What is it?

A virtual network isn't necessarily a service, but rather something that can be configured within our virtual infrastructure. A key difference between Genesis and many providers is that we provide Layer 2 VLANs, not Layer 3 VLANs. Layer 3 VLANs will only transport traffic among switches if the source IP address is configured on the switches.

This means that you are free to decide what IP subnets you wish to deploy on each network segment. For our public VLANs, our routers are simply a gateway sitting on one of your Layer 2 VLANs using one of your public IP addresses. You may decide to use a private subnet on this same VLAN. The traffic won't be routed anywhere, but will be transported to other VMs on the same VLAN.

If your provider only allowed Layer 3 VLANs, your provider would specify an IP subnet even for a private VLAN, which in many cases won't match up with your needs, especially for corporations that have specific IP subnets they want used at specific locations and for specific departments, etc.

You may also choose to segment your public and private subnets on many VLANs (yes, you can have 3, 4, 5, or even 10 VLANs), and provide a firewall or router between them. This firewall/router can be a VM or a co-located device. We have never had issues with software-based firewalls/routers running in a VM, and they are provided the same high-availability as your other VMs, being able to start on another physical machine if the physical machines where your VM(s) are running fails. Clustered firewalls and load-balancers are supported too, and if you contact us, we can place these on separate clusters with separate storage systems to provide an even higher-level of availability.

Examples

Basic firewall with multiple VLANs configured

Fully-redundant multiple router and multiple firewall configuration

Advantages

• layer 2 VLANs - IP agnostic - you choose your own IP scheme, not your provider
• virtual firewalls and routers can be provisioned in complex configurations
• redundant, clustered firewalls, routers, and load-balancers can be provisioned
• private subnet and VLAN traffic is unmetered
• connectivity to co-located equipment is possible if hardware devices are preferred
• under some circumstances, various network sniffing and surveilance can be provisioned
• direct connectivity with co-located equipment and possibly dedicated physical servers
• direct connectivity with our standard Virtual Infrastructure service

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