Patent ID: 8832818

Claim:
A method comprising: connecting a private interface of a cloud server of a cloud environment of a multi-tenant data center to a port of a network device of a dedicated environment corresponding to a managed host environment of the multi-tenant data center including at least one dedicated server of a customer of the multi-tenant data center via a private network of the cloud environment on which communications of cloud servers of multiple customers of the multi-tenant data center occur as an unmetered free network, the cloud environment and the dedicated environment co-located in the multi-tenant data center and the cloud server associated with the customer, to create a hybrid connected network in which the cloud server is coupled to the network device via the private interface, the private network, and a physical interconnect, connecting the private interface including maintaining a pre-hybrid connection IP address and subnet mask of the cloud server and replacing a pre-hybrid connection default gateway of the private interface with a default gateway address for the private interface to an IP address of the network device, to route all traffic to or from the cloud server via the network device, and disabling a public interface of the cloud server; creating a record for the cloud server in a hybrid controller of the multi-tenant data center, the record including an identifier of the cloud server and an IP address of the cloud server; and writing an entry in the network device associated with the cloud server, wherein the entry is to allow communications from the cloud server destined for the at least one dedicated server to be routed directly from the cloud server via the private interface, the private network, and the physical interconnect to the network device and thereafter to the at least one dedicated server without traversing a public network of the multi-tenant data center, the network device configured to otherwise prevent communications from the cloud environment from being passed to dedicated servers of the dedicated environment.