DDoS Detection, Mitigation, Orchestration, and Threat Intelligence
Consolidated Security & CGNAT
TLS/SSL Inspection
Web Application Firewall
Application Security & Load Balancing
Analytics & Management
CGNAT & IPv6 Migration
Mitigate IPv4 exhaustion of private addresses
Simplified service creation and troubleshooting across DevOps teams
Reduced costs with flexible consumption-based licensing
COMPANYUber
INDUSTRYTechnology
SOLUTIONSA10 Thunder CGNA10 FlexPool
INTRODUCTIONUber was founded in 2008 to provide a way to tap a button and hail a ride. Now, Uber is a household name and people took 14 million rides in 2019. Uber has 91 million customers and 3.9 million drivers. Bookings with Uber Eats, which addresses another massive market opportunity, grew 72 percent in 2019, and Uber continues to expand with on-demand freight and health transportation.
The magic of satisfying a French fry craving or getting a ride to work in the rain is powered by Uber’s cloud. The company’s rapid growth and expansion means that Uber is consuming more of its IPv4 subnet for internal usage. In addition, acquisitions of other companies can result in overlapping IP addressing schemes. Making the most of finite resources to avoid IPv4 exhaustion is critical, and large-scale network address translation (LSN) is the way forward.
“We needed a better way to operate CGNAT for the long haul. I was looking for three things: zero-touch provisioning, a good CLI, and not having to manage licensing features” says Jason Black, Head of Global Network Infrastructure.
IPv4 addresses are exhausted. The secondary market for IP addresses isn’t cheap, and we wouldn’t be able to get as much address space as we needed anyway.
Jason Black Head of Global Network Infrastructure, Uber
Uber operates a hybrid multi cloud, using a mix of on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and public cloud providers and data centers. Uber deployed Thunder CGN for largescale network address translation in its Phoenix, AZ and Ashburn, VA data centers. There, Thunder CGN provides high-performance, always-on transparent CGNAT to extend finite IPv4 addressing resources to support Uber’s applications and services.
“A10 Thunder CGN delivers the most value for CGNAT products.”
Deployment of large-scale network address translation was methodically planned and executed. Thunder CGN fit neatly into Uber’s zero-touch provisioning mindset and automated tooling. A10 Networks’ open RESTful API and Thunder CGN’s powerful CLI provided full control and automation so Thunder CGN could be easily integrated into Uber’s Metal team processes. The team migrated the Phoenix data center to Thunder CGN first, moving traffic loads over several weeks. Once it knew the solution was successful, it did the same in Ashburn.
“With Thunder CGN, the infrastructure team can control our own destiny. We don’t have to scale across four different teams to manage the hosts.”
With Thunder CGN managing network address and protocol translation, the team can configure and manage network addressing policies across Uber’s on-premises and cloud environments.“With Thunder CGN, we have a standard monitoring pipeline,” says Black. Automated tooling manages and monitors network configurations and large-scale network address translation. That improves service reliability, operational efficiency, and simplifies future capacity planning.
A10 Networks FlexPool® licensing was another must-have. With FlexPool, Uber has consumption flexibility to distribute CGN services wherever and whenever they are needed across its cloud. CGN services are dynamically allocated to ensure application availability and over-provisioning is eliminated to reduce unused resources. “With A10, we can make sure we’re not over-licensed,” says Black
We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion. Good things happen when people can move, whether across town or toward their dreams. Opportunities appear, open up, become reality. What started as a way to tap a button to get a ride has led to billions of moments of human connection as people around the world go all kinds of places in all kinds of ways with the help of our technology.
