FlexVNF provides DNS security, secure Web gateway, multi-tenant firewall and unified threat management.

February 23, 2016

3 Min Read

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Versa Networks, a networking and security startup providing next-generation WAN and branch solutions for service providers and enterprises, today announced major feature and performance enhancements to the software-defined security used in its branch security offering. Versa FlexVNF software-defined security enables service providers and large enterprise IT teams to deliver a range of layered security services for branch offices, including advanced functions such as DNS security and secure web gateways (SWG), coupled with full multi-tenancy.

Branch offices are increasingly becoming a targeted point of entry into corporate networks, with attack volume growing over 500% over the last 3 years. To address this growing branch office vulnerability, both service providers (through managed service offerings) and enterprise IT teams will need evolve branch security infrastructure from legacy point appliances to a more agile and software-defined approach. What software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) has started to do for branch connectivity, software-defined security (SD-Security) will need to do for branch security.

Enabling Robust Branch Security with Software-Defined Security and Industry-Leading Performance
Layered security infrastructure and/or managed security services can be critical resources for securing branch office networks, given their growing profile as a more vulnerable point of entry into the enterprise. Versa has expanded its portfolio of SD-Security functionality in Versa FlexVNF such as next-generation firewall, anti-virus, intrusion prevention, and category/content filtering, to now include advanced functions such as DNS security and secure web gateway:

  • Domain name system (DNS) threat defense provides additional protection against attacks, APTs and malware and uses big data analytics and machine learning intelligence to automate protection against both known and emerging threats

  • Secure web gateway (SWG) provides granular control and visibility of outbound web traffic to enforce security and corporate policies, as well as protect at the browser layer

Both of these new SD-Security capabilities can be located at either the branch office or delivered from the telco cloud, depending on customer requirements and/or the managed service design.

While SD-Security can make defense-in-depth more agile and cost effective, it cannot be a performance bottleneck. Versa FlexVNF has been optimized to offer best-in-class security performance per rack unit (RU). One Versa FlexVNF software instance, running on one rack unit of commodity x86 hardware, can provide up to 40 Gbps of stateful firewall, 20 Gbps of next-generation firewall (NGFW) or 10 Gbps of UTM – double the capacity of the leading proprietary hardware-based solutions. Because the Versa solution is software-defined, new capacity can be added quickly, such as moving from 40 Gbps to 80 Gbps, and new functions can be turned on in minutes.

Increased Agility and Deeper Security for Both Providers and Enterprises
Service providers and enterprises alike will appreciate the agility enabled by Versa FlexVNF to dynamically add new capacity or capabilities, such as adding a next-generation firewall and web security gateway when direct Internet access is activated. Unlike appliance-based security products, Versa FlexVNF software is fully multi-tenant and able to leverage SD-Security functions across multiple end customers or business divisions to reduce the overall cost of compute-intensive security functions.

Versa FlexVNF incorporates rich service chaining, which allows for the rapid and error-free deployment of layered security like NGFW with DNS security on top of SD-WAN (for securing direct Internet access). Versa also allows for service chaining with third party security devices and software. This is important as it enables simpler execution of a defense-in-depth strategy and allows integration of best-of-breed components.

{complink 6037|Versa Networks

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