Single packet authorization in a cloud computing environment

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a virtual switch operating on a compute node that, in turn, is operating on at least a portion of a plurality of hardware resources of a cloud computing environment, a single packet authorization request from a single packet authorization client executing on a computing device external to and in communication with the cloud computing environment via a network;
• forwarding, by the virtual switch, the single packet authorization request to a virtual firewall and to a single packet authorization service;
• denying, by the virtual firewall, the single packet authorization request in accordance with a firewall policy;
• utilizing, by the single packet authorization service, a single packet authorization validation scheme to validate the single packet authorization request;
• and
• implementing, by the virtual firewall, a temporary firewall policy to allow incoming packets from the single packet authorization client and directed to a cloud workload executing a cloud service within the compute node.

A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least a portion of processing resources of a plurality of hardware resources of a cloud computing environment, cause the at least the portion of processing resources to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, by a virtual switch, a single packet authorization request from a single packet authorization client executing on a computing device external to and in communication with the cloud computing environment via a network;
• forwarding, by the virtual switch, the single packet authorization request to a virtual firewall and to a single packet authorization service;
• denying, by the virtual firewall, the single packet authorization request in accordance with a firewall policy;
• utilizing, by the single packet authorization service, a single packet authorization validation scheme to validate the single packet authorization request;
• and
• implementing, by the virtual firewall, a temporary firewall policy to allow incoming packets from the single packet authorization client and directed to a cloud workload executing a cloud service within the compute node.