Methods and apparatus related to a flexible data center security architecture

An apparatus, comprising:

• a multi-stage switch fabric;
• a first plurality of edge devices, the first plurality of edge devices collectively having a plurality of output ports coupled to the multi-stage switch fabric and collectively having at least 1,000 input ports configured to be coupled to a plurality of peripheral processing devices, each edge device from the plurality of edge devices being configured such that a plurality of virtual resources are defined at the plurality of peripheral processing devices;
• a second plurality of edge devices coupled to the multi-stage switch fabric, the first plurality of edge devices, the second plurality of edge devices and the multi-stage switch fabric collectively defining a single logical entity;
• and
• a network management module coupled to the first plurality of edge devices and the second plurality of edge devices, the network management module configured to provision the plurality of processing devices such that the plurality of virtual resources from a first peripheral processing device from the plurality of peripheral processing devices can be migrated to a second peripheral processing from the plurality of peripheral processing devices.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a multi-stage switch fabric;
• and
• a plurality of edge devices having a first plurality of ports configured to be coupled to the multi-stage switch fabric and a second plurality of ports configured to be coupled to the plurality of peripheral processing devices, a number of ports in the first plurality of ports of the plurality of edge devices being less than a number of ports in the second plurality of ports of the plurality of edge devices, each edge device from the plurality of edge devices being configured such that a plurality of virtual resources are defined at the plurality of peripheral processing devices, the plurality of edge devices and the multi-stage switch fabric collectively defining a single logical entity,
• the plurality of edge devices and the multi-stage switch fabric collectively configured such that data traffic sent from each virtual resource from the plurality of virtual resources through a respective edge device from the plurality of edge devices and through the multi-stage switch fabric is isolated from data traffic sent from the remaining virtual resources from the plurality of virtual resources associated with the remaining edge devices from the plurality of edge devices.