Micro-Segmentation as a Defender: How Secure is Your Fortress?

Perhaps you have always taken pride that your network maintains strong perimeter securities, including your formidable firewall which is functioning as it should – IT infrastructure well organized, everything tightly sealed from outside threats.  You’ve done everything possible to protect your vast amount of data.  Or so you have always assumed …

The fact is, what you once thought was a strong citadel of security around your network structure is most likely insufficient in this fast-changing evolution of technology.  Perimeters are being redefined entirely with things like cloud-based applications, remote and roaming end-users, and hosted disaster recovery.  These require anywhere, anytime access to data center applications and data from any device. The cyber threats experienced today are well-coordinated attacks, and unless the many internal systems are also protected down to the workload, you are leaving yourself vulnerable to the inevitable thread that will get past your firewall.

How Arraya and VMware NSX Secure Your Ecosystem

First need to determine if and how you can benefit from a network virtualization solution, and the Arraya Solutions Virtualization team is here – ready to partner and work alongside you.  As you probably understand, it is a challenge to know everything about the makeup of your environment. To help, Arraya is offering a free network assessment to give you a holistic view of the entire network ecosystem and location of security gaps.  In case you just backed up to read the last sentence again, yes, this initial assessment is absolutely free.  With our application-focused tool, we can provide thorough insight into your network infrastructure, reducing the time needed to plan and configure your virtualized network by up to 70%.

Sounding like a good plan?  We also handle the deployment of VMware NSX from start to finish – the goal being to develop and implement the best solutions based on your specific needs.  In the process we will empower your IT departments and company as a whole to continue to discover innovative uses and applications for enhanced security using micro-segmentation.  So now, let’s talk a little bit about what micro-segmentation is and what it can do for your network.

Using VMware NSX Micro-segmentation

So what exactly does VMware NSX micro-segmentation do?  Micro-segmentation allows your organization to assign firewall monitoring capabilities at the application and workload (even user) level.  You can then define network and security policies for each of these “virtual firewalls” that follow their application/workload as it moves around the data center, across data centers, or into the cloud.  What this means is that if the even if the perimeter is breached, the threat’s ability to move laterally inside the data center will be severely restricted.  It has been likened to a bank vault filled with individual deposit boxes.  If the vault is entered, the separate security boxes are still protecting individual items inside.  Without internal protection, an attack can move laterally from workload to workload with no controls to stop its proliferation!  Micro-segmentation contains and blocks this movement to other systems, dramatically reducing the attack surface and risk to your organization.

Key benefits you’ll see using a virtualized network:

• Security – Operational model closely resembles that of a virtual machine (VM), and micro-segmentation monitors traffic as it flows between systems and workloads.
• Agility – Network changes can be addressed quickly in a matter of minutes instead of days.
• Flexibility – Applications are able to move across data centers and to the cloud with no changes to the physical network.

Micro-segmentation is going to allow you to lower the impact of data center breaches, accelerate time to market, protect your existing network investments, lower your operating expenses and achieve both speed and business agility.  All-in-all a very sound investment and safeguard.

Arraya Virtualized Network Solutions – Helping you Breathe a Little Easier

Another bonus to a virtualized network means your IT security teams will no longer be viewed as inhibiting business agility with overarching, restrictive safety policies.  This, in turn means less conflict between those factions and business units.  No longer will performance necessarily have to be sacrificed for safety.  When you partner with Arraya, you get a team of individuals who are as committed to your business as you are. We have the technical skills and experience necessary to find the solutions you need, with people skills that set us apart.  Get ahold of us and start reinforcing your network today!

To learn more, get in touch with us today by emailing info@arrayasolutions.com – or you can join us for the 3rd Annual Arraya Tech Summit. This free event includes a full day of courses covering the latest IT solutions and challenges. Each session will be presented by a member of our technical team to ensure an in-depth, comprehensive presentation that is truly by techs, for techs. One session included on the day’s agenda is ACI & NSX: A Side-By-Side Look at the Software-Defined Data Center. During this class, attendees will be guided through some common use cases for software-defined networking and explore what the industry looks like today. The Tech Summit will be held on June 8 at the Sheraton Valley Forge in King of Prussia, PA. While it is free, registration is required, so please visit: https://events.arrayasolutions.com/ to reserve your spot today!