Cloud Computing: VMware NSX – Boom Or Bust For Security Vendors?
September 4, 2013
Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Brian Prince.
VMware’s official unveiling of its NSX network virtualization platform touched off conversations about how the company’s partners would fit into its future plans. While much of the focus has been on the impact the announcement will have on VMware’s relationship with Cisco Systems, what’s been overlooked in the Cisco-VMware brouhaha is how NSX may affect VMware’s security partners. Industry analysts have mixed opinions.
"I think the NSX push at VMworld was actually great for vendors," said Forrester Research analyst Dave Bartoletti, adding that security vendors at last week’s conference were happy about the renewed focus on networking and security. "VMware’s not going to be able to do it all in software better than everyone else — switching, routing, firewall, load balancing, etc.," he said…
In addition to integrating routing functions with switching in the hypervisor, VMware has built a stateful firewall capability directly into the hypervisor to offer distributed firewall inspection at each virtual switch port. According to the company, this firewall technology also enables stateful, logical insertion of partner devices and agents from vendors such as F5 and Palo Alto Networks. Firewall providers shouldn’t be in danger of VMware encroaching on their territory for several reasons, said Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group…
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