Cloudflare Inc. today launched a new service, Magic Cloud Networking, that organizations can use to link together workloads running on different cloud platforms.

The offering is based on technology that the company obtained through a recent startup acquisition. The startup, Nefeli Networks Inc., previously raised about $9 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates and other investors. Cloudflare announced the deal this morning without disclosing the financial terms. 

Enterprises often require the ability to establish network connections between different public clouds. A revenue forecasting application running on Azure, for example, may require access to a Google Cloud database that contains last quarter’s earnings data. Connecting such disparate workloads is difficult because cloud providers use different networking technologies that don’t always interoperate out of the box.

Cloudflare says Magic Cloud Networking service addresses the challenge. According to the company, the service provides a single pane of glass for managing networks that span multiple public clouds. Using a centralized interface is simpler than the traditional approach of managing each cloud with separate tools.

According to Cloudflare, the service allows companies to create rules that define how a network should be configured. An administrator could, for example, create a policy that specifies the traffic between two applications must be routed through an encrypted connection. Magic Cloud Networking detects cases when a cloud resource’s configuration misaligns with the policies set by administrators and automatically fixes the issue.

The company is making the service available as part of its Cloudflare One platform. The platform, which debuted in 2020, lets customers use the company’s network to move data traffic between their data centers, cloud environments and other technology assets. Magic Cloud Networking includes tools that automate the task of connecting a cloud environment to Cloudflare One.

“It configures native cloud constructs such as VPN gateways, routes, and security groups to securely connect your cloud VPC network to Cloudflare One,” Nefeli Networks engineer David Naylor and Steve Welham, the company’s director of product, explained in a blog post. “As you change your network, Cloudflare takes care of route management, injecting and withdrawing routes globally across Cloudflare and all connected cloud provider networks.”

For cases where the built-in automation features are insufficient, Magic Cloud Networking provides an application programming interface. The API makes it possible to link the service with a company’s other cloud infrastructure automation tools. Those tools can use Magic Cloud Networking to carry out maintenance tasks.

The service also provides other features aimed at easing administrators’ day-to-day work. There’s a tool that maps out the resources in a company’s cloud environments and displays technical data about each asset, such as which internal network it’s connected to. Additionally, the service visualizes this data in a graph that helps administrators understand their network’s structure.

“The majority of organizations are now using multiple public clouds in a meaningful way today, which is driving the need for solutions that drive greater operational efficiencies and agility,” said theCUBE Research principal analyst Bob Laliberte. “Cloudflare recognized this need and with the acquisition, it can leverage Nefeli to provide multi-cloud networking capabilities. This is clearly a win for Nefeli and Cloudflare customers and could mark the start of consolidation in the Multicloud Networking space as established vendors look to add this capability to their portfolio.”

Others to watch in this market, he added, includes the likes of Aviatrix Systems Inc., Prosimo Inc. and Alkira Inc.

Magic Cloud Networking is the latest in a series of new offerings Cloudflare has introduced over the past few quarters. The company’s previous product launch was on Monday, when it debuted a service called Firewall for AI. It’s designed to protect large language models from malicious network traffic.

Image: Cloudflare