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Network Virtualization: Why Get Certified?

As a networking professional, you know there’s only one certainty in today’s business landscape: change. As technology continues to grow and evolve, so has the way we operate and manage the network. Throughout most of the data center, hardware-centric infrastructure has been replaced with more agile, efficient, software-defined solutions. That’s a huge step forward—but the transformation won’t be complete until the network is virtualized, too.

Are you prepared to deliver and manage the network your business users need?

Virtualization Is Inevitable

Network virtualization opens the door to a whole new set of exciting possibilities. When you virtualize the network, you can create, provision, and manage networks in software, programmatically. That means your users’ services will be faster and more secure than ever. It also means your organization will save valuable time and money.

Go with the Flow—or Get Left Behind

You already know how to run a network. So why is getting certified in network virtualization so important? Because in this field, credibility is everything. Certification sets you apart. It demonstrates not only that you are knowledgeable, but also that you’re dedicated to moving your IT organization forward.

Earlier this year we talked to Fred Baker, a Senior Network Engineer, Continue reading

Enhanced Disaster Recovery with Cross-VC NSX and SRM

Check-out the new Disaster Recovery with NSX and SRM white paper that explains how Cross-VC NSX + VMware’s SRM offers an Enhanced Disaster Recovery (DR) solution and solves many of the challenges related to traditional DR solutions. This solution provides consistent logical networking and security across protected and recovery sites and faster recovery upon disaster scenarios. A summary and overview of the solution is provided below.  Continue reading

It’s Here: ‘Network Virtualization For Dummies’

Today, just about all enterprise data centers have virtualized a significant portion of their server resources, and a large percentage are moving to virtualize their storage resources as well.

 

That’s because the majority of IT organizations are realizing the payoff that comes with virtualization—things like better utilization of resources, increased IT agility, and lower capital and operational costs. Organizations have not yet virtualized their network resources, meanwhile, are leaving a lot of money on the table—in terms of potential capital and operational cost savings, increased data center security, and greater business and IT agility.

 

But could that payoff be even bigger? That’s the question asked in the new reference book “Network Virtualization for Dummies,” which explores the benefits of network virtualization in depth. Published by Wiley and sponsored by VMware, the book offers a crash course on the new, virtualized approach to the network, which is a key building block for the software-defined data center.

 

In simple, straightforward language, “Network Virtualization For Dummies” explains the fundamentals of network virtualization, including its core concepts, key technology components, use cases, and business and IT benefits. Spend a little time with the book—and a little time is really all you’ll Continue reading

Come Out to vForum Montreal on April 21!

Hey IT pros! Do you want to know how to simplify your IT with VMware solutions? Then join us at vForum Montreal on April 21st to discover the latest tips and tricks so that you can transform your IT! Whether you’re just starting out or you already have an advanced deployment plan, we’ll help you navigate your IT journey across cloud, virtualization and mobility. Make sure to free up your schedule for this one-day event – it’s free!

In the morning, you’ll hear some of IT’s biggest names dole out actionable advice on how to deliver an effective cloud strategy. Listen to VMware CTO of the Americas, Chris Wolf, discuss four key priorities that drive today’s IT imperatives. Then stick around for IDC Canada’s very own Program VP, David Senf, who will share his vast experience in forecasting and tracking markets & competitors in the cloud, servers, storage, networking & security, software tools and virtualization. Rounding out our list of keynote speakers is Shawn Rosemarin, VMware Chief of Staff Systems Engineer, who’ll explain how VMware’s Software Defined Enterprise can help mature your organization from a “cost center” into a “valued service provider.”

After lunch, dive deep into your IT Continue reading

VMware vCloud Air Disaster Recovery Helps Meet Key Recovery Point Objectives at an Affordable Cost

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 10, 2015 – VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced the City of Avondale, Ariz., has implemented VMware’s unified platform for the hybrid cloud. By virtualizing the network with VMware NSX™ and adopting VMware vCloud® Air™ Disaster Recovery, the City is better equipped to protect critical services. More than simple backups, Avondale is better prepared to achieve quick recovery from unforeseen incidents that could impact the delivery of municipal services to citizens and businesses such as traffic management, water and wastewater utilities, and emergency response by police officers and firefighters.

The city of Avondale, an innovative community in the Phoenix Metropolitan area, is committed to making sure that critical health, safety, utility, and financial services are always available for its residents. According to the City of Avondale, its municipal government maintains a budget of $180 million with over 500 employees. The 16-person Information Technology (IT) department supports the community by using technology to engage the community and innovate municipal services to keep the city responsive, efficient, and secure.

The City was looking to improve its ability to recover from unforeseen disasters through cloud-based disaster recovery. Given the Continue reading

Automating Security Group and Policy Creation with NSX REST API

As we’ve seen in many of the prior posts, VMware NSX is a powerful platform decoupling networking services from physical infrastructure. NSX effectively enables logical networking and security within a virtualized environment; this brings many of the same benefits we’re familiar with gaining from server virtualization such as flexibility, faster provisioning, better utilization of hardware, cost savings, decreased downtime, etc. One of the major benefits of the software approach that NSX brings is the ability to automate easily via REST API. In this post, we’ll take a look at a simple yet realistic use case focused around security where automation can help.  Continue reading

Cross-VC NSX for Multi-site Solutions

The Cross-VC NSX feature introduced in VMware NSX 6.2, allows for NSX logical networking and security support across multiple vCenters. Logical switches (LS), distributed logical routers (DLR) and distributed firewall (DFW) can now be deployed across multiple vCenter domains. These Cross-VC NSX objects are called Universal objects. The universal objects are similar to distributed logical switches, routers, and firewall except they have global or universal scope, meaning they can span multiple vCenter instances. With Cross-VC NSX functionality, in addition to the prior local-scope single vCenter objects, users can implement Universal Logical Switches (ULS), Universal Distributed Logical Routers (UDLR), and Universal DFW (UDFW) across a multi-vCenter environment that can be within a single data center site or across multiple data center sites. In this post we’ll take a look at how we do this. Continue reading

Securing Access to and from your Jump Box and VDI with VMware NSX

Companies have struggled for years on how to allow third parties access to specific systems Cyber-Security-King_Blogthat they manage or support? These systems and access requirements range from HVAC and phones systems to full IT outsourcing or development.

The problem has always been twofold; one, how to provide secure access into the datacenter, and two, how do you secure the third party access to only the systems they require access to. Basically, how do you limit the hop to hop once they are inside your datacenter.

In the paper, I show you how leveraging VMware’s NSX and VMware Horizon products, you now have two different deployment modules that will allow you to control third party access and restrict that user’s inter-datacenter hopping abilities.

Here you will find the full paper: https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-31415

Hadar

 

The post Securing Access to and from your Jump Box and VDI with VMware NSX appeared first on The Network Virtualization Blog.

Introducing VMware NSX Fundamentals LiveLesson from VMware Press

We are pleased to announce the first official video learning opportunity for VMware NSX VMware NSX Fundamentalstechnology – VMware NSX Fundamentals LiveLesson from VMware Press. This video course will provide viewers the information needed to understand NSX concepts, components and deployment options. As an added benefit, this course used the most recently version (VMware NSX 6.2) at its foundation to make sure you have the most current materials available for your reference. As it is based on NSX 6.2, the breadth of new features available are covered in detail including multi-vCenter, enhanced NSX operations tools, NSX automation and more! Continue reading

And So…

I’d like to share some personal news with you, industry watchers and fans of VMware’s network virtualization offering.

As network virtualization starts to mature, and it has, I have thought hard about how best to participate in the broader movement of infrastructure to software and services that I believe so strongly in. Having spent the last decade in a deep, but narrow operating roll, I have decided that going forward I would like to engage much more broadly.

Recently, Andreessen Horowitz VC reached out about a GP position in the enterprise space.  Given my familiarity and history with the firm, and how rare these opportunities are, I knew this was my chance. So I accepted. Continue reading

Cross Continental vMotion with VMware NSX and IBM Softlayer Cloud

Ten years ago, using VMware vMotion to migrate a Virtual Machine from one server to another, even in the same rack without interruption, was considered black magic, prompting raised eyebrows and a flurry of questions.  Today, it takes quite a bit more than just a standard host-to-host vMotion to solicit a similar response.Recently however, we received a reaction similar to the days of old, rich with the nostalgia of the early days of vMotion. Continue reading

“Split and smear” your security policies: Static Unidimensional vs. Dynamic Multi-Dimensional Policies

In my previous post I explained why current security architectures aiming at inspecting all inline traffic via hardware appliances are failing to provide proper segmentation and scale in modern day data centers.  As I described, this has nothing to do with the type of security technology being deployed but rather with engineering security services that can answer the requirements of scale, high bandwidth, micro-segmentation and distributed applications.

We have to remind ourselves why we are having these architectural discussions: the application and service landscape has been virtualized, generally in excess of 70%, while entertaining any cloud solution will force you down the path of moving to 100% virtualization.  Yes, there are still physical servers and legacy applications to which we will extend security services to.  But instead of being the norm, we now have to consider their place in the overall architecture as exceptions and design security and networking services around what makes up the bulk of the workloads, i.e. virtualized applications in the form of VMs and containers.

With this understanding, let’s discuss how years of deploying hardware security architectures have boxed us in a complex unidimensional, sequential approach to security policies and how we can now move beyond this implementation scheme with virtualization and the proper software tools. Continue reading

3 Reasons Why Your Security Strategy is not Mobile-Cloud Era Ready (Webcast)

Geoff Huang, VMware

Geoff Huang, VMware

As technology evolves, companies adapt and grow. We are no longer confined to conducting business within brick and mortar offices. We can hold a meeting on our tablet in a coffee shop or organize our schedules in our smartphones at the grocery store. Even storage has travelled from overflowing file cabinets into a vast, expansive cloud that can be reached from portable devices wherever, whenever. As businesses go mobile, security is more vital than ever, and it’s important that we enhance it while remaining productive. But how can we be certain that our valuable, business-critical resources are protected?

Geoff Huang, VMware’s Director of Product Marketing, Networking and Security, will host this half-hour webcast on February 18th at 11:00 am PST on why yesterday’s security measurements have become inadequate with the rise of network virtualization, and how NSX can offer a remedy in the modern, mobile workspace.

The truth is, the mobile cloud’s increased efficiency also comes with increased security threats. Before, security was created by building a moat around a network to guard company resources against outsiders trying to break-in. Once that network transitions into a mobile workspace, however, its borders can no longer be tangibly defined, so Continue reading

E-Rate Dollars Can Now Be Used To Take Advantage of SDN with VMware NSX

The need for substantive network security in schools has never been greater. According to ID vmw-phto-nsx-erate-420x276-tnAnalytics, more than 140,000 minors are victims of identity fraud per year—and when their data is exposed, it is misused more frequently. One reason for this is that minors’ clean credit reports can make them extra attractive to identity thieves.

“The educational space is extremely concerned about ensuring [that] Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about students, and their respective data, is kept safe, secure, and only used for the learning environment,” says Jason Radford, head of operations for IlliniCloud. Continue reading

The Future State of Security Starts with Virtualization: VMware at the 2016 RSA Conference

It’s no secret that by transforming networking into a software industry, network virtualization has accelerated innovation. But what does virtualization mean for security more broadly? Can virtualization be a key weapon in the arsenal for improving IT security? If so, how?

Tom Corn, & Guido Appenzeller, VMware Inc.

Tom Corn, & Guido Appenzeller, VMware Inc.

Continue reading

Advanced VMware NSX Security Services with Check Point vSEC

VMware NSX provides an integrated Distributed Firewall (DFW), which offers L2-L4 security at the vNIC level and protects East-West traffic, and an Edge Firewall provided by the Edge Services Gateway (ESG), which offers L2-L4 security at the edge and protects North-South traffic in and out of the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC).

Figure 1: VMware NSX DFW and Edge Firewall Logical Design Example

Figure 1: VMware NSX DFW and Edge Firewall Logical Design Example

The DFW is a kernel-level module and allows for enhanced segmentation and security across a virtualized environment. DFW enables a distributed security architecture allowing for micro-segmentation.

In addition to the DFW and ESG Firewall, there are many third party integrations with well-known security partners such as Check Point and Palo Alto Networks. In this blog, we’ll focus on the Check Point vSEC solution for NSX. For a complete list of security partner solutions and more information, see the supported NSX third party security products on the VMware NSX Technical Partners Webpage.

For this blog, the following VMware and Check Point components and corresponding versions are used:

  • VMware vSphere 5.5
  • VMware vCenter 5.5
  • VMware NSX 6.1.4
  • Check Point Management Server R77.30
  • Check Point SmartConsole R77.30
  • Check Point vSEC Controller R77.30
  • Check Point Continue reading

Automating VMware NSX Security Rules Creation using Splunk and Some Code

The VMware NSX network virtualization platform allows us to build sophisticated networking and security constructs in software. NSX has a rich RESTful API which allows one to build highly flexible and automated environments. In this blog, we’re going to focus on operations and automation; we’ll demonstrate one example of automation around security policies/rules that can be done with NSX.

VMware NSX allows for micro-segmentation with a distributed firewall service (DFW). The DFW is a kernel-level module and allows for enhanced segmentation and security across a virtualized environment. One of the common questions we get asked is, “how do I decide what rules to build?” NSX allows for multiple options to create rules such as the use of NSX flow-monitoring or analyzing traffic patterns via logging to create the rules.

We’ll demonstrate how the VMware NSX DFW can be monitored with the popular Splunk platform. Further, we’ll demonstrate, along with using Splunk for monitoring traffic passing through the DFW, how the NSX REST API can be leveraged to automate workflows and creation of DFW rules. Continue reading

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