Classification and forwarding node for integrating disparate headend traffic ingress services with disparate backend services

A method comprising:

• receiving, from a first headend node associated with a first cloud-delivered ingress service and at a first classification and forwarding node that is associated with a first networked computing environment, a first data packet encapsulated according to a first encapsulation protocol that is supported by the first classification and forwarding node;
• modifying a header of the first data packet to include identification metadata;
• determining, by the first classification and forwarding node, that the first data packet is to be sent to a first cloud-delivered security service from among a group of cloud-delivered security services;
• determining, by the first classification and forwarding node, that the first cloud-delivered security service is associated with a second networked computing environment different than the first networked computing environment;
• based at least in part on determining that the first cloud-delivered security service is associated with the second networked computing environment:
• refraining from encapsulating the first data packet according to a second encapsulation protocol;
• and
• sending the first data packet to a second classification and forwarding node that is associated with the second networked computing environment.

A method comprising:

• receiving, at a first classification and forwarding node of a first networked computing environment and from a second classification and forwarding node of a second networked computing environment, a first data packet encapsulated according to a first encapsulation protocol that is supported by the first classification and forwarding node and the second classification and forwarding node;
• determining, by the first classification and forwarding node, that the first data packet is to be sent to a first cloud-delivered security service from among a group of cloud-delivered security services associated with the first networked computing environment;
• determining, by the first classification and forwarding node, whether the first encapsulation protocol is supported by the first cloud-delivered security service;
• based at least in part on determining that the first cloud-delivered security service supports a second encapsulation protocol different than the first encapsulation protocol:
• encapsulating the first data packet according to the second encapsulation protocol;
• and
• sending the first data packet to the first cloud-delivered security service.