Cloud Networking & Security Made Clear

Beginner-friendly explanations on networking, cloud architecture, traffic flow, and security fundamentals โ€” focused on clarity, not vendor marketing.

Beginner-friendly No jargon Concepts before tools

Our Mission

Free, foundational education in cloud networking and security โ€” for anyone, anywhere. Clarity makes learning accessible to everyone.

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๐ŸŒ

Cloud Networking

Flow, Connection, Session โ€” firewall fundamentals explained clearly.

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Cloud Security

DDoS attack types and how modern networks defend against them.

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Blog

Deep-dives including A Packet Journey โ€” from bits to the cloud.

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What You Will Learn

  • Cloud Networking โ€” routing
  • Cloud Traffic flow โ€” DNS, TCP, Flow, Connection, Session
  • Cloud Architecture โ€” data centers, virtualization
  • Cloud Security โ€” firewalls, IDS/IPS, TLS, DDoS

About Me

I bring over two decades of experience in networking and security, and I continue to share my knowledge through research and blogging, with a strong focus on clarity and practical understanding.

  • Network Architecture โ€” Private and Public cloud environments for enterprise customers
  • Security Expertise โ€” PaloAlto, Fortinet, f5, Cisco,
  • Cloud Infrastructure Design โ€” AWS, Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
  • Network Automation & IaC โ€” Terraform, Kubernetes Netwokring Cilium

I currently lead Cloud Network & Security for a large bank, managing a large-scale multi-cloud environment. Before this, I spent 16 years with GBM, IBM's representative office in the Middle East.

I strongly believe that anyone with curiosity, consistency, and a willingness to learn can reach meaningful levels in their career.

Connect

Cloud Networking

Core concepts every network engineer must know โ€” Flow, Connection, and Session.

01

Flow

One direction of traffic, defined by the 5-tuple. Two flows make a full conversation.

02

Connection

Both directions combined โ€” a full conversation between two devices.

03

Session

The firewall's internal state entry tracking a connection in its session table.

01

Flow

A flow is a unidirectional stream of packets that share the same five key attributes โ€” the 5-tuple. Client โ†’ Server is one flow. Server โ†’ Client is a separate flow because the direction changes.
The 5-Tuple
๐Ÿ“ Source IP
๐ŸŽฏ Destination IP
๐Ÿ”Œ Source Port
๐Ÿ”Œ Destination Port
โš™๏ธ Protocol
Key Characteristics
  • Unidirectional โ€” one direction only
  • Used in monitoring systems โ€” NetFlow, IPFIX, sFlow
  • Used in cloud flow logs โ€” AWS VPC Flow Logs, Azure NSG Flow Logs
๐Ÿ’ก

Think of a flow as one direction of traffic.

02

Connection

A connection represents bidirectional communication between two endpoints. For TCP it begins with the SYN handshake. UDP is connectionless but most firewalls still track UDP exchanges as connections.
Key Characteristics
  • Bidirectional โ€” both directions combined
  • TCP connections begin with the SYN handshake
  • Often used in traditional firewall terminology
  • UDP is connectionless but firewalls still track it
๐Ÿ’ก

Think of a connection as a full conversation.

03

Session

A session is the firewall's internal state entry that tracks a connection. When traffic first matches a policy the rule is evaluated, NAT is applied, and a session entry is created. Subsequent packets simply match the existing session โ€” no full policy lookup needed.
A session typically stores
  • Original and translated IPs/ports โ€” pre and post NAT
  • Policy ID โ€” which rule matched
  • Timeout values โ€” when to expire the entry
  • Security profile information โ€” AV, IPS, URL filtering
  • Byte and packet counters โ€” traffic statistics
Original IPs/Ports
Translated IPs/Ports
Policy ID
Timeout Values
Security Profiles
Byte Counters
Packet Counters
Used in next-gen firewalls Fortinet FortiGate Palo Alto Networks Check Point Cisco FTD
๐Ÿ’ก

Think of a session as the firewall's memory of a conversation.

How They Relate

For a single TCP interaction
Flows
Client โ†’ Server  |  Server โ†’ Client ร— 2
Connection
The full conversation ร— 1
Session
Firewall state record ร— 1
A single TCP interaction produces 2 flows, 1 connection, and 1 session in the firewall's state table.

Cloud Security

How modern networks protect applications from volumetric, protocol, and application-layer attacks.

TbpsVolumetric Attacks
L3 / L4 / L7Attack Layers
24ร—7Automated Mitigation

What is a DDoS Attack?

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources.

Testing & Resilience Validation

L3 / L4 Lab Tools

Use only in environments you own or are authorised to test.

  • hping3 Protocol behaviour testing
  • iperf3 Throughput baseline
  • tcpdump Packet inspection
Measure: SYN backlog, drops, conntrack usage, edge rate-limits.

Layer 7 Load Testing

Simulate real users and APIs to validate WAF, caching, and autoscaling.

  • ab Apache Benchmark โ€” quick concurrency test
  • k6 Scripted HTTP tests
  • JMeter API workflows
  • Locust User behaviour simulation
  • Gatling High-performance load
Measure: p95 latency, error rate, WAF challenges, cache hit ratio, scale-up time.

The Goal of DDoS Protection

The objective is not just to block traffic, but to ensure legitimate users always get through while attacks are absorbed at the network edge.

Blog

Deep-dives on cloud networking and security concepts.

Feb 2026 ยท 15 min read ยท Networking 101

A Packet Journey โ€” From Your Computer to the Cloud

Follow data from 0s and 1s all the way to the cloud โ€” binary, transistors, OSI layers, MAC vs IP, network media, and real-world bandwidth explained.

Read more โ†’

A Packet Journey

From Your Computer to the Cloud

๐Ÿ“– Reading time: ~15 mins ยท Networking 101

The Binary World: 0s and 1s

Have you ever wondered how data from your computer actually moves across the internet and ends up in the cloud? Let's start from the very basics.

Computers operate using the binary number system โ€” only two digits: 0 and 1.

Example: To convert 13 into binary:
13 = 8 + 4 + 1 = 2ยณ + 2ยฒ + 2โฐ โ†’ 1101

How Are 0s and 1s Created?

At the lowest level, computers use transistors โ€” On (1) or Off (0). Each switch is a bit; eight bits form a byte.

How Does the Computer Understand Them?

  • Hardware layer
  • Kernel and device driver layer
  • Operating system layer
  • Application layer

When you save a file, the application informs the OS, which uses drivers to write data to the drive.

Encoding of Data

Every character is encoded using ASCII or UTF (Unicode). The word network uses 7 characters โ†’ file size is 7 bytes.

MAC vs IP Address

Systems care about IP addresses at the software level. At the local network level, devices use MAC addresses โ€” 48-bit identifiers (IEEE 802.3) that never leave the local network.

OSI Layers and Packet Formation

  • Transport โ†’ Segment
  • Network โ†’ Packet
  • Data Link โ†’ Frame
  • Physical โ†’ Bits

Each layer adds its own header. At the destination, headers are removed in reverse order.

Good Reference Read

  • What is a Packet? โ€“ Cloudflare
  • Network Media

    • Ethernet: electrical pulses over copper or fiber
    • Fiber: light pulses over glass
    • Wireless: radio waves (WiFi)
    • PAN: Bluetooth

    Network Topologies

    • Bus ยท Ring ยท Star (most common) ยท Mesh

    Speed, Bandwidth, Latency & Throughput

    Bandwidth: Maximum data capacity (bps).

    Latency: Time taken for a packet to travel (ms).

    Throughput: Actual successful data rate.

    Speed: Physical signal rate of the medium.

    A 1 Gbps connection = 128 MB/s. A 1 GB file downloads in ~8 seconds.

    The Journey Ends in the Cloud โ˜๏ธ

    The data you're reading travelled from a VS Code editor, across multiple networks, and reached you via this page hosted in the cloud.