Security Orchestration – From data center to cloud

The modern data center has become the home of next-generation technologies. The proliferation of cloud computing and the data-on-demand generation has created new types of challenges for today’s IT environment. Not only do administrators have to focus on creating robust, multi-tenant, cloud platforms – they must always take end-user performance, resource utilization, and (of course) security into consideration. The challenge always becomes deploying an intelligent security model without hindering user productivity.

To accomplish many other data center, virtualization, and cloud tasks – administrators turned to orchestration for help. This helped them span their distributed infrastructure and better control all of the elements that keep the platform running. Well, why can’t we use the same model for orchestrating security? Using cloud-ready security tools, administrators can intelligently span their security model from their data center and into the cloud.

• Deploying security at various points. You run a very distributed organization. This means your security solution must be able to scale as well. In some cases, this means deploying virtual security services to various points in your network or cloud environment. The goal is to provide continuous security – and in some cases compliance – to a very large IT infrastructure. Orchestration helps by distributing policies and security protocols to large data centers as well as branch office locations.
• Integrating business structure into cloud security. The technology environment has become so critical that many organizations are actually creating their business plan around the capabilities of IT. In many cases, IT administrators are directly integrating their business flow into the structure of their security. This type of orchestration – from business to technology – allows organizations to ensure faster delivery services and improved end-user performance.
• Utilize monitoring, analysis and management tools. With numerous data and compute points – the modern data center must enforce polices throughout the entire organization. The idea is to ensure compliance continuously while still streamlining security operations and change controls. By incorporating distributed security analysis and monitoring, you’re able to deliver a tighter security policy that offers better protection against new types of cyber-threats.
• Create data center-to-cloud security policies. Imagine being able to create a visual representation of your security flow. Imagine being able to  automatically generate a interactive topology map of all network firewalls and routers, subnets and zones, and deliver instant visibility of the impact of security policies on network traffic. Now, imagine being able to do this at all of your data center and cloud points. This is the power of security management, orchestration, and edge control. Your environment is connected through a series of routers, gateways, firewalls, and virtual services. The best way to create a logical cross-connect is to design a platform with direct visibility into these critical security processes. With powerful security management suites – you’re able to orchestrate automated and application-centric solutions for managing complex policies across firewalls and related security infrastructure.

Being able to automate various security services not only optimizes your overall infrastructure – it allows security administrators to focus on more proactive tasks. Because we have so many new types of devices connecting into the modern data center, it’s critical to have solid security controls in place. In the age of the cloud, more organizations are utilizing this type of distributed computing architecture. Regardless of the vertical you’re in – you can still deploy powerful, compliance-ready, security solutions which effectively span your data center and the cloud.