Virtualization has been a game changer ever since its inception. It is a process of virtually creating or mimicking a physical entity such as a network system or, software services. Virtualization has a widespread use and can be applied to servers, applications, storage systems, and networks. It drastically cuts down IT expenses and is helping companies of all shapes and sizes to boost their efficiency and productivity. Today, various companies all around the globe are using virtualization to carry out their operations and businesses. But managing all these virtual networks can prove to be a cumbersome job at times and not cost-effective. Microsegmentation is a process of dividing a network with the use of networking peripherals such as switches to control the network traffic. Microsegmentation makes sure that only a couple of nodes coexist in each collision domain to avoid the possibility of data packers colliding with each other. Microsegmentation can, therefore, enhance both the security and efficiency of a network system.
Why microsegmentation?
Before we drill down further about microsegmentation, it is important to understand why exactly do we need this in our network systems. In a network system, a collision can result in data loss or corrupted data, which can be costly. A collision domain is one such logical area in a computer network wherein data packets can collide with each other.
A collision can occur between two or more nodes; a node can be a computer or a switch. For instance, consider your company has 20 nodes. There can be a total of 19 possible segments, which can have a packet collision in them.
Microsegmentation is a technique that enables the creation of one user per segment to avoid collision. This allows each node to get complete access to the transmission channel. This will also address the issues of packet collisions in a full-duplex mode network, where concurrent transmissions are bi-directional.
Benefits of microsegmentation
Microsegmentation is a revolutionary technology in virtual networks. It has just started receiving the recognition it deserves. By using it, companies can easily handle even the most complex network systems with ease. Microsegmentation can greatly help to manage networks within an organization and can also provide resilience against cyberthreats. Here are some of the vital advantages and benefits of implementing microsegmentation.
Securing individual workloads
Microsegmentation is one of the most advanced and effective solutions to secure networks and datacenters. The traditional perimeter defensive approach fails miserably once an intruder breaks the firewall and enters the network system. Microsegmentation, on the other hand, mandates a zero-trust system, which makes sure that a proper security model is implemented from inside-out.
In a traditional virtual network system, more than one node has control to the network. With the number of nodes having control to the network increasing, the threats associated with it also increases. Microsegmentation confines the network segment to have just a couple of nodes, making it easy to secure and control. With the use of microsegmentation, security policies can be assigned at the workload level, which ensures a persistent security irrespective of the workload migration.
Moreover, all security functions can be programmed into the datacenter’s infrastructure directly so that security is easy to maintain and can accommodate changes.
Safeguards all your VMs
To ensure better control and security in any network, it is divided into various security zones, which consist of segments. All security policies, network monitoring, and analysis are performed on these security zones. Depending on the criticality and other aspects, various departments in an organization can be grouped into various security groups. However, unlike the physical setup, a breach in any of the virtual setup’s security zone will quickly spread to other security zones, which can eventually collapse the entire virtual system.
Microsegmentation is one such technology. It can provide a similar level of granular security even in the cloud. All virtual machines can be configured in the same or different servers and can be configured and grouped into logical segments. Each of these logical segments can be then secured and monitored individually.
Since every virtual machine now can be individually configured, monitored, and secured, microsegmentation can safeguard all of you VMs.
Better visibility and control
Microsegmentation is an effective means of eliminating the blind spots in the virtual network and is known to provide better visibility and control over the entire network. Microsegmentation provides the ability to deploy controls on the segments, which provides unprecedented visibility and control.
With the help of microsegmentation, the security tools in virtualization can be used to close all the loopholes and flaws in the network system, which a traditional perimeter-based security cannot do. Now with the network being closed and in control, system administrators can have a better control over the segments and nodes in a network.
Reduced costs
Using microsegmentation, all your segments can be controlled and secured programatically. Software can be used to separate workloads along with their policies, which is usually done using datacenter silos. This can save huge capital for the enterprise.
Moreover, advanced machinery, which is usually used to secure datacenters in the cloud can be replaced by adopting scalable software solutions without the need for any specialized hardware. Apart from these, the time taken to lower the risks, detect threats, and build security policies into every workload individually is possible using microsegmentation.
Better performance and efficiency
In a physical network, all network workload traffic has to reach multiple nodes before reaching the destination node. This increases network traffic and also reduces performance. With microsegmentation, these traffic patterns can be drastically reduced as there will be a direct communication between the nodes in a segment. Also, the network traffic will be confined to the virtual network segment, making it more efficient. Microsegmentation also ensures better operational continuity.
An ideal enterprise solution
Microsegmentation ensures safer workloads. It is highly cost-efficient and offers better performance. Thanks to all these aspects, microsegmentation can be an ideal enterprise solution to provide better operational continuity. Companies can accommodate changes and new inclusions and resource reallocations in a network with ease. Microsegmentation is not just about securing your network systems, it’s about redefining the way a software-defined datacenter works.
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