VMware and Palo Alto Networks Partner to Secure Software-Defined Data Centers

VMware and Palo Alto Networks have teamed to offer an integrated solution to protect data centers and ensure the deployment of security services keeps up with the deployment of virtual machines.

The partnership between the two companies is meant to bring next generation firewall services to software-defined data centers, allowing users to secure and apply policy to traffic. The integrated solution will enable customers to use the VMware NSX network virtualization platform to automate provisioning and distribution of Palo Alto Networks’ security offering.

“The cloud introduces new security challenges, and legacy security systems based on physical attributes such as port and protocol just aren’t adequate to secure these highly dynamic environments,” said Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group, in a statement. “A next-generation security approach that eases operational challenges through integration with network virtualization is a requirement for customers to confidently extend their deployments to cloud.”

With this solution, customers can use the network services insertion capabilities of VMware NSX to easily deploy, move, scale and protect applications in software-defined data centers, the companies said in a joint press release. Currently the solution is in beta. General availability however is scheduled for the first half of 2014.

According to the companies, the solution will offer automated provisioning of advanced network services, a consistent network security model across both physical and virtual workloads, native segmentation of virtual machines into virtual networks and transparent traffic steering and enforcement at a virtual interface. The product will also offer context-sharing across virtual infrastructure and other features.

“Palo Alto Networks and VMware customers will be able to use the distributed service framework of VMware NSX for fast and easy insertion of Palo Alto Networks security services, and achieve unified protection across their physical and virtual environments,” Hatem Naguib, vice president of networking and security at VMware, said in a statement.