The requirements of abiCloud does not differ a lot of the requirements of a fully virtualized environment in a datacenter. This configuration enables you to maximize server consolidation and realize significant cost reductions.

You can set up a minimal Cloud Platform with a single NIC per server. This NIC manages all the traffic of each network type, and can be correct for testing purposes, but it's not adequate for production environments.

If you are considering abiCloud for production environments, then you need a minimum of three NICs per server — one to connect to the Management Network, a second to connect to the Cloud Cluster Network, and a third for the Public Network to connect to Internet. If you want to deploy abiCloud Enterprise you will need an extra NIC to connect to the Storage Network. Abiquo recommends NIC teaming for redundancy.

Each network has different attributes because of the nature of the traffic across them. This is the list of basic features of the network devices in your architecture:

• Use NICs and Network Devices with transmission speed rates above 1Gb.
• Use dedicated switches for the platform.

802.1q VLANs will be supported in future versions of abiCloud.