Network virtualization has been one of the most prominent features of developmental technology and modernization of the world. It refers to moving network resources that were traditionally delivered in hardware to software. It can either combine different physical networks into one software-based and virtual network or break down one physical network into different, independent virtual networks.
Due to its rising popularity, network virtualization has become one of the most dominant computing platforms all over the world, especially due to the type of security benefits it provides.
Security Concerns in Enterprise Systems
Networking is key to success! With everything going online, from educational services to big businesses, virtual security has become the top priority concern for almost all organizations. Every organization is aware of the fact that it does not take long for data to get leaked online, making headlines, and even incurring huge losses for the companies. Therefore, security is not something to be thought of towards the end of a project; rather, it needs to incorporate from the start into the entire process.
Organizations have realized the importance of security and have started to use virtualization to take care of their security requirements for optimum safety of their companies and different projects.
Different Ways Network Virtualization Improves Security
Network virtualization combines software and hardware resources to provide a single virtual network and high-security benefits.
Isolation – The Base of Network Security
The core constituent of network virtualization is ‘Isolation.’ It forms the foundation or the base of any kind of network security. It allows the co-existence of isolated virtual networks that provide end-to-end services over the cloud.
The infrastructure providers deliver network resources that allow different services to be used on virtual networks by sharing. Furthermore, no physical subnets such as VLANs, ACLs, or firewall rules are required to enable this isolation. Isolation between virtual networks permits overlapping IP addresses so that you can have isolated development, test, and production of virtual networks. All of these would have different application versions; however, they all will be sharing the same IP address, and will be operating at one time on the same physical infrastructure.
Segmentation
Segmentation goes hand-in-hand with isolation as it sub-divides the network into sub-networks. This allows the traffic to become minimized, therefore, giving a boost to the application performance. Additionally, the latest development in network technology, SD-WAN, helps companies combine multiple MPLS, mobile, and broadband connections into a single, virtual application delivery path that responds to network conditions.
This, in turn, allows you to build a hybrid WAN architecture that helps your people connect to the data they want, wherever and whenever they need it, reducing traffic, and most importantly, keeping all the data and information safe and secured. This system can safely link all the data to the cloud, keeping everything organized in one place for easy watch and management.
Advanced Security Services
Network virtualization may provide advanced security services depending on the need and situation of the organization. Network virtualization platforms can insert third-party network services into the logical pipeline which would be formed by distributing different network services into the vSwitch, allowing physical or virtual services to be consumed in the logical pipeline.
An important advantage provided by the network virtualization approach is its ability to build policies that influence service insertion, chaining, and steering to steer service execution in logical pipelines based on the results of other services. This in turn enables coordination between completely unrelated network security services from multiple vendors.
Automated Provisioning and Context Sharing Platform
Network virtualizations have made possible automated provisioning and context-sharing across virtual and physical security platforms. In older times, the level of network security would have forced network and security teams to choose between performance and features. However, with the help of network virtualization, we can distribute and enforce the advanced feature set at the application’s interface, delivering the best of both worlds.
Moreover, by the means of network virtualization, manual intervention is not required to maintain policies and to place and move workloads anywhere in the data center. One big advantage of network virtualization is that the security policies which have been pre-approved can automatically be applied, enabling the self-service deployment of even the most complex network security services.
Final Thoughts
Network virtualization has many benefits, and providing security is one of the most prominent of its features. Therefore, security can be improved significantly with the help of network virtualization, ensuring virtual safety, keeping all your data, files, links, and information secured and safe from any leaks and mishaps.