In our last blog post we laid out five compelling reasons to virtualize your network security so you can inspect 100% of your traffic without killing your network performance. With a turnkey network security virtualization platform you get a cloud-like experience which is quick to deploy. You eliminate the time and cost of hardware refreshes; instead you can start your transition easily and add traffic inspection with a pay-as-you-grow model. All of this frees up your team to focus on strategic security concerns.
If that wasn’t enough to convince you, here are five more reasons to virtualize your network security.
6. Minimize network disruptions
With traditional infrastructure, security appliances are scoped based on specific needs. And, expanding your inspection capacity requires a network redesign. When you opt for a virtualized approach, you can seamlessly deploy the platform in your network and then scale out your environment as your business needs grow. New locations? More employees? Increased traffic? You add inspection capacity from your dashboard. This is a vast improvement in budget and agility, minimizing disruptions to the business network because it doesn’t require a hardware refresh or a network redesign.
7. Keep your preferred vendor
A virtualized network security platform allows you to continue using your preferred security vendor, meaning your security operations team doesn’t have to adjust in any way. Instead, they continue to manage policy as they always have, while the infrastructure hums along and does the hard word. This also means you don’t have to make a huge investment in a new technology. You can gracefully transform your network security by starting small and scaling out one firewall function or VM at a time.
8. Get an expert solution without the price tag of an expert
We all know the benefits of outsourcing. You receive the input of an expert without having to make a large, long-term investment. You get to stay focused on doing what you do well – understanding and serving your customers – rather than getting bogged down in fighting fires. The same is true when it comes to virtualizing network security. To create a virtualization solution of your own, you’d need a team of skilled engineers to specify and source the appropriate servers, integrate with the APIs and management of the virtual firewall, and make sure traffic is properly steered in and out of the correct VMs. This is a huge outlay – in terms of time, money and staff. A network security virtualization platform means you’re getting all that expert functionality at a fraction of the cost.
9. Get an easy-to-use platform
Virtualizing is one step, making it accessible is another. However, when virtualization is made turnkey, all the hard stuff is taken care of by the platform. The network, server, load balancing, firewall VMs and orchestration are tightly integrated in a turnkey hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) package. Your team ends up with a familiar, cloud-like environment and a user-friendly dashboard from which they can manage your security needs.
10. Keep a lid on your TCO
Since virtualization eliminates the need for hardware refreshes, it’s incredibly affordable. Your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is roughly half what it would be with traditional NGFWs. Read the blog post here to see the numbers. What’s more, you can operate on a monthly subscription model for ultimate flexibility. This means you’re only paying for the amount of traffic inspection you actually need – which you only increase as your needs grow.
Virtualization is an accepted model when it comes to compute and storage, and it’s time it becomes the norm for network security too. When you opt for a virtualized network security platform you don’t have to invest the time developing and integrating an optimized solution. Instead you get an easy-to-use system with a familiar UI. You retain your current security vendor and you don’t have to worry about changes to your network architecture. All of this adds up to significant savings with regards to up-front costs and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).