On-premises Data Center Load Balancer Service Delivery Model Based on Infrastructure as Code

Abstract

Data center networks foster new innovations and technology and are evolving rapidly. Companies and network operators are struggling to keep up with the required speed of delivery due to lack of automation which affects companies’ reputation and can ultimately lead to loss of customers. Furthermore, time pressure and manual processes increases the probability of configuration errors and therefore incidents caused by change which can have worse consequences to companies and society. The solution to the problem is automation. The thesis uses design science research approach, and the objective is to propose load balancer service delivery model based on Infrastructure as Code (IaC). The proposed delivery model is expected to fulfil all the standard load balancer service requirements and shorten the time of delivery and minimize configuration errors with automation. The proposed delivery model is evaluated with case-based testing and compared with the current delivery model that rely on vendor specific interfaces. The thesis produces a design of the IaC solution and a proof of concept including future development directions and a plan for migration from the current delivery model to the proposed delivery model. The same tools setup during the thesis can be shared with other IaC solutions in the data center networks team. The proposed load balancer service delivery model with Terraform can be used to successfully deliver all the standard load balancer service request cases and offers the benefits of automation. The proposed delivery model is a valid candidate to be used in the data center networks team.