Did you know that Skytap now allows you to provision complex environments in the cloud to develop and test multi-machine, multi-tier applications? You can also provision multiple configurations for your development and test teams so that each team can work in isolated environments in parallel and collaborate with each other globally. These teams often need access to a common set of centralized servers. Examples include: (Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle Database Server and MySQL), Application Lifecycle Management tools (Microsoft Team Foundation Server and HP Application Lifecycle Management server), Microsoft Active Directory Server, and many more.
Inter-Configuration Network Routing (ICNR) allows you to set up these servers as centralized resources that can be shared across multiple teams. (Read Full Press Release Here).
With ICNR, you can easily create configurations with centralized server resources and create network level connections between centralized resources and other configurations that need access to it. This connection enables VMs in connected configurations to send network traffic to the servers within the centralized configuration. Users only need application level credentials to connect to these shared servers and not complete access to the VMs in the centralized configuration.
This model allows you to create a set of centralized servers to be used by multiple teams while restricting operational control over those servers. It enables you to set up these shared servers with an accurate and consistent configuration for your teams. Furthermore, having teams share these servers enables you to reduce your infrastructure costs.