If you’re responsible for the security of your data center, you’re likely well aware of the risks that come from outside the firewall. But what about the threats already inside your environment? 

East-west traffic, or internal traffic between virtual machines and applications, is one of the most under protected areas of the modern data center. Once a threat actor gets in, there is often nothing stopping them from moving laterally across systems. This is exactly where VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) changes the conversation. By taking the next step with the VMware vDefend add-on, VCF gives you a set of tools designed not just for operations, but for strengthening your security posture from the inside out. 

This article walks through how VCF helps address lateral movement, how visibility informs policy, and how WEI helps clients turn VCF’s built-in security features into real outcomes. 

Traditional Network Security Misses the Mark 

Most IT security teams have invested heavily in protecting the perimeter. Firewalls, endpoint controls, and secure remote access are common and expected. But once an attacker bypasses those defenses (through credential theft, a misconfigured workload, or a missed patch) they often encounter little resistance moving inside the environment. 

Many organizations understand the value of segmentation, but rarely follow through. It’s not because they don’t want to. It’s because they can’t clearly see how workloads interact, or they don’t have the tools to enforce policy without slowing everything down. 

Microsegmentation solves this by placing controls closer to the workload itself. The challenge has always been how to implement it at scale, without creating a management headache. This is where VCF comes in. 

The Power of Distributed Security 

If the VMware vDefend add-on is enabled, a distributed firewall is built directly into the hypervisor layer. That means security policies can be enforced as close to the application as possible, without relying on traditional network devices. 

Security teams can define policies based on applications, workloads, or user identity, instead of just IP addresses and VLANs. This approach improves consistency and removes a major source of error: manually managing network rules that rarely get updated once they’re deployed. 

Visibility Comes First 

Microsegmentation only works when you understand what your applications are doing. You need to see traffic flows between services before you start blocking or isolating anything. That’s where VMware Operations for Networks — formerly vRealize Network Insight — becomes critical. 

This tool maps out the flow of data between virtual machines, applications, and services. It allows IT teams to build a real picture of how applications communicate, which ports are used, and where policy enforcement should happen. 

How WEI Helps You Put VCF Security to Work 

WEI brings a strong networking foundation to every VCF engagement. Unlike many partners who only focus on virtualization, WEI’s team includes engineers with deep experience in network design, routing, and security architecture.  

Here’s how WEI helps customers activate the security capabilities of VCF: 

• Day 0/1 Network Planning: Working with your networking team to set up border gateway protocol, VLANs, and tiered routing for NSX. 

• Application Discovery: Using Operations for Networks to identify flows and dependencies before segmentation begins. 

• Security Policy Templates: Providing baseline microsegmentation policies tailored to common workloads and compliance frameworks. 

• Workshops and Enablement: Running joint sessions with your app and security teams to validate policies before rollout. 

A Smarter Way to Address Lateral Movement 

By bundling VMware vDefend and Operations for Networks into a single platform, VCF makes it easier for IT leaders to take action on long-standing security concerns. 

This isn’t about buying yet another firewall. Rather, it’s about building security into the fabric of your environment, and making it easier to understand how your systems talk to each other. It’s about giving your security and infrastructure teams a shared language and a shared toolset. 

When done right, VCF security facilitates order to your environment and making future change easier to manage. 

Let’s Get Started 

If you’ve already invested in VCF, you’ve likely got more capability sitting idle than you realize. Don’t let the bundled tools go unused. 

WEI can help you get started with: 

• A network flow assessment using Operations for Networks 

• A security activation workshop focused on vDefend 

• Service credits tied to your VCF investment that can fund part of the engagement 

Reach out to the WEI team to learn more. Securing east-west traffic doesn’t have to be a long journey. We’ll help you take the first steps and show you what’s possible. 

Next Steps: VMware by Broadcom’s bundled entitlements, such as VCF and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF), offer advanced capabilities that extend well beyond virtualization. But activating the full value of these bundles requires more than implementation. It requires a clear roadmap.

Download our tech brief, , to better understand how to move from entitlement to enablement in 4–8 weeks. WEI can set you on the fast track. 

The post How VMware Cloud Foundation Enhances East-West Security appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Zero Trust is more than just a cybersecurity buzzword, it is an essential security model for enterprises looking to safeguard their networks, data, and critical systems. With cyber threats becoming more persistent and sophisticated, traditional security approaches that rely on perimeter defenses are no longer sufficient. The Zero Trust model shifts the focus from implicit trust to continuous verification, ensuring that users, devices, and applications are authenticated and authorized before accessing resources.

Despite its effectiveness, many organizations struggle to implement Zero Trust successfully. Missteps can lead to delays, security gaps, and disruptions that weaken the overall security posture. This article outlines six common pitfalls that cybersecurity leaders should avoid when deploying Zero Trust and provides actionable steps to ensure a smoother and more secure implementation.

1. Treating Zero Trust as a Product Rather Than a Strategy

Pitfall: Organizations believe Zero Trust is a single product that can be purchased and deployed.

Why It’s a Problem: A successful Zero Trust implementation requires a shift in security philosophy, not just the addition of new technology. Many enterprises fall into the trap of buying security tools labeled as “Zero Trust” without understanding how these tools fit into a larger strategic framework. This results in fragmented implementations where solutions are deployed in silos, leading to inefficiencies, and wasted investments.

How to Avoid It:

• Develop a comprehensive Zero Trust strategy before investing in any tools.
• Identify the business objectives and critical assets that require protection.
• Ensure any technology investments align with long-term security goals and integrate seamlessly with existing infrastructure.
• Treat Zero Trust as an ongoing security practice rather than a one-time deployment.

Watch: Demystifying Zero Trust With John Kindervag

2. Failing to Identify and Prioritize Protect Surfaces

Pitfall: Organizations attempt to apply Zero Trust principles everywhere at once instead of focusing on the most critical assets.

Why It’s a Problem: Zero Trust aims to secure sensitive data, applications, assets, and services (DAS elements), but many enterprises fail to define and prioritize these protect surfaces. Without a clear understanding of what needs to be secured, organizations risk spreading security efforts too thin, leading to wasted resources and ineffective protections.

How to Avoid It:

• Use the Five-Step Zero Trust Model to identify and define protect surfaces before rolling out security controls.
• Classify data, applications, and services based on sensitivity and business impact to determine which should be secured first.
• Implement Zero Trust in a phased, incremental manner, starting with high-risk areas and expanding outward.
• Engage stakeholders across security, IT, and business units to align security priorities with business needs.

3. Overlooking Policy and Access Control Rules

Pitfall: Organizations focus on deploying security controls but neglect defining clear, enforceable policies.

Why It’s a Problem: Zero Trust is fundamentally about controlling who and what can access critical systems. Without properly defined access policies, enterprises risk creating an overly permissive environment where threats can spread or an overly restrictive system that hampers productivity.

How to Avoid It:

• Implement a least-privilege access model, ensuring that users, applications, and devices only have the permissions they absolutely need.
• Continuously refine access policies based on real-world telemetry and operational needs.
• Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) and other identity verification measures for critical resources.
• Regularly audit access control policies to adapt to changes in workforce roles, applications, and business processes.

4. Trying to Implement Zero Trust All at Once

Pitfall: Organizations attempt a company-wide Zero Trust rollout instead of taking an incremental approach.

Why It’s a Problem: A large-scale, enterprise-wide deployment of Zero Trust can be overwhelming, leading to business disruptions, resistance from teams, and integration challenges. Many organizations find themselves stalled when trying to overhaul security all at once.

How to Avoid It:

• Adopt a phased approach, starting with less critical systems to build expertise before securing high-value assets.
• Focus on one protect surface at a time, implementing Zero Trust controls iteratively.
• Gain executive and stakeholder buy-in by demonstrating early successes with smaller Zero Trust implementations.
• Ensure that the rollout strategy aligns with organizational workflows and business priorities to minimize disruptions.

Watch: AI In The SOC – Cutting Through The Noise With GenAI & Smarter Logs

5. Ignoring Business Continuity and User Experience

Pitfall: Zero Trust implementations create unnecessary friction for users, leading to workarounds that weaken security.

Why It’s a Problem: If Zero Trust policies are too rigid, they can hinder employee productivity and cause frustration among teams. Overly strict security controls may lead users to bypass protections, increasing risk rather than reducing it.

How to Avoid It:

• Involve business leaders and end-users early in the implementation process to balance security and usability.
• Monitor and adjust security policies based on user behavior, feedback, and operational impact.
• Implement adaptive authentication mechanisms that provide security without disrupting legitimate workflows.
• Use automated access controls that intelligently adjust based on risk level and user context.

6. Neglecting Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation

Pitfall: Organizations assume Zero Trust is a one-time project rather than an ongoing security practice.

Why It’s a Problem: Cyber threats are constantly evolving, and an effective Zero Trust model requires continuous monitoring, policy updates, and real-time response capabilities. Organizations that treat Zero Trust as a static implementation risk falling behind attackers and exposing themselves to new vulnerabilities.

How to Avoid It:

• Deploy continuous monitoring and telemetry to detect policy violations and security threats.
• Regularly review and update access controls based on changing business needs and security events.
• Integrate AI-driven threat detection and automated responses to enhance real-time security.
• Establish a feedback loop between SOC teams and security architects to refine Zero Trust controls dynamically.

Conclusion

Zero Trust is an effective security model, but success depends on strategic planning, incremental execution, and continuous adaptation. Cyber leaders who approach Zero Trust as a strategic shift rather than a product purchase will build a more resilient security framework that protects critical assets while supporting business operations.

By avoiding these common pitfalls, failing to define protect surfaces, overlooking policy controls, attempting a massive rollout, and neglecting business continuity, organizations can achieve Zero Trust in a manageable, effective way.

Take the Next Step with WEI

Implementing Zero Trust across an enterprise is a complex but essential undertaking. Without a well-structured approach, organizations risk wasted investments, security gaps, and business disruptions. At WEI, our cybersecurity experts help enterprises develop and execute effective Zero Trust strategies, ensuring that security is aligned with business priorities.

If your organization is considering Zero Trust or is struggling with its implementation, our team can provide guidance, assessments, and tailored security solutions to help you navigate the process successfully.

Contact WEI’s cybersecurity experts today to discuss your Zero Trust strategy and take the next step toward securing your enterprise.

Next Steps: In this new tech brief, WEI Cybersecurity Solutions Architect Shawn Murphy explains how microsegmentation, a critical pillar of the Zero Trust model, helps contain threats by restricting unauthorized movement within your IT environment.  to understand how microsegmentation can strengthen your Zero Trust strategy and protect your organization’s most critical assets. 

The post Six Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Implementing a Zero Trust Model appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Many organizations are undergoing a significant shift towards cloud-based resources and a geographically dispersed workforce. This presents a major challenge as legacy network architecture may not be up to the task. These outdated systems often struggle to securely grant remote access and integrate seamlessly with today’s private cloud networks.

Here’s where modern approaches like microsegmentation come into play. Businesses are ensured their networks are adaptable, secure, and can support their evolving needs in the digital age. Let’s explore how businesses can rethink their network strategy to unlock greater agility and security.

Network Security And Agility At Top Of Mind

In today’s hybrid cloud world, networks are the foundation for modern applications, connecting everything from microservices to AI. Recent developments over the past few years have exposed the need for a holistic digital transformation with secure networking at its core.

To support these demands, software-defined networking (SDN) tackles network management challenges by offering a centralized, application-centric policy framework that streamlines data center network management. This allows for automated configuration, boosting agility across data centers and private clouds.

The framework extends seamlessly to private clouds, enterprise hybrid clouds, and even WAN environments, unlocking several key benefits:

• Microsegmentation cybersecurity: Granular policy control safeguards workloads, minimizes the attack surface, and strengthens an enterprise’s overall security posture.
• Dynamic network provisioning: Automated network provisioning streamlines application deployment to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.
• Consistent security across clouds: Consistent enforcement of security policies across multi-cloud environments ensures a secure foundation for any workload, regardless of location.

By rethinking networks with a focus on security and automation, organizations can unlock a new era of agility, enhance security, and improve efficiency, paving the way for a successful digital transformation journey.

A Policy-Based Approach

Traditional, manual network configuration is a complex and error-prone process, which hinders agility in today’s enterprise hybrid cloud environments. Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) offers a comprehensive SDN solution: policy-driven automation for microsegmentation in private cloud networks and beyond. Here’s how Cisco ACI simplifies network management:

1. Business-Driven Network Policy: Cisco ACI bridges the gap between business goals and network infrastructure. IT teams and stakeholders define high-level requirements, such as secure access to a CRM application. ACI translates this intent into a comprehensive network policy, including security measures, performance needs, and configuration details.
2. Automatic Provisioning: The policy becomes the blueprint for the network. Cisco ACI automatically provisions and configures network components (switches, firewalls, VLANs) and security services, eliminating manual configuration and streamlining deployment.

These benefits fuel faster application deployment, simplified management, and flexibility to ensure the network adapts to changing application requirements.

Building Secure And Agile Networks

Cisco ACI is designed to build data center networks around specific application requirements. This approach fosters microsegmentation cybersecurity, which is particularly valuable for private cloud networks and enterprise hybrid cloud deployments, enabling seamless application mobility across different environments.

Cisco ACI’s core architecture separates the data plane (packet forwarding) from the control plane (configuration and policy enforcement). This decoupling delivers enhanced agility for businesses by enabling rapid definition and application of network policies, which translates to faster application deployment and streamlined network changes. Additionally, the architecture inherently offers scalability to accommodate the growing data center needs of an ACI cloud environment. Let’s look at the components that drive Cisco ACI to empower your data center goals.

1. Centralized Policy Management with Cisco APIC

The Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) acts as the central brain of the ACI fabric. It offers:

• Unified Point of Automation and Management: The APIC simplifies network operations within the multi-tenant, scalable ACI fabric. It acts as a single point for policy configuration, automation, and health monitoring across physical, virtual, and private cloud network infrastructure.
• Policy Enforcement and Optimization: The APIC enforces network security policies (including microsegmentation) and optimizes overall network performance. This ensures consistent operations across enterprise hybrid cloud environments.
• Broad Ecosystem Interoperability: The APIC integrates seamlessly with various management, orchestration, and virtualization tools from diverse vendors and networks, including L4-L7 services.
• Open Programmability: An open, standards-based API exposes the ACI policy engine to external applications and orchestration tools, allowing for deep integration with existing workflows and automation frameworks.
• Web-Based User Interface: While automation is a core strength, the APIC also provides a user-friendly web interface for manual configuration and monitoring tasks when needed.

2. High-Performance Fabric with Nexus 9000 Series Switches

The Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches are designed to be the cornerstone of high-performance data centers, private cloud networks, and enterprise hybrid clouds – particularly within Cisco ACI cloud deployments.

These switches deliver wire-rate switching speeds of up to 400 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and are future-proofed for 800 GbE architectures. Moreover, the Nexus 9000 Series utilizes a “fat-tree” architecture to achieve low-latency, high-bandwidth connections between leaf and spine switches.

Offering both fixed-configuration and modular switch options, the also provides flexibility for deployment, scalability, and redundancy.

• Each leaf switch directly connects to all spine switches to create multiple efficient data paths.
• Leaf switches act as Top-of-Rack (ToR) switches, providing connectivity between servers and external networks. They are fully programmable to support specific application requirements and offer Layer 2/Layer 3 capabilities, Quality of Service (QoS), security features, and virtualization support.
• Spine switches function as Layer 3 aggregation points, interconnecting leaf switches and ensuring high-bandwidth data flow throughout the network. Like leaf switches, they are fully programmable and support all Layer 2/Layer 3 protocols.

The Nexus 9000 Series, furthermore, offers deployment flexibility through two modes:

• NX-OS Mode to ensure compatibility with existing network environments.
• ACI Mode to provide full access to Cisco ACI features for microsegmentation cybersecurity within private cloud or hybrid cloud deployments.

This modular architecture provides the following deployment options:

• On-premises for policy-driven management of existing data centers
• Cloud-based (including public, private, and hybrid) for consistent policy enforcement across the entire IT infrastructure
• SD-WAN edge for managing and securing branch office connectivity with the same policy-driven approach.

Policy-based automation streamlines operations, strengthens control and security, and empowers businesses to build agile and scalable enterprise hybrid cloud infrastructure. Businesses, especially IT teams, can then shift its focus to driving innovation and growth, while developers benefit from a consistent development experience across all environments, including private cloud networks and ACI cloud deployments.

Final Thoughts

The digital revolution has ushered in an era where adaptable and secure IT infrastructures are crucial. Businesses should re-evaluate their network design to remain competitive. A modern network foundation with microsegmentation cybersecurity principles in mind should seamlessly integrate with cloud environments. This streamlines operations and frees your IT team to focus on strategic initiatives.

Choosing the right Cisco ACI solutions provider is critical. WEI is a leader with a deep technical bench capable of understanding of your business goals. Our proven expertise in Cisco ACI unlocks the platform’s full potential, empowering you to harness the power of your enterprise hybrid and private cloud networks. This translates to seamless integration, robust security, and enhanced operational efficiency across your entire network landscape. Contact us today to get started.

Next steps: As businesses undergo digital transformation, the need for updated corporate networks and IT architectures becomes critical. Cisco ACI aids this shift by providing a network foundation that integrates with cloud environments and adapts to changing business needs.

It offers policy-driven automation to streamline infrastructure deployment and management, facilitates workload transfers across various frameworks, and enhances security. This technology simplifies and speeds up the application deployment process, helping organizations manage digital transformation complexities and prepare for future challenges.

Download our free white paper, to find out more about this proven solution.

The post What Does Microsegmentation In The Enterprise Hybrid Cloud Era Look Like? appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

The digital ecosystem is booming with innovation, driven by a surge in applications and enterprise hybrid cloud adoption. From high-fidelity 10K video, real-time gaming, AI-powered automation, and IoT expansion, to immersive VR/AR experiences, businesses need agile and secure networks to support a number of cutting-edge applications. Additionally, the rise of 5G requires secure and adaptable network infrastructure.

To address these challenges, organizations are increasingly turning to software-defined networking (SDN) frameworks. SDN offers agility across data centers, whether private or hybrid cloud networks, to improve business outcomes. Let’s identify and explore some solutions that provide a comprehensive, secure, and open SDN approach to navigate the complexities of the modern digital landscape.

The Roadblocks to Digital Transformation

Many organizations are still grappling with network architectures designed for a bygone era. These legacy systems suffer from several key shortcomings that impede digital transformation efforts:

• Manual Configuration: Traditionally, network configuration tasks were performed manually, line by line. This approach is time-consuming, error-prone, and creates a significant burden for IT staff. As the network grows and evolves, the complexity of manual configuration increases exponentially.
• Slow Application Deployment: Provisioning new applications or network resources in a manual environment can be a lengthy process. This delay in application deployment can significantly impact time-to-market initiatives and hinder the organization’s ability to respond to changing business needs.
• Inconsistent Security: Traditional networks often rely on a patchwork of cybersecurity controls implemented at different points. This inconsistency creates major vulnerabilities and makes it difficult to enforce siloed security policies. Furthermore, manual processes for security configuration are prone to human error, further increasing breach risk.
• Limited Visibility: Legacy monitoring tools often provide limited visibility into network traffic and application performance. This makes it difficult to identify and troubleshoot problems proactively, leading to downtime and disruptions.

SDN offers a solution by separating the control plane, which dictates network intelligence, from the data plane, which handles the physical movement of data packets. This separation allows for programmatic configuration and automation, empowering organizations to achieve greater network agility across data centers and cloud environments.

SDN Solutions for the Enterprise

Organizations rely on agile, secure, and efficient networks to drive successful transformations. , a leading SDN solution, disrupts traditional data center management with its application-centric approach. By centralizing network policies, Cisco ACI streamlines operations and simplifies complex data center networks. This powerful framework extends beyond data centers, seamlessly integrating with wide area networks (WANs), campus networks, and even cloud environments.

Cisco ACI offers a trifecta of benefits:

• Network Optimization: Centralized policies simplify and automate operations, bringing order to complex data center networks.
• Enhanced Security: Extensive cybersecurity measures, zero-trust principles, and automated policy enforcement safeguard your business.
• Multi-cloud Acceleration: Seamless connectivity across on-premises and cloud environments fosters agility and simplifies managing workloads in enterprise hybrid and multi-cloud deployments.

This comprehensive approach empowers businesses with several key advantages: dynamic network provisioning, robust cybersecurity, and automated infrastructure services – all fueled by automation and policy-based control. Ultimately, translates to streamlined application deployment, agile IT operations, and accelerated digital transformation for organizations.

Key Use Cases for Cisco ACI

Cisco ACI empowers organizations to streamline network management and fortify security – contributing to successful digital transformation. This unique solution tackles several key challenges faced by modern IT organizations:

• Security Through Microsegmentation And A Zero-Trust Policy: Cisco ACI enhances network security with a zero-trust model and microsegmentation to reduce attack surfaces. Organizations can enforce strict security policies and ensure continuous compliance with business rules by segmenting the network into isolated segments.
• Unified Network Management: Cisco ACI delivers a single-view management platform to provide comprehensive network visibility into health, performance, and overall operational status. Embedded automation and operations tools further modernize your workflow by ensuring consistency and efficiency. The net effect is increased network visibility, expedited operations, and significant error reduction.
• Private Cloud Networking: Cisco ACI unlocks business agility by seamlessly integrating with industry-standard virtualization platforms. This creates a cloud-like experience within your on-premises data center. This translates to a dynamic private cloud network that automatically adjusts to your application lifecycle in real-time, enabling the swift deployment of critical applications. Cisco ACI delivers enhanced network agility, faster application delivery and deployment, and reduced time for network changes.
• Automation and Integrations: The platform optimizes network administration workflows by leveraging APIs and integrating with ecosystem partners. This programmability reduces errors and accelerates the rate of change, allowing increased operational efficiency, reduced operational costs through automation, and more time for strategic initiatives.
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) Readiness: Leveraging Cisco ACI’s workload portability across geographically distributed data centers, organizations can achieve exceptional business continuity. This strategic approach ensures application availability during outages, simplifies migrations, and empowers robust business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) plans. The benefits translate to sustained application uptime and a significantly reduced risk of downtime, ultimately safeguarding mission-critical operations.
• Public and Private Cloud Integration: Cisco ACI empowers businesses to leverage the full potential of multi-cloud environments by ensuring consistent network and cybersecurity policies across on-premises data centers and public clouds (like ACI cloud). This uniformity translates to reduced risk and increased agility. Organizations can expect a multitude of advantages:
  • Seamless public cloud integration
  • Uniform application of network and security rules
  • Faster time-to-market
  • Reduced hybrid cloud connection errors

Selecting the Perfect Partner for SDN Solution Implementation

In selecting a Cisco ACI solutions provider and partner, a critical factor is expertise tailored to your organization’s specific needs. The ideal partner will possess not only a comprehensive understanding of your business goals but also proven experience with the Cisco ACI platform itself.

WEI stands out as a leader with our extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of Cisco ACI. We are dedicated to empowering organizations in maximizing the platform’s capabilities so you can achieve seamless integration, robust security, and enhanced operational efficiency – all within your Cisco ACI environment.

Final Thoughts

In today’s digital landscape, traditional networks struggle to keep pace with evolving business needs. Cisco ACI acts as a bridge, enabling secure automation and streamlined management for complex cloud environments (including private cloud networks and enterprise hybrid cloud deployments). This ensures your network remains agile and adaptable. Partnering with a company like WEI unlocks the full potential of your digital transformation journey, delivering security, agility, and operational excellence. Contact our team to learn more.

Next steps: As businesses undergo digital transformation, the need for updated corporate networks and IT architectures becomes critical. Cisco ACI aids this shift by providing a network foundation that integrates with cloud environments and adapts to changing business needs.

It offers policy-driven automation to streamline infrastructure deployment and management, facilitates workload transfers across various frameworks, and enhances security. This technology simplifies and speeds up the application deployment process, helping organizations manage digital transformation complexities and prepare for future challenges.

below to find out more about this proven solution.

The post Transforming Data Center Operations: Ensuring Security And Agility In The Digital Age appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

First, VMware reinvented the data center with their ESXi hypervisor. Then they transformed server management and deployment with vSphere. Now VMware’s NSX is revolutionizing networking through advanced software-defined networking (SDN) technology. VMware NSX is a comprehensive networking solution that solves the challenges faced by the modern data center. Designed to maximize speed, agility, and security, NSX can help your enterprise realize its full potential.

Creating a Fully Virtualized Data Center

Modern data centers have already adopted a software-first approach, utilizing VMs and software-defined storage whenever possible. However, many data centers still rely on legacy networking solutions. VMware NSX is the final piece of the software-defined data center (SDDC) puzzle. With NSX, you can now virtualize every aspect of your data center.

NSX brings hypervisor technology to the network. Just like a traditional hypervisor, it works by abstracting the software layer from the underlying hardware. A virtualized network extends the benefits of virtualization to your applications. Deployment of new application hosting environments is no longer limited by the physical infrastructure. The comprehensive management platform allows you to easily create, relocate, snapshot, and restore application environments. Each workload can run in the environment that best meets its individual needs.

Virtualizing your Services

NSX unites all of your networking and security services under a single management platform. From VMs to the cloud, NSX manages traffic and security in every part of the network.

• Switching – All VMs can communicate through a virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN) with NSX’s full switch functionality.
• Routing – NSX provides dynamic routing between logical switches and virtual networks.
• Distributed Firewalling – NSX’s scalable firewall automatically provides security and visibility for all virtualized networks and workloads.
• Load Balancing – NSX provides L4-L7 load distribution to maximize application scalability and availability.
• Edge Gateway – VXLAN to VLAN bridging capability ensures efficient connectivity for physical workloads.
• Virtual Private Network (VPN) – NSX offers both remote access and site-to-site VPNs.
• Endpoint Protection – NSX’s vShield Endpoint provides effective anti-virus protection.

Better Security with Microsegmentation

Legacy security solutions focus primarily on perimeter defense. When a threat breaches the outer defenses, there are few provisions in place for lateral protection. Once a threat penetrates the network, it is free to move throughout the system. This type of single-point security is no longer adequate. NSX’s microsegmentation approach provides comprehensive security for every part of the network.

Microsegmentation addresses individual security needs, allowing you to assign unique security policies to every single task, workload, and service. Assigned policies follow workloads as they move throughout the system. When creating and assigning security policies, you are not limited to fixed aspects, such as IP addresses. Policies can be defined based on changing criteria, like operating systems and users. NSX also allows for efficient, automated security. Newly created workloads are automatically assigned to the appropriate security policies. Microsegmentation with NSX provides flexible, customizable, and effective security for the entire network.

Which Version of NSX is Right for Your Enterprise?

VMware offers two different versions of their NSX data center. NSX-V is designed for enterprises that already use vSphere and are looking to extend virtualization to their network. While NSX-T is better suited for companies with more diverse data center architectures. NSX-T works well with public cloud hosting environments, container-based applications, and even other hypervisors.

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of NSX

In addition to all the benefits already mentioned, NSX is also designed to provide a substantial ROI. A Total Economic Impact study revealed that, in three years of use, NSX might save enterprises:

• $1 million in hardware and operating expenses
• $1.2 million through automation and reduced administration time
• $7.4 million in decreased hardware needs
• $1.6 million from increased user efficiency
• An indeterminable amount through security breach prevention and containment

VMware NSX extends the full benefits of virtualization to your network, giving you a true. All networking and security services are easily managed through a single, comprehensive platform. Application environments are simple to deploy and manage, allowing for better workload optimization. NSX’s microsegmentation approach ensures constant and consistent security that can be customized to meet each workload’s individual needs. VMware has also designed NSX to provide a significant ROI. The increased security, agility, and speed that NSX offers can help you reduce expenses and optimize your data center.

NEXT STEPS: Achieve more speed, more security and more agility with less time and money with the VMware NSX platform by reading our white paper titled A 360-Degree View of the VMware NSX Platform.

The post Get to Know VMware NSX and Transform Your Network appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Data center architectures have continually evolved to meet the needs of mobile, social, big data, and cloud applications–and enterprise security solutions have evolved as well to support the new security needs of these applications in

Attacks on data centers are increasing, and physical security appliances aren’t sufficient to stop them. Independent research shows that successful attacks are occurring with growing regularity, and at increasing costs to enterprises. Seventy-five percent of all attacks begin stealing data in a matter of minutes, and may not be detected for quite a while. Additionally, after an attack has been discovered, full containment and repair can take weeks. There is no question that a new model for data center security is needed before these attacks become unstoppable.

Micro-Segmentation adds additional security

Micro-segmentation is a method of creating secure zones in data centers and cloud deployments that allows companies to isolate workloads from one another and secure them individually. It’s aimed at making network security more granular.

While traditional firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and other security systems are designed to inspect and secure traffic coming into a data center from outside, micro-segmentation gives enterprises greater control over the growing amount of lateral communication that occurs between servers. This communication bypasses perimeter-focused security tools and has traditionally been vulnerable to attack.

Cisco lists the following goals for micro-segmentation:

1. Programmatically define segments on an increasingly specific basis, achieving greater flexibility (for example, limit the lateral movement of a threat or quarantine a compromised endpoint within a broader system)
2. Automatically program segments and policy management across the entire application lifecycle (from deployment to decommissioning)
3. Enhance security and scalability by enabling a zero-trust approach for heterogeneous workloads.

3 Security Solutions for micro-segmentation

Here are three networking security solutions enterprises should consider.

Cisco ACI

uses a new application-aware construct called an endpoint group that allows application designers to define the endpoints that belong to the EPG regardless of their IP addresses or the subnets to which they belong. The endpoint can be a physical server, virtual machine, Linux container, or even traditional mainframe computers.

With Cisco ACI’s highly specific endpoint security enforcement, customers can dynamically enforce forwarding and security policies, quarantine compromised or rogue endpoints based on virtual machine and network attributes, and restore cleaned endpoints to the original EPG.

Additionally, while data center micro-segmentation can provide enhanced security for lateral traffic within the data center, its true value lies in its integration with application design and holistic network policy, and it must interoperate transparently with a wide variety of hypervisors, bare-metal servers, L4-L7 devices, and orchestration platforms.

VMware NSX

micro-segmentation meets security recommendations made by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in providing the ability to utilize network virtualization-based overlays for isolation, and distributed kernel-based firewalling for segmentation through ubiquitous centrally managed policy control. It also uses higher-level components or abstractions in addition to the basic 5-tuple for firewalling.

, NSX based micro-segmentation goes beyond NIST recommendations and enables the ability for fine-grained application of service insertion where they are most effective: as close to the application as possible in a distributed manner while residing in separate trust zones outside the application’s attack surface.

Finally, for physical to physical communication, NSX can tie automated security of physical workloads into micro-segmentation through centralized policy control of those physical workloads through the NSX Edge Service Gateway or integration with physical firewall appliances. This allows centralized policy management of your static physical environment in addition to your micro-segmented virtualized environment.

Illumio 

The Illumio Adaptive Security Platform (ASP) makes the invisible visible by mapping out connections between workloads in a single application, as well as connections between the applications themselves. This may reveal connections between systems that you weren’t aware of before and helps identify risks that weren’t immediately obvious.

Illumio uses this map of network traffic to automatically generate micro-segmentation policies for every workload and application running anywhere, on any computer platform, and analyze them in seconds – saving security teams critical time, reducing the risk of human error and improving policy consistency across the network.

The Takeaway

Micro-segmentation offers significantly more visibility and policy granularity than network or application segmentation, including the ability to fully visualize the environment and define security policies with process-level precision. This added granularity is increasingly important as growing use of cloud services renders traditional network-based security boundaries ineffective and elevates the urgency of detecting and stopping lateral movement

Are you looking for additional information on how to up your security game to meet the needs of your organization? Contact the network security experts at WEI for an unbiased perspective to solving your enterprise’s security challenges. 

NEXT STEPS
Software defined networking represents an unparalleled innovation for IT network professionals managing enterprise networks. It’s flexible, smart, and highly automated. If you’d like to learn more about SDN, why you need it and the promises it delivers to a modern enterprise, we invite you read our white paper, “Software Defined Networking – The Next IT Paradigm of Promise.”

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architecture for modern data centers revolve around building a strong perimeter defense to prevent any threats from penetrating the data center. This approach doesn’t take into account the threats that do manage to get through the perimeter; once a threat breaks through, it then has unrestricted access to the entire network. Now more than ever companies need full visibility into their network and need to control traffic as it flows within the data center.

So what’s the solution? VMware NSX, a solution, can leverage Fortinet , for better protection and automation of server-to-server traffic inside the data center. Keep reading to discover how Fortinet and VMware work together to help you build an impenetrable, best-in-class data center.

Protecting the Data Center with Automated Provisioning

FortiGate deployments are fully automated, which means they are able to handle an elastic workload, and constantly change and resize ESXi clusters. In a constantly changing virtualized environment, FortiGate and VMWare work together to support the rebalancing of workloads depending on the current needs of your enterprise.

The VMware NSX enables policies to be applied at the virtual layer to intercept traffic at the hypervisor level, which means that all workloads are inspected. The NSX firewall is able to steer traffic selectively to FortiGate-VMX based on policy for advanced traffic inspection.

Adding Persistent Security to the Data Center

Micro-segmentation is easier than ever before with VMware NSX’s ability to provide network isolation and a “honeycomb” of trust zones. With this ability to micro-segment with VMware and FortiGate, IT can set boundaries for service functions and workload characteristics by designating proper security policies for app, web or data through asking questions like:

• What will this workload be used for?
• Who can access the workload?
• What is the data sensitivity zoning for each workload?

Micro-segmentation joins the characteristics and defines the inherited policy attributes as they are added to the security cluster. There is no longer a need to configure rules for the firewalls and create complex access control policies. This approach allows administrators to break up a single policy into sub-policies, and create a network segment to apply security rules. It also provides inter-VM traffic visibility in the SDDC.

Advanced Data Center Protection Across Tiers

VMware utilizes a logical routing function to create a single router instance across distributed switches to enable communication between web, app, and data tiers. In the NSX enabled security cluster, the distributed firewall module redirects traffic to a FortiGate-VMX firewall for threat inspection. Based on the workload segments, FortiGate-VMX Service Manager is able to enforce the security policies defined by IT, protecting your enterprise across the tiers.

Multi-Tenancy and Tenant Function Segmentation with Virtual Domains

FortiGate-Service Manager supports the use of multiple (VDOMs) for effective segmentation between tenants while each one is still able to complete administrative autonomy over their specific segment. Using VDOMs, enterprises are able to apply stronger and more effective security policies through segmenting across different departments and application types. Your IT administrators can outline specific policies for each domain, which will also improve the overall performance of the system.

When used together, Fortinet FortiGate and VMware NSX are able provide an adaptable and secure that meets the needs of your enterprise. As a leading partner for both Fortinet and VMware, contact the network security experts at WEI for an unbiased perspective to solving your enterprise security challenges.

NEXT STEPS: Looking for additional insight on how to “up your security game” to meet the needs of your organization’s digital transformation initiatives? We invite you to check out the Fortinet Solution Guide, Read it today!

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Fortunately, teams that have turned to have seen vast increases in their confidence to map, assess, and secure their networks. This blog post goes into detail on exactly what this Cisco Tetration technology is and how it takes enterprise security to another level.

What is Cisco Tetration?

Cisco created Tetration as a data center analytics tool to improve network visibility. Network visibility measures how well network administrators can see and control all components and interactions occurring within the entirety of the organization. Tetration captures all traffic flow better and more efficiently than a monitoring tool can. As companies move towards , it ensures different applications can talk to each other. Tetration will map out all the individual flows of an application, ensuring you know exactly where all traffic is going and which devices are talking to each other.

You inevitably need that map to be able to totally understand your environment so that it can then be segregated. To understand how your web server talks to your SQL server, Tetration will show every connection that was made, normalize it, and then allow you to make rules around it to keep your traffic segregated. Beyond that, once you have all of that segmented and you’re in compliance (if applicable), you can actively make changes with this tool. It will plug into switches and works like a Windows desktop or firewall.

Changes can also be made through an agent, which in some cases is needed for Cisco switches, to either allow additional traffic or block traffic. This way Tetration can actually see traffic and recognize that it is an anomaly to this host. It recognizes that this source is not good, and can then block it. It can even communicate with the firewall and say, “don’t allow this traffic.”

That is the first step to moving towards a zero-trust method of networking. This method of knowing everything going on it a network at any given time provides a major benefit to customers.

Heightened “Zero-Trust” Security Model

Blacklisting is how many organizations’ networking policies have been traditionally structured. Blacklisting entails identifying “bad” traffic that is unwanted and setting up specific rules to not allow any traffic from those locations. This can help keep out many potentially threatening sources, but only those that are known can be kept out. There never was a great way to truly have 100% visibility into your network, making a blacklist model the best possible solution to provide some security measures and try to ensure employees can continue doing their jobs.

As an example, we can use vLAN to vLAN allowing traffic. You’re not allowing all of this random traffic that you don’t understand between the two. It has always been a real hassle for network administrators to understand application ports that are required. If you look at a “https” port, that’s port 443, so we would allow 443. If its “http” we would allow port 80. There are thousands of ports across an application, and you may need a handful of those available, or you may need thousands of them available. In most cases we haven’t had tools to absolutely identify that, so you depend on the applications and things get lost in transition between application owners and network owners. It has always been easier to say, “I can’t figure out which of the 4,000 ports I need available, so I’m just going to go ahead and let them talk to each other.”

With Cisco Tetration, however, 100% visibility can be reached, providing a situation to provide a whitelist model, also known as a “Zero-Trust” model. A follows the opposite methodology. With this approach, instead of controlling what can’t interact with the network, you are controlling what CAN interact with it. You can now confidently know that everything allowed to interact with the network is there because a rule has been established allowing it to be there.

Basically now, because we have visibility across the board, IT teams can say they know exactly what’s going on, so by default, that traffic is not going to pass unless it is understood and a rule has been set. The only sources allowed into the network are ones that are specifically approved.

The increase in cyber-attacks, such as with getting hacked, makes more companies realize that they do not have as much visibility as they need on their network. Cisco Tetration and its zero-trust security model is a step forward in preventing future attacks.

Use Case

One exceptional use case surrounding Cisco Tetration involves Cisco themselves. They developed this software partially for their internal requirements. They were going to move from a traditional network structure to Cisco ACI, a software defined network, and they didn’t understand what the traffic flows looked like on their network. They couldn’t logically make a plan for how they should separate things. This led them to run Tetration to migrate their own data centers. When there’s a requirement to understand anything on the network it is absolutely critical to have something like this. Mapping out a network is the leading purpose for Tetration. Its secondary purpose is utilizing Tetration to plug into firewalls on hosts, among many other things.

You can automate it, either API driven, or by some default baked into the product that will help you protect your end points. If something does get through your firewall or IPS and it’s now on your network, you can leverage Tetration. You can see it, act on it, report on it, and actually close the port. To get to that next level of security, it’s a pretty big piece of the puzzle.

Why do organizations need Cisco Tetration?

Cisco Tetration can map a network and provides that top tier level of security, as well as enabling your network to do what you want it to do. You have to totally understand that and you have to understand the applications that run over it. It has always been a challenge for the network administration side to understand that.

This provides more accurate visibility into what is actually happening. It tells the network team why traffic is moving the way it is. If you have a troublesome application, you may not realize that it’s spanning multiple catastrophic and saturating links. Now you can see where that’s coming from, how it’s happening, and how often it’s happening. If something does get through your firewall or your IPS and it’s now on your network, you can see that, act on it, report on it, and close the port. Cisco Tetration enables you to not only report against it, but actively make changes. This is the future of how companies will build and monitor applications, as it gives so much more insight into what people are traditionally used to. In a world where you need to segregate everything, Cisco Tetration gives you the power to do that and more.

Next Steps: Look for a continuation on this topic in next week’s blog post to learn about the benefits and challenges that come along with Cisco Tetration. In the meantime, learn more about WEI’s experience implementing in this case study featuring a major data center relocation initiative for a Fortune 100 company.

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There’s a lot of talk about SDN solutions today such as Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure. In fact, Cisco ACI is the industry’s most comprehensive software defined networking (SDN) architecture to date. By integrating ACI into , IT now has the ability to align IT services with business objectives and policy requirements.Achieving this organizational transformation can be a game changer for most any organization, allowing them to streamline their services at large and gain greater efficiencies and profit margins. Instead of serving its traditional role as a cost bucket, IT can become a leader, introducing and initiating value added projects that recognizably add to the profitability and success of the business.

All of that is wonderful, that is as long as IT is taking care of the most important facet of all – keeping the network secure. Having the agility and responsiveness to allow users to easily access the analytical information they need or to provision desired resources in a matter of minutes is all well and good, but if the integrity of those resources are compromised then it all doesn’t really matter. Having an infrastructure that provides an elastic fertile ecosystem for application developers is great, but if that innovation is accessed in an unauthorized manner, then all of those benefits are instantly nullified.

To put it simply, security is job #1! That’s why provides embedded security and policy-based automation to ensure that your provisioned resources are secured through an evolutionary process called microsegmentation. The idea of segmenting the network is nothing new. Your firewall segments areas of your network such as LAN, DMZ, Internet, etc. Think of Ransomware and how it seeks out connected drives. Some new strains of it can even seek out a company’s backups if they exist on the same segment as the infected device.

How exactly does microsegmentation with Cisco ACI work?

is about separating segments from the broadcast domain by creating policy definitions. It uses a new application-aware construct called the endpoint group, or EPG, that allows application designers to define the endpoints that belong to the EPG regardless of their IP addresses or the subnets to which they belong. An endpoint can be a physical server, a virtual machine, a Linux container or a mainframe computer. ACI provides microsegmentation support for VMware vSphere Distributed Switch, Microsoft Hyper-V virtual switch, and bare-metal endpoints, the type of endpoint is irrelevant. You just need all of them secured regardless of IP address, MAC address, endpoint type or network location.

This idea of microsegmentation is then compounded with the core principle of conducting a zero-trust approach to each and every device. º£½ÇÖ±²¥ can be provisioned on a grand scale and in quick fashion, but they aren’t trusted upon boot up. A device is inaccessible until it has been issued a preconfigured policy which then, and only then, allows it the ability to communicate with other devices in the network. IT personnel can quarantine compromised or rogue endpoints or limit the lateral movement of a threat quickly and easily. With ACI, there is no window of vulnerability during the provisioning process.

Policy-based automation is the embedded security that is at the very core of . An EPG by definition is a microsegment, and its security enforcement policy is defined by a contract that consists of a built-in stateless whitelist firewall and Layer 4 through Layer 7 (L4- L7) service insertion policy that supports a robust ecosystem of L4-L7 partners for next-generation firewall (NGFW) and next-generation intrusion prevention system (NG-IPS). You can make your policies as granular as necessary, creating a unique policy model for within one policy model for networks, servers, storage and services.

By instilling this protected means of microsegmentation, complimented by automated granular policies, Cisco ACI helps lower TCO of your infrastructure investments, on top of all of the other means through which it reduces costs and adds value as well. Cisco ACI is the complete package, which is why it is the premier SDN solution in the market today. Interested in learning more? Check out our white paper titled

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