Abstract: For a multi-tenant environment, some embodiments of the invention provide a novel method for forwarding tenant traffic through a set of service machines to perform a set of service operations on the tenant traffic. In some embodiments, the method performs a classification operation on a data message flow of a tenant, in order to identify a set of service operations to perform on the data message flow. For some data message flows, the classification operation selects the identified set of service operations from several candidate sets of service operations that are viable service operation sets for similar data message flows of the tenant. In some embodiments, the classification operation is based on a set of attributes associated with the data message flow (e.g., five tuple identifier, i.e., protocol and source and destination ports and IP addresses).

Abstract: Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to use artificial intelligence to define encryption and security policies in a software defined data center are disclosed. Example apparatus include a language parser to parse a natural language statement into a policy statement that defines a distributed network encryption policy or a distributed network security policy. Example apparatus also include a comparator to compare the policy statement to a set of reference policy templates and a template configurer to select a first policy template from the set of reference policy templates in response to the comparator determining the first policy template corresponds to the policy statement. A policy distributor distributes a policy rule defined by the first policy template for enforcement at network nodes of a software defined data center. The policy rule is a distributed network encryption policy rule or a security policy rule.

Abstract: The technology disclosed herein enables a dynamic chain of virtual service functions for processing network traffic in a virtual computing environment. In a particular embodiment, a method includes providing a service chain policy to a virtual routing element connecting the respective service functions and determining an initial classification of a network packet entering the dynamic service chain. The initial classification indicates at least a first service function in a sequence of the service functions for processing the network packet. The method further includes providing a service chain policy to a virtual routing element connecting the respective service functions.