Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Thursday, March 28, 2024

PLUMgrid Launches CloudSecure to Fortify Security for Containers and OpenStack Clouds 

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 22 -- PLUMgrid, a leader of secure and scalable SDN and NFV solutions for containers and OpenStack clouds, announced CloudSecure with the upcoming release of PLUMgrid Open Networking Suite (ONS) 6.0 and CloudApex 2.0 to deliver a comprehensive security solution. Building on its micro-segmentation and security service insertion technologies, PLUMgrid re-enforced its security solution with new policy-based virtual tap, monitoring and visualization of security policies, and an ecosystem of security offerings including Intel's Open Security Controller, Fortinet Fortigate NGFW, Check Point security solutions and Rackspace Private Cloud.

As applications are increasingly developed, tested and deployed on ephemeral infrastructure such as containers and virtual machines, the need for segmentation, multi-tenancy, security, and analytics has become crucial to ensure environments are constantly protected and compliant. CloudSecure helps PLUMgrid customers micro-segment workloads, isolate tenant traffic to contain attacks, protect applications, deploy virtual tap at scale without hardware devices, and monitor virtual networks to minimize the attack surface for software-defined data centers running private, public, or hybrid clouds.

"As network traffic patterns in data centers change, getting visibility, applying appropriate policies, having third party integration, and using good operational tools for security becomes ever more important," said Dan Conde, analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "PLUMgrid's investment in core technologies for network virtualization such as virtual domains and IO Visor is paying off as it delivers applications and solutions such as security, taps, service insertion and analytics atop their platform in efficient and integrated ways from themselves alongside their partners."

Virtual networks connect hundreds or thousands of ephemeral containers per day on any given server to other containers, virtual machines (VMs), applications, workloads and microservices. Today's virtual networks may span intra- or inter-data center connections across hybrid or multi-clouds, generating significantly more north-south, east-west, and intra-host traffic that need to be secured with consistent policies.

Growing endpoints and traffic flows increase exposure to attacks that cannot be prevented with perimeter-based security or appliance-based firewalls. PLUMgrid designed CloudSecure precisely to protect this type of ephemeral infrastructure from malware, and its micro-segmented Virtual Domains contain and isolate any potential breaches from spreading to the larger environment.

Powered by IO Visor, CloudSecure includes a number of state-of-the-art features that make it easier to monitor virtual network security, including:

  • CloudApex Security View - Visualizes security flows, and behaviors in an easy to view chord graph to diagnose security breaches.
  • Micro-segmentation - Creates zero-trust domains by isolating tenant traffic and enforcing security policies for containers and virtual machines. In the event of a breach, each segmented domain contains attacks to minimize spread of malware.
  • Security Policies - Provides in-depth security definitions and group-based policies that can be enforced per tenant, virtual machine, or container.
  • Policy-based Virtual Tap - Deploys virtual tap points with policies to select traffic to be mirrored for monitoring, troubleshooting, and remediation.
  • Security Service Insertion - Enables any third party security software to be added to PLUMgrid's virtual network to introduce or update the latest security quickly.
  • Encryption - Supports encryption between segmented virtual domains to ensure privacy and protection of data.

"Data centers are increasingly built on ephemeral infrastructure that only lasts for hours or days, instead of months or years," said Larry Lang, CEO, PLUMgrid. "CloudSecure provides significant protection for increasingly ephemeral, multi-directional traffic flows in container and OpenStack Clouds. Combining it with CloudApex's simplified visualizations that make it easy to monitor and diagnose breaches, enabling our customers to benefit from the agility and flexibility of these technologies without having to struggle to secure the network infrastructure."

CloudSecure is supported by a growing ecosystem of partners that provide pervasive security for cloud and software-defined data centers including Check Point, Fortinet, Intel, and Rackspace.

"Security is a universal need across any infrastructure. With the rise of containers and virtual machines, Rackspace is delivering comprehensive secure OpenStack private cloud solutions that are hardened and production-proven," said Bryan Thompson, general manager of OpenStack Private Cloud at Rackspace. "With PLUMgrid CloudSecure, we are excited to take this solution to our customers who are deploying containers and OpenStack to offer them a choice of security firewalls and help ensure their environment is always protected."

"Enterprises and service providers are deploying multiple security products to ensure their data centers are protected at all times. With Open Security Controller, security admins have a single pane of glass to orchestrate their security measures," said Manish Dave, platform architect, data center security platform division at Intel. "By adding support for PLUMgrid Open Networking Suite, Open Security Controller allows container and OpenStack environments to build a secure SDN foundation and add security functions as needed."

"Data center and cloud security are evolving rapidly with the expanding adoption of containers, OpenStack, and cloud infrastructure. Fortinet continues to lead with a strong security portfolio that enables our customers to quickly add security updates and new software," said Warren Wu, senior director of product marketing, Fortinet. "Our flagship product, Fortigate, is cloud-enabled and through our partnership with PLUMgrid, we are delivering tightly-integrated SDN and security solutions that address the increasing need of protecting non-persistent cloud infrastructure."

"Protecting today's enterprise networks requires greater flexibility and innovation to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated threats," said Alon Kantor, vice president of business development at Check Point Software. "Check Point's data center security solutions provide a comprehensive security architecture with flexible enforcement points for advanced protection against the latest cyberattacks. As new technologies such as containers and microservices are deployed, Check Point continues to ensure customers have the most comprehensive and dynamic security for their workloads and applications. By partnering with PLUMgrid, Check Point is extending our advanced security architecture for customer environments built on micro-segmentation technologies that need advanced threat protection."

In addition to PLUMgrid's traditional enterprise and service provider clients, CloudSecure is ideal for financial institutions, retailers and government agencies that require the customization and security of purpose-built cloud environments to take advantage of the benefits of the latest cloud technologies.

About PLUMgrid Open Networking Suite (ONS) for Containers and OpenStack

PLUMgrid ONS for OpenStack is a comprehensive software suite that enables secure and scalable SDN and NFV infrastructure for container and OpenStack clouds. Deployed by service providers and enterprises in more than 70 clouds, PLUMgrid ONS enables micro-segmentation through Virtual Domains, production-grade resiliency, and distributed scale-out performance for hybrid data centers. Built on PLUMgrid Platform and IO Visor technology, ONS supports the industry's broadest set of OpenStack distributions and installers including Mirantis OpenStack, Rackspace Private Cloud powered by OpenStack, RDO, Red Hat OpenStack, and Ubuntu OpenStack by Canonical. PLUMgrid ONS is available worldwide with free test drives through the PLUMgrid Ignition program.

About PLUMgrid

PLUMgrid is the leader of secure and scalable virtual network infrastructure solutions for container and OpenStack clouds. PLUMgrid delivers industry leading software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) solutions that enable modern data centers to connect tenants, applications and workloads efficiently across hypervisors, virtualized, container and bare metal architectures. PLUMgrid is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and is funded by venture capital and strategic investors. Visit http://www.plumgrid.com, read the PLUMgrid blog and follow the company on Twitter @PLUMgrid.


Source: PLUMgrid

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