Multi-Cloud ENA Synchronization for Secure Cross-Platform Access
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In public cloud environments, services hosted on different platforms do not have access to each other's external network addresses (ENAs), leading to incomplete or outdated information, and exposing internal resources to the internet, posing security risks.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a serverless service and network address translation (NAT) gateway to synchronize ENAs across different public cloud environments, allowing services to access a centralized storage of ENAs and enabling incremental synchronization of changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If service owners manually store and publish external IP addresses, then the process is simple and direct, but incomplete information is stored, outdated information is not updated, and internal resources are inadvertently exposed to the Internet
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables automated self-service for EIP management. The cloud platform automatically discovers, collects, stores, and synchronizes EIP information without requiring manual intervention from service owners. This automation eliminates human errors while maintaining operational simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback mechanisms where EIP information is automatically monitored, validated, and updated. The platform receives feedback from cloud service configurations and automatically corrects incomplete or outdated information, ensuring ongoing accuracy and security.
2Adaptability or versatility
If EIPs are stored separately on different public cloud platforms, then each platform maintains its own data, but services on different platforms cannot access each other's EIPs
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a universal EIP registry that functions across multiple cloud platforms. A single centralized storage solution serves all platforms, enabling services on any platform to access EIP information from any other platform while maintaining platform-specific data policies.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a intermediary synchronization mechanism that bridges different cloud platforms. This intermediary layer collects EIP data from various platforms, standardizes the information format, and distributes it to all participating platforms, enabling cross-platform accessibility without compromising individual platform autonomy.
3Ease of manufacture
If manual EIP management is used, then implementation is straightforward, but security risks arise from inadvertent exposure of internal resources
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements automated self-service security measures. The cloud platform automatically identifies which EIPs should be exposed and which should remain private, applying appropriate security policies without requiring manual configuration from service owners. This eliminates security misconfigurations while maintaining ease of deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies preliminary security measures by automatically validating EIP configurations before publication. The platform proactively prevents insecure configurations by checking against security policies and blocking potentially harmful exposures before they can compromise internal resources.
Data Source
AI summary
A system performs automated network address synchronization in a multi-cloud environment. The system instantiates a trusted public cloud environment (TPCE) based on a specification in a first public cloud environment (PCE). The TPCE offers a set of services. The system discovers a set of external network addresses (ENAs) associated with the set of services, and records the set of ENAs in a storage in the TPCE. The system synchronizes the set of ENAs with another set of ENAs associated with a set of services in another TPCE, causing the services in the two TPCEs to have access to both ENAs associated with services in the two TPCEs.