The Need For A Cloud Native Tunnel by Alex Ellis, CNCF Ambassador and Founder @ OpenFaaS Ltd Why do we need a tunnel? What are the alternatives? What can inlets and inlets-operator do?

1. The Need For A
Cloud Native Tunnel
Alex Ellis, CNCF Ambassador and
Founder @ OpenFaaS Ltd
inlets
@inletsdev

2. @inletsdev
AGENDA
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• The network is the problem 🚧
• inlets and the alternatives 🚇
• Case-studies 👔
• inlets-operator
• Recap 📝

3. @inletsdev
THE NETWORK WAS ALWAYS THE PROBLEM
• 13 year-old me
• Centre-parting hairstyle
• Geocities user
• Pete Sampras fan
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4. @inletsdev
• 13 year-old me
• Centre-parting hairstyle
• Geocities user
• Pete Sampras fan
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THE NETWORK WAS ALWAYS THE PROBLEM

5. @inletsdev
• 13 year-old me
• Centre-parting hairstyle
• Geocities user
• Pete Sampras fan
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THE NETWORK WAS ALWAYS THE PROBLEM

6. @inletsdev 6
THE NETWORK WAS ALWAYS THE PROBLEM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon_Headmaster_(TV_series)

7. @inletsdev 7
THE NETWORK WAS ALWAYS THE PROBLEM

8. @inletsdev
FAST FORWARD “A FEW” YEARS ⏩
• 30-year old me
• Software developer
• Integrating with
webhooks
• Restricted corporate
network
• No “cloud” budget
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1
2

9. @inletsdev
THE NETWORK IS STILL THE PROBLEM
• 30-year old me
• Software developer
• Integrates with GitHub
• Builds open source
deployment platforms
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10. @inletsdev
• Incoming webhooks (HTTPS)
• Stable URL
• Kubernetes integration
• Low-cost
• Easy to use
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WHAT DID WE NEED?

11. @inletsdev
A STORY OF TWO NETWORKS
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Private network Public network
No public IP
NAT
Firewall
Captive portal
Corporate proxy
Hotel WiFi
Public IP
IPv4 capacity
Additional cost
Vs.

12. @inletsdev 12
..BUT WHAT ABOUT…
• IPv6
• “Every Atom of the
surface of the Earth”
• Adoption
• Dual stack
• VPNs
• Virtual Private Network
• OpenVPN
• Wireguard/Tailscale
• UDP / Double VPN
• AWS Direct connect
• 1 or 10 gigabit fibre-optic
• $$$$
• MetalLB
• Not a tunnel
• NAT traversal? 👎
• SSH -R
• Encryption tax
• Baby-sitting
• Hard to automate

13. @inletsdev
INLETS - NETWORK TUNNEL & PROXY
Exit Node

14. @inletsdev
INLETS - NETWORK TUNNEL & PROXY
14Vendor: OpenFaaS Ltd

15. @inletsdev 15
INLETS DEMO
Try it at: http://inlets.myfaas.club

16. @inletsdev 16
INLETS DEMO
Try it at: http://inlets.myfaas.club

17. @inletsdev
INLETS VS.
• Two proxies
• inlets - HTTP L7
• inlets PRO - TCP L4
• Deploy Manually
• Automate exit-servers
• Go SDK
• inlets-operator
• inletsctl
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Ngrok
• Limited K8s integration
• ngrok.io often blocked
• Limited # connections
• Sign-up 👎
• Disconnects after 7 hours
• Closed-source
Cloudflare Argo
• Not free, locked-in
• Closed-source backend
Chisel etc
• No integrations
• GitHub only

18. @inletsdev 18
COMMUNITY 6k

19. @inletsdev 19
USE-CASES
Platform engineering
• CI/CD, billing, partner data
• ChatOps
• Alerting
Developers/freelancers
• Share work
• Collaborate
IoT
• Command and control
• VSHN - proxy OpenShift
from customer VPCs
• DX, Norway - Point of sales
for cinemas
• Edge CDNs
• Banzai Cloud - K8s
controllers
CASE-STUDIES

20. @inletsdev 20Images copyright varian.com
REAL-WORLD CASE-STUDY

21. @inletsdev 21https://www.extrahop.com/company/blog/2016/introduction-to-dicom-protocol/
• HL7 - TCP
• DICOM - TCP
• REST - HTTP
MEDICAL PROTOCOLS

22. @inletsdev 22
TRADITIONAL TUNNEL/VPN

23. @inletsdev 23
SPLIT-PLANE ARCHITECTURE

24. @inletsdev 24
INLETS OPERATOR

25. @inletsdev 25
INLETS OPERATOR

26. @inletsdev 26
INLETS OPERATOR

27. @inletsdev
• Pick your proxy:
• inlets OSS - HTTP / L7
• inlets PRO - TCP / TLS encryption
• Then automate:
• inletsctl - ad-hoc tunnels via CLI
• inlets-operator - Kubernetes
• Or go bespoke (split-plane)
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RECAP
https://
docs.inlets.dev

28. docs.inlets.dev
Thank you!
Email me: alex@openfaas.com for
Cloud Native Consulting from
OpenFaaS Ltd
inlets
@inletsdev