Google extends Cisco networking relationship with cloud-based network management

Google has launched its Network Connectivity Center, which lets companies create and manage networks spanning their premises and the cloud.

Launched in preview this week, the Network Connectivity Center lets companies create their multi-cloud and hybrid on-premises/cloud networks on Google's infrastructure.

This service builds on an existing Google-Cisco partnership announced last April. The two companies combined Cisco’s SD-WAN Cloud Hub with Google Cloud to create connections between office networks and Google’s cloud-based network. This week’s announcement puts a single management interface on top of that. It also offers customers an easy way to connect Cisco’s SD-WAN implementation to Google Cloud, Google said in a blog post announcing the new service.

Customers can use a single dashboard to create a cloud VPN that connects their on-premises users to Google’s network, providing secure cloud services. They can also use cloud interconnect to extend their on-premises network into Google’s network directly or via a third-party partner interconnect.

An option to connect third-party routers and SD-WAN appliances also lets companies connect with existing third-party software-defined networks in the cloud.

Tying these network options together within a single management interface lets customers manage them all from a central point.

Common use cases for Network Connectivity Center include peering different enterprise networks via Google’s infrastructure and creating multi-cloud network connections. They can connect their corporate headquarters and in-house data centers to these other networks via Google Cloud.

The SD-WAN service enables companies to connect different sites using software-defined networking within Google’s cloud infrastructure. This could benefit organizations that want a simpler way to connect many branch offices or retail outlets to a single network they can then manage via the cloud.

Cisco also outlined the second phase of its relationship with Google, including the real-time exchange of telemetry data with all Google Cloud multi-cloud applications.