A Dynamic Approach to Hybrid Multicloud Network Security
By Mike Barmonde
Introduction
Securing your applications and data anywhere is widely known to be an extraordinarily complicated, time consuming, and difficult strategy. But does it have to be so hard?
Read on to see how the Nutanix Cloud Platform™ solution makes it possible to establish networks across clouds, apply security policies that follow your workloads, and manage universal security configurations. Learn how you can build a sophisticated and dynamic approach for your cloud operating mode leveraging your current investments and tools, nurturing new skill sets, and accelerating business security.
The Nutanix Cloud Platform helps create security across clouds, develop a common networking fabric, add to current defense-in-depth, leverage current investments, and increase cyber resilience
Nutanix is making it easier to secure your hybrid multicloud using the Nutanix Flow™ technology. Two Nutanix Flow components, namely, the Nutanix Flow Virtual Networking™ and Flow Network Security™ features, work together with your trusted partners’ solutions to establish cross-cloud secured networking solutions and provision virtual firewalls between workloads using microsegmentation policies. Nutanix Flow delivers a robust, defense-in-depth solution, built and deployed in minutes, not months, even on hyperscaling public clouds like the Microsoft Azure® and AWS® clouds.
Nutanix Flow Introduces a New “Many to One” Security Approach
Flow Network Security Next-Gen has evolved to include a new ‘many-to-one’ policy model allowing VMs to be part of multiple security policies making security operations more seamless.
Nutanix Flow Virtual Networking and Flow Network Security have now come together for faster, more streamlined network security operations using microsegmentation (stateful, layer 4 application firewalls).
Flow Network Security is evolving to simplify how security operations teams manage and create virtual software firewalls for their applications. We’ve heard the feedback and our next-gen Flow Network Security is now available and is offering a many-to-one VM-to-policy model for a unified and more cohesive experience.
The new release of Flow Network Security includes more flexibility over the previous one-on-one model when securing your Nutanix workloads because a VM can now participate in more than one application policy.
Flow Network Security Next-Gen now delivers the flexibility to add a VM to multiple security policies. This entity-first approach, combined with policy cloning and templates, creates a new level of speed and scalability for secure configuration management and policy updates.
You can think of this approach as Active Directory-like policy management adding flexibility without the complexity.
Virtual Networks are an initial layer of network protection, with microsegmentation adding more defense-in-depth protecting applications and data.
This next-generation of Flow Network Security was released with Nutanix AOS™ 6.6 to work in conjunction with Flow Virtual Networking’s scalable, virtual private clouds (VPCs). The current generation of Flow Network Security continues to be an excellent choice for securing VLAN-based AHV networks. For enhanced networks requiring different operating modes, the next-generation of Flow Network Security is in development to also support VLANs.
Networking is the backbone of a resilient and performant cloud operating model which requires fast, secure deployments and management of your networks across clouds. Flow Virtual Networking follows this model and has seen strong adoption and growth with hundreds of VPCs in deployment worldwide.
When combined with Flow Network Security’s microsegmentation abilities, your networks and applications can be designed, deployed, and delivered securely, providing critical cyber resilience against global advanced cyber threats to your hybrid multicloud.
Trusted Partners Extend the Nutanix Hybrid Multicloud Security
Building on the integration of Flow Virtual Networking and Flow Network Security, Nutanix has built a strong ecosystem of trusted partners that add definitive and necessary depth to your networking and security strategies.
As Nutanix Flow helps secure the initial networking layers and lateral east-west communication, using a next-generation firewall (NGFWs), like the Palo Alto Networks® VM-Series, as a layer 7 firewall ensures 360 degrees of protection. The Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Virtual Firewalls have been tested and validated by Nutanix, to help you realize an efficiency that could lead to a higher total return of value for your investments.
Adding a Nutanix Trusted Partner solution like Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Firewalls ensures total visibility and complete defense-in-depth of networks protecting applications and data.
Deliver Network Security Across All Clouds
The Nutanix approach to securing apps and data across clouds continues to expand. The combination of Nutanix Flow Virtual Networking and the Nutanix Cloud Clusters™ platform allows customers the ability to leverage their cloud-operating model of choice for consistent networks on-premises, or, on a hyperscaler. This combination creates a secure cross-cloud fabric of seamless virtual networks allowing your applications to run anywhere and freeing you from the boundaries of the physical network.
Nutanix Flow Virtual Networking works with Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Microsoft Azure today, and is in development for NC2 on AWS. The approach of ensuring aligned network operations anywhere creates a smaller barrier to entry for enterprises looking to adopt public cloud without the risks of being locked into a single cloud, or refactoring a workload’s networking. Flow Virtual Networking also provides access controls and integration with our trusted partners to help you create a secure hybrid multicloud on your terms.
Flow Virtual Networking and Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) allow customers the ability to leverage their cloud-operating model of choice for consistent networks on-premises, or, using bare-metal instances on a hyperscaler like Microsoft Azure.
Next Steps
For more information including a demo, visit the Nutanix booth, here at .NEXT.
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