Traditional IPE deployments have been focused on delivering high-quality services (monitoring, enforcement, and charging) for broadband subscribers. However, a movement is afoot in the industry to move everything into the cloud, and this will have profound implications on how networks are built and managed. Let’s look at the problem from four different angles:

• Consumer: As a consumer, if I put data in the cloud to enable me to access it from multiple devices, I want to be able to access the data with some level of quality. The more important it is to me, the more likely I am to want to ensure that I have access.
• Business User: As a business user, especially when my broadband connection is subsidized by the company, I am willing to pay for priority access to that data. Services and applications like Salesforce.com, Webex/GoToMeeting, and especially VOIP, are business-critical. Failure to be able to access them in times of need could have negative business effects.
• Content or Application Provider: As a hosting customer, I want to ensure that the service that I am paying for is highly available, and that I am billed accurately for the usage. I also want reports on how my service is performing, who is accessing the service, peak usage, etc., so that I can plan for future growth and expansion.
• Hosting or Service Provider: The cloud hosting business is becoming a very attractive business, not only for broadband operators, but also for companies like Amazon and Google. The ability to deliver high quality services and provide business intelligence to their customers will set them apart from the pack.

In all cases – the ideal solution is something that can:
1) Provide Analytics: Ensure that all traffic is properly accounted for (i.e., charged) by the network, and analyze how the service needs to evolve over time
2) Provide Subscriber Awareness: Whether the hosting provider views the content as the subscriber, or the application owner views the incoming connection as a subscriber, the ability to treat each user according to their service class is vital for mission critical SLAs
3) Enforce SLAs and Control Bandwidth Usage: Ensure that each subscriber (whether consumer or hosted content operator) receives the appropriate levels of service, bandwidth, connection, etc.

Although not a traditional use for Intelligent Policy Enforcement, it is becoming more common for IPE systems to be deployed in front of the cloud services. The “subscribers” that the IPE system follows are then combinations of content owners and end-users, and the data center operator can now ensure that all receive the right level of service, and detailed billing records are available for SLA verification. This is the tip of the iceberg for this type of deployment. This function goes far beyond the simple QoS mechanisms that are often used in datacenters today.

Expect to see a great deal more activity in the Cloud going forward!