Alkira's NIaaS platform enables businesses to seamlessly connect users, business partners, clouds, and data centers with full visibility and control. It eliminates the need for hardware or software deployment, allowing organizations to build secure global networks in minutes. Learn more.
Alkira extends on-premises networks into GCP and enables hybrid multi-cloud networking from GCP. It simplifies GCP's unique networking constructs, such as multi-region VPCs and multiple network interfaces, by providing seamless, cloud-native network infrastructure on-demand. Read more.
Alkira allows customers to onboard application or host VPCs directly onto the Alkira Cloud Exchange Point (CXP), establishing secure cloud attachments. Alkira manages routing and connectivity, advertising all VPC subnets to other GCP VPCs, other clouds, and on-premises networks. Routing can be managed with default or prefix-based routes for granular control.
Alkira enables seamless connectivity to GCP Global VPCs, ensuring dynamic failover across regions and traffic symmetry within each region. By leveraging BGP Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) values, Alkira optimizes route selection, path preference, and failover handling for efficient and resilient networking.
Alkira extends GCP Private Service Connect endpoints to other cloud providers or on-premises environments without manual route management. This enables secure, scalable multi-cloud connectivity and private access to native GCP services, third-party marketplace services, and services in other GCP accounts.
Alkira provisions GCP Interconnect connectors via its portal, generates pairing keys, and manages underlay and overlay peering. This allows customers to extend high-bandwidth private connectivity into GCP, supporting multiple route domains or VRFs and enabling unified, scalable, and flexible cloud networking across clouds and regions.
Alkira's Internet Facing Application (IFA) eliminates the need for external load balancers, manual NAT, and complex VPC peering. It enables centralized egress via the Cloud Exchange Point (CXP), ensuring consistent egress IPs, enhanced security, simplified policy enforcement, and cost-effective, scalable GCP networking.
Alkira supports segmentation by creating unique routing and policy spaces for workloads and traffic flows. Each segment maintains its own routing and policies, allowing for easy enforcement of traffic restrictions and enhanced security for GCP workloads.
Alkira allows configuration of different NAT policies on the Cloud Exchange Point (CXP) to overcome overlapping IPs, without requiring additional agents or firewalls in GCP. This simplifies network management and avoids the complexity of native cloud solutions.
Alkira offers robust monitoring and visibility into all traffic traversing GCP workloads. Users gain detailed insights into traffic types, direction, and bandwidth utilization, which facilitates efficient troubleshooting and network optimization.
Alkira integrates with Terraform, allowing customers to use a single Terraform provider to provision network infrastructure across GCP regions, on-premises, and other clouds. This enables consistent, automated, and efficient deployments at scale.
Yes, Alkira enables seamless connectivity across multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, and GCP, as well as on-premises environments. This allows organizations to scale deployments and manage hybrid or multi-cloud networks without operational burden.
Key benefits include simplified connectivity, segmentation, overlapping IP management, robust visibility, automation with Terraform, and the ability to extend connectivity to other clouds and on-premises environments. Alkira eliminates manual configurations and operational complexity, providing a scalable, secure, and cost-effective solution.
GCP's VPCs span multiple regions and require each network interface to be attached to a different VPC. Alkira simplifies these complexities by providing seamless, cloud-native network infrastructure, automated routing, and centralized management, making GCP networking easier for enterprises.
Alkira meets requirements such as secure multi-cloud connectivity, segmentation, overlapping IP management, robust visibility, automation, and the ability to extend connectivity to other clouds and on-premises environments, all without manual route management or additional infrastructure.
Alkira eliminates the need for manual configurations, external load balancers, and additional agents or firewalls required by native GCP networking. It provides a unified, automated, and scalable solution for multi-cloud and hybrid networking, reducing operational burden and complexity.
Customers onboard their GCP VPCs directly onto the Alkira Cloud Exchange Point (CXP), where Alkira manages routing, connectivity, and segmentation. This process is streamlined and does not require manual route management or additional infrastructure in GCP.
Alkira uses GCP Interconnect as an underlay and creates different overlay tunnels for each segment or VRF. This allows customers to extend multiple VRFs or route domains into GCP or other cloud environments using the same Interconnect, simplifying complex network topologies.
Alkira's IFA streamlines application connectivity in GCP by removing the need for external load balancers, manual NAT, and complex VPC peering. It enables seamless connectivity across VPCs, regions, and clouds, with centralized egress and consistent IPs for enhanced security and policy enforcement.
Key features include global backbone-as-a-service, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), drag-and-drop interface, vendor-agnostic integrations, integrated security, rapid deployment, comprehensive visibility, and automation with Terraform. Learn more.
Yes, Alkira integrates with AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and leading security vendors such as Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, and Check Point. It also supports automation and observability tools like Splunk and Terraform. See all integrations.
Yes, Alkira provides an API for developers and users to integrate platform functionalities into their systems. Detailed documentation and resources are available at Alkira's API documentation page.
Alkira provides whitepapers, solution briefs, and a dedicated wiki for in-depth technical information. These resources cover use cases, partnerships, and technical details. Explore Alkira's technical resources.
Alkira is SOC 2 and PCI-DSS compliant, ensuring high standards for security, availability, confidentiality, and protection of cardholder data. See Alkira's compliance details.
Alkira addresses intra-cloud connectivity, global connectivity, design sprawl, performance issues, cost challenges, complexity in multicloud and hybrid networking, lack of visibility, scalability challenges, and operational complexity. Learn more.
Alkira enables NAT policies on the CXP to manage overlapping IPs and supports segmentation for traffic isolation and policy enforcement, without requiring additional infrastructure in GCP.
Alkira reduces cloud setup time by 96% and network management time by 47%, enabling faster deployment and streamlined operations. Customers can achieve up to 40% lower total cost of ownership compared to traditional solutions. See performance metrics.
Alkira's platform automatically adjusts network infrastructure to match bandwidth demands, ensuring rapid scalability and high-performance networking. It provides a high-speed, low-latency global backbone for enterprises with dynamic needs.
Alkira provides single-pane-of-glass tools for monitoring and managing cloud networks, ensuring businesses maintain control, transparency, and governance across hybrid and multicloud environments.
Alkira's solution is ideal for enterprises with hybrid or multi-cloud environments, technical roles like network and cloud architects, IT managers, and business leaders seeking to simplify networking, enhance security, and improve operational efficiency. See customer stories.
Industries include manufacturing, retail, healthcare, financial services, media & entertainment, telecommunications, biotech, software, and aviation. Explore case studies.
While specific GCP stories are not named, Alkira customers such as Michaels, Koch Industries, Warner Hotels, and SITA have achieved rapid deployment, improved agility, and simplified multi-cloud networking. Read customer success stories.
Customers praise Alkira's drag-and-drop interface, rapid deployment (POC in as little as 4 hours), and minimal resource requirements. One customer noted, "I just need one engineer to manage the world. Otherwise, 10 engineers." See more testimonials.
Alkira offers both consumption-based (pay-as-you-go) and commitment-based pricing. Pricing is tailored to each customer based on network elements, connectors, firewalls, and bandwidth. Fixed hourly rates are available for specific components. Request a quote.
Complete the form on Alkira's pricing page, and the team will provide a custom proposal based on your specific requirements. Get started.
Proof of concept can be implemented in as little as 4 hours, and full production deployment is typically completed in about 8 weeks. See customer experiences.
Alkira offers comprehensive training resources, including detailed guidance, demos, and technical documentation to help customers efficiently learn and implement the solution. Explore resources.
Alkira provides a true abstraction layer, vendor-agnostic integrations, drag-and-drop interface, rapid deployment, and measurable ROI. Unlike many competitors, Alkira eliminates manual configurations and vendor lock-in, offering flexibility and simplicity. See differentiators.
Alkira offers ease of use, rapid deployment, measurable ROI, vendor-agnostic flexibility, integrated security, global backbone-as-a-service, and comprehensive visibility. These features make Alkira a leader in simplifying multicloud networking and enhancing operational efficiency. Learn more.
Establishing the Control Plane for Cloud Connectivity
Read the AnnouncementAlkira’s Network Infrastructure-as-a-Service (NIaaS) platform helps businesses to extend their on-prem networks into Google cloud and also extend into hybrid multi-cloud networks from GCP.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offers unique networking capabilities compared to other cloud providers. Unlike traditional cloud networking models, GCP’s Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) spans multiple regions, whereas similar constructs in other cloud platforms are typically confined to a single region. Additionally, when launching an instance in GCP, its multiple network interfaces cannot belong to the same VPC. This means that if a virtual machine (VM) or firewall appliance needs multiple interfaces for different traffic flows, each NIC must be attached to a different VPC. These distinctions can introduce challenges for enterprises migrating to GCP or embarking on their cloud adoption journey. Alkira simplifies these complexities by providing a seamless, cloud-native network infrastructure on-demand solution.
In this blog, we will explore Alkira’s capabilities in GCP, demonstrating how it integrates with various connectivity options. We will also discuss key customer requirements for each option and demonstrate how Alkira simplifies, streamlines cloud networking, and meets customer requirements effortlessly.
Customers can onboard their application/host VPCs directly onto the Alkira Cloud Exchange Point (CXP), establishing secure Cloud attachments for connectivity. With Alkira managing both routing and connectivity, all VPC subnets can be advertised to:
For VPCs with existing connectivity, routing can be selectively managed using either a default route or specific prefix-based routing to maintain granular traffic control.
Global VPC spans multiple regions, making routing across different environments complex. Alkira simplifies this by enabling seamless connectivity to the Global VPC, ensuring dynamic failover across regions and traffic symmetry within each region. By leveraging BGP Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) values, Alkira optimizes route selection, path preference, and failover handling for a more efficient and resilient network.
GCP Private Service Connect enables private connectivity to:
To leverage this, customers create Private Service Connect endpoints to establish connectivity with these services. Once the VPC with endpoints is onboarded to Alkira CXP, Alkira extends these services to other cloud providers or on-prem environments without the need for manual route management. This ensures secure and scalable multi-cloud connectivity and the ability to access these services privately from the on-prem environments.
For high-bandwidth private connectivity into GCP, customers can use GCP Interconnect via Alkira CXP. The process is straightforward:
Beyond private connectivity, Alkira extends this connection to workloads across multiple clouds and GCP regions, since an overlay is created which enables a unified, scalable, and flexible cloud networking experience.
Another benefit of using Alkira to extend private connectivity into GCP is that when a customer has different route domains or VRFS in their on-premise environment and they want to extend these into the GCP, Alkira can use the same GCP Interconnect as an underlay and have different overlay tunnels which will be part of a different segment. Customers can then easily extend different VRFs to GCP or to the other cloud environments.
Figure 5: Internet Egress and Ingress Connectivity into GCP using Alkira CXP
Alkira’s Internet Facing Application (IFA) streamlines application connectivity in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) by eliminating the need for external load balancers, manual NAT configurations, and complex VPC peering. Traditionally, GCP applications require load balancers to route and distribute traffic, adding cost and operational overhead. With Alkira IFA, applications seamlessly connect across VPCs, regions, and even multi-cloud environments—without additional infrastructure.
For internet egress, Alkira enables a centralized breakout via the Cloud Exchange Point (CXP), ensuring all workloads share a consistent egress IP. This enhances security, simplifies policy enforcement, and removes the need for complex routing configurations, providing a cost-effective, scalable, and secure solution for GCP networking.
Alkira segments create unique routing and policy spaces, ensuring seamless isolation for workloads and traffic flows. Each segment maintains its own routing and policies, allowing customers to easily enforce traffic restrictions. GCP workloads can be onboarded into different segments based on specific routing requirements, enhancing security and control.
Alkira provides the ability to configure different NAT policies to overcome any overlapping IPs in the customer environment. For example, if multiple GCP VPCs have the same IP address configured NAT configurations can be applied on the Alkira CXP without adding any additional agents or firewalls on the GCP side which would be the case in a cloud native environment.
Alkira provides robust monitoring and visibility into all traffic traversing cloud workloads in GCP. Users gain detailed insights into traffic types, direction, and bandwidth utilization, facilitating efficient troubleshooting and network optimization.
Deploying network infrastructure at scale requires automation, and Alkira streamlines this process with Terraform integration. Customers can use a single Terraform provider to provision Alkira network infrastructure across GCP regions, on-prem environments, or other cloud providers, enabling consistent and efficient deployments.
Whether you are looking to scale up your GCP deployment or move into multiple cloud providers Alkira can provide you with the capabilities and the connectivity without having to deal with any operational burden. Please reach out to us at sales@alkira.com if you like to schedule a demo or discuss the solution in more detail.
