What is the data plane?

The data plane is a crucial component in modern cloud architectures, responsible for the actual processing of data that is farmed out by the control plane to accomplish some task for the distributed system. In cloud networking, it handles the movement of data packets within and between cloud environments, executing routing decisions provided by the control plane and managing data flow across the network's physical and virtual infrastructure with high efficiency and speed. The data plane also encompasses various other functions critical to network performance, including traffic filtering, load balancing at the packet level, and QoS management. Additionally, it plays a key role in database as a service systems, running the actual database engine software that stores and processes underlying data, and analytics systems, processing vast amounts of operational data stored across various OLAP or Data Warehouse systems. The security of the data plane is also essential to protect against data breaches and unauthorized access, employing techniques such as encryption, intrusion detection systems, authentication, and authorization. Overall, the data plane is an integral part of modern cloud architecture, making it essential for the smooth operation and reliability of cloud distributed systems.