is not limited thereto. Various features and aspects of the above-described disclosure may be used individually or jointly. Further, embodiments can be utilized in any number of environments and applications beyond those described herein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the specification. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method, comprising: implementing a certificates service data plane on a computing device of a reduced footprint data center, the certificates service data plane comprising a security certificate usable to establish a secure communication channel; establishing the secure communication channel with a service executing in a virtual cloud network of the reduced footprint data center, the service comprising a corresponding security certificate to the security certificate; receiving, at the certificates service data plane from the service using the secure communication channel, a certificate signing request; and issuing, by the certificates service data plane to the service using the secure communication channel, a signed certificate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the certificates service is initially provisioned in the reduced footprint data center with the security certificate.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is initially provisioned in the reduced footprint data center with the corresponding security certificate.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the secure communication channel comprises a mutual transport layer security channel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the secure communication channel comprises validating the corresponding security certificate using the security certificate.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the secure communication channel authenticates the service for the certificate signing request 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the security certificate is initially provisioned on a secure element communicatively connected to the computing device.

8. A computing system comprising: one or more processors; andone or more memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to at least: implement a certificates service data plane on a computing device of a reduced footprint data center, the certificates service data plane comprising a security certificate usable to establish a secure communication channel; establish the secure communication channel with a service executing in a virtual cloud network of the reduced footprint data center, the service comprising a corresponding security certificate to the security certificate; receive, at the certificates service data plane from the service using the secure communication channel, a certificate signing request; and issue, by the certificates service data plane to the service using the secure communication channel, a signed certificate.

9. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the certificates service is initially provisioned in the reduced footprint data center with the security certificate.

10. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the service is initially provisioned in the reduced footprint data center with the corresponding security certificate.

11. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the secure communication channel comprises a mutual transport layer security channel.

12. The computing system of claim 8, wherein establishing the secure communication channel comprises validating the corresponding security certificate using the security certificate.

13. The computing system of claim 8, wherein establishing the secure communication channel authenticates the service for the certificate signing request 14. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the security certificate is initially provisioned on a secure element communicatively connected to the computing device.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system , cause the computing system to at least: implement a certificates service data plane on a computing device of a reduced footprint data center, the certificates service data plane comprising a security certificate usable to establish a secure communication channel; establish the secure communication channel with a service executing in a virtual cloud network of the reduced footprint data center, the service comprising a corresponding security certificate to the security certificate; receive, at the certificates service data plane from the service using the secure communication channel, a certificate signing request; and issue, by the certificates service data plane to the service using the secure communication channel, a signed certificate.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the certificates service is initially provisioned in the reduced footprint data center with the security certificate.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the service is initially provisioned in the reduced footprint data center with the corresponding security certificate.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the secure communication channel comprises a mutual transport layer security channel.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein establishing the secure communication channel comprises validating the corresponding security certificate using the security certificate.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein establishing the secure communication channel authenticates the service for the certificate signing request

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