Cloud Computing: Anticipating VMworld

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Jon Oltsik.

It’s the end of the summer of 2015 – the nights are getting cooler, the leaves are starting to change colors, and flocks of students are abandoning the beaches of Cape Cod bound for college campuses. The seasonal change also signals another annual ritual – VMworld in San Francisco.

VMworld used to be focused on virtual server technology, and then it expanded to VDI. Now the show represents all things cloud computing. Of course, I’ll be looking at a specific sub-segment: The intersection of cloud computing and cybersecurity. As such, I’m anticipating discussions around:…

1) Micro-segmentation. A few years ago, virtual networking really meant virtual switching at Layer 2. While virtual switches offered a lot of functionality, most organizations used them as a bridge to forward traffic to the “real” physical network. This is no longer the case. Many enterprises are embracing virtual networking in data centers across layers 2-4. As part of this transition, I’m starting to see a lot more interest in micro-segmentation for network isolation, east-west traffic segmentation between data center servers, and even the creation of network tunnels from endpoints to data center applications. From a cybersecurity perspective, micro-segmentation offers great potential as it can be used to limit the attack surface. I’m curious to find out about micro-segmentation adoption. Is it still a cutting-edge technology, or has it crossed the proverbial chasm? My hope (and gut feel) is that we are making progress – more soon…

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkworld.com/article/2976900/cisco-subnet/anticipating-vmworld.html