Data center virtualization fuels security concerns

 

As more organizations move their data centers into virtualized and cloud environments, security of that data has become an increasing concern.

Once firms move data off-site, they have less control over who sees that data and how that data is protected.

This security concern may fuel demand for data center security products. Infonetics Research predicts that the data center security appliance market will grow to $4.4 billion by 2016.

This growth will set the stage for a market share battle among the leading data center security vendors: Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO)--with one-third of the global revenue in 2011--Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), McAfee, HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT). Other vendors fighting for a piece of the pie include Trend Micro, Check Point (NASDAQ: CHKP), Arbor, Palo Alto (NYSE: PANW), SonicWall and F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV), noted Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics.

Market leader Cisco is not content to rest on its laurels. The company this week launched a set of security products designed to protect high-capacity data centers in consolidated and virtualized environments.

The new offerings include scalable software for the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) line, virtualized ASA for multitenant environments, a data-center-grade intrusion prevention system and improvements to the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client to meet the requirements of a mobile workforce.

"There are big changes taking place in data centers right now… which are creating new security requirements," Jeff Aboud, marketing manager for enterprise network security at Cisco, told FierceEnterpriseCommunications.

Aboud cited three broad changes taking place:

  • application traffic and network performance is increasing significantly, with a 3,000 percent increase expected by 2015,
  • there is the accelerating movement to virtualization and cloud
  • there is proliferation of devices in the enterprise, with each employee having an average of more than three devices.

"Data centers have to be able to deal with these changes. This is creating new security requirements," Aboud observed.

To address these requirements, Cisco launched new products and updated existing products. "We are building solutions that integrate with the network fabric itself, as opposed to being a bolt-on as an afterthought," Aboud said