Network flow processor developer Netronome has called for a re-examination of network-level application I/O architecture, saying that it is a key consideration if effective performance from cloud computing deployments is to be achieved.

The company is grounded in working with underlying silicon-related issues, I/O performance, and network level virtualization. Netronome claims that the promise of the cloud is huge and is like "virtualization on steroids," with an elasticity option that is not dependent on extra hardware procurement.

But, according to the company, "The same rules apply to life as they do to IT — and if it sounds too good to be true, it often is. The advantages of any type of cloud computing — flexibility, cost, time, and complexity — are very real, but so are the network infrastructure needs required to support this model. No matter what the type of cloud, there is a need for the internal network systems and the cloud to be able to completely and securely talk to each other."

Netronome CTO Gavin Stark warns of the effects that cloud computing can have on networks and architecture best practices. Crucially, he also specifies how developers can work with cloud based computing resources to improve performance and security.

"Changing the ratio of applications to servers changes the way we need to architect products for the data center, so by that argument cloud computing places a strain on infrastructure. The network that lives between the user and the host content, application, or service must be capable of delivering an experience to the user that makes their separation from those resources completely transparent. This can fail, and enterprises can suffer not only from outages or slowed application performance, which affect productivity, but from a host of security issues related to threats introduced via the cloud. Additionally, the amount of control enterprises may have over cloud issues will differ depending on how they’re using the cloud and how interconnected their network is with the cloud," according to Netronome.