> In a datacenter environment, we prefer centralized controllers over decentralized ones due to their simplicity and ability to make higher-quality decisions. In many cases, a hybrid approach—a centralized control plane combined with a decentralized data plane—provides the best of both worlds.
This approach appears to be one of the most optimal designs for software networking (service mesh) and for storage (database operations) for organizations with large server counts. I was surprised to see their IP networking to follow the same model, rather than primarily relying on BGP.
It was omitted in this paper, but I would expect for local caching to be used to reduce load on L7 routers and for improved latency for database queries. Clients can invalidate caches and perform another lookup to the service mesh after a reasonable timeout (100-500ms).
This approach appears to be one of the most optimal designs for software networking (service mesh) and for storage (database operations) for organizations with large server counts. I was surprised to see their IP networking to follow the same model, rather than primarily relying on BGP.
It was omitted in this paper, but I would expect for local caching to be used to reduce load on L7 routers and for improved latency for database queries. Clients can invalidate caches and perform another lookup to the service mesh after a reasonable timeout (100-500ms).