NETWORK VIRTUALIZATION

THE NEXT STEP IN

DATA CENTER TRANSFORMATION

Rolta AdvizeX | VMware

The Virtualization Journey
Continues…
Over the last decade, server virtualization has transformed the enterprise
data center. According to Gartner, most enterprises have virtualized 75%
or more of their compute infrastructure, with many enterprises reporting
virtualization rates as high as 90% or more.1 In other words, the server
virtualization journey is nearly at an end.

2 Sources 1. InformationWeek, “Virtualization Market Now ‘Mature,’ Gartner Finds.”

Many of the problems of the traditional data center
remain. Data is still siloed. New applications still
take weeks to deploy. Security is still based on an
outmoded, perimeter-centric view. While server
virtualization has done much to reduce capex
costs, it has done little to reduce the complexities,
inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities associated
with legacy data center infrastructures.

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Server virtualization alone
is not the endgame for data
center transformation. The
goal for enterprises should be
a software-defined data center
(SDDC). This requires not only
virtual machines (VMs) but also
virtual storage, all connected
by virtual networks. Only
then will enterprises realize
true transformation fueled
by service automation, rapid
instantiation and security
microsegmentation.

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Network Virtualization
Holds the Key to SDDC
Virtual machines allow enterprises to deploy more applications
on a single server, but they don’t make it easier to provision,
secure or optimize those applications. For that to happen,
enterprises need to virtualize network services such as
firewalls, load balancing, routing/switching and service
chaining. Network virtualization allows IT departments to
decouple these network services from hardware and deliver
them through a single layer of software-based control.

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 To understand the value of network virtualization,
let’s look at a data center featuring VMs within a
traditional network infrastructure versus one with a
fully virtualized network environment. In a traditional
network infrastructure, network resources are
provisioned manually for each VM. When an application
moves to a different VM, its security and policy
profiles have to be manually updated for the new
machine. This is not only a time-consuming process,
but can introduce security and performance issues as
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applications move. In a virtualized network, however,
security and network policies can be applied directly to
the application rather than the VM. As an application
moves to a different VM, the network policies follow
it, creating a seamless experience that can be easily
customized in near real time or even automated based
on various factors such as network traffic conditions.
Furthermore, when an application is decommissioned,
the network services can automatically be
decommissioned along with the VMs.
Toplogy Independence
Network Virtualization Platform
Pooled Data Center Capacity
Improving on
Success
Amazon, Google and Microsoft operate some of the
most powerful and advanced data centers in the
world. To operate effectively at such an enormous
scale, their data centers leverage a software-
defined architecture where servers, network and
storage have all been virtualized to deliver optimal
efficiency, scalability and security.

The cloud giants also have the in-house resources

to create their own infrastructure platforms. Most
enterprises, on the other hand, aren’t in a position
to rip and replace their legacy infrastructure
or rewrite their legacy applications. How can
enterprises realize the big cloud benefits of an SDDC
without spending a small fortune to do it? By adding
a network virtualization layer on top of their existing
infrastructure.

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 Network virtualization isn’t a separate
journey. It’s part of the same journey
begun with virtual machines. Using
the legacy network infrastructure and
hypervisor environment they have today,
enterprises can virtualize their network
services to realize greater scales of
efficiency, security and speed. The path
to that network nirvana begins with
VMware NSX.

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Change Nothing, VMware NSX is a network
virtualization solution that decouples

Change Everything
network services from your existing
network infrastructure, creating a
software-defined network services
layer that can be applied virtually to
applications across all your virtual
machines. Network load balancing,
routing, security and other network
provisioning services are managed
as virtualized resource pools, using
the same vSphere hypervisor that
manages your VM environment. With
NSX, enterprises can change the way
they provision network services for
the better, without changing their
existing network infrastructure or
their hypervisor solution.

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 NSX Reason #1:
Boost Your Data
Center’s Agility
Let’s go back to those big cloud providers
we mentioned earlier: Amazon, Google,
Microsoft. Can you think of something else
they have in common? Your applications. If
your enterprise is like most, your internal IT
consumers are already using the big cloud
providers to host some of their applications.

It’s not a question of loyalty, but agility.

Traditional enterprise data centers weren’t
designed to be ultra-responsive. It can take
weeks to procure, provision and deploy the
necessary resources in your data center to
host new business applications. Compare
that with minutes or hours using a hosted
cloud service.

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How do enterprises compete with the
big cloud providers? By using the same
underlying technology: a virtualized
data center. VMware’s NSX allows you to
easily shift data center resources to new
applications or projects as needed. You can
apply existing provisioning rules to secure
and optimize the application, or create new
provisioning rules and apply them once
for each application instance across your
VM environment. When an application
instance moves to a new VM, the network
services move with it: no need to change
the VM’s security settings or re-provision
the network policies.

Essentially, NSX allows you to manage

your data center like a miniature cloud,
moving network resources dynamically to
provide optimal performance and scale
without requiring lengthy, manual re-
configurations.

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 NSX Reason #2:
Boost Your Data Center’s Efficiency
Historically, enterprises have looked at their
data center as a sum of its parts. There was
networking, servers and storage, each with
its own architecture and a team to manage
it. This approach naturally led to complexity,
both in how data centers were built and how
they were run. With the advent of the cloud,
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enterprises are beginning to see IT as a single
resource rather than a series of different
parts. For example, enterprises are now
buying hyperconverged infrastructure that
combines storage and servers in a single box.
And they want the same kinds of efficiency on
the operational side of their data center.
Firewalling
Load Balancing
Switching
Routing
As server, network and storage
technologies physically come
together in the SDDC, it no
longer makes sense to manage
these technologies separately.
Enterprises are creating hybrid,
cross-functional and geo-
independent IT teams with shared
skillsets that can support all three
technologies as a single, unified
team. This unified approach
improves collaboration, accelerates
decision making and drives more
efficiency. At the same time,
enterprises don’t want to waste
valuable IT skills on operational
tasks that can be automated,
preferring to use IT to drive
business revenue through new
technology innovations.

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 Isolation and NSX Reason #3:
Boost Your Data
Segmentation

Center’s Security
Nearly every enterprise uses perimeter-based
firewalls as part of their security strategy.
In this age of advanced persistent threat,
Unit-level Trust /
however, hardware-based or even virtualized
Least Privilege
perimeter firewalls cannot completely protect
your network against data exfiltration or
ransomware. To accomplish that, enterprises
need to have lateral protection between
servers and even between VMs on the
same server. Unfortunately, it’s simply not
practical to implement a dedicated firewall
for every server because of the provisioning
Ubiquity and complexities, latency and economics.
Centralized Control

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 How can enterprises achieve lateral
security in their network? With NSX’s
microsegmentation capabilities. NSX
Secure User
allows enterprises to adopt a zero-trust
Environments
policy in their network by introducing
software-based firewalls not only on every
VM, but also on every application within
the VM. This microsegmentation creates
a honeycombed effect in the network
that prevents cybercriminals and hackers
from moving laterally within the network.
So, even if the network is breached, bad
agents are contained; they can’t navigate
through your network to cherry-pick for
confidential data or encrypt large pools of
data to be held for ransom.

It’s simple to create and maintain

DMZ firewalls using NSX, and those security
policies move with the application
across the virtual environment. Unlike
traditional firewall implementations,
NSX’s distributed firewall system has very
Data Center
Perimeter little impact on network performance. A
four-node cluster of servers, for example,
can deliver 80 Gbps of stateful firewall
throughput with NSX, comparable to a
high-end firewall appliance.

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 What’s the
Next Step?
When you’re ready to take the next step
in your virtual data center journey, Rolta
AdvizeX is here to help. We’re one of a
small group of elite NSX partners in the
world, having earned VMware’s SDDC
Partner of the Year Award in 2014 and its
Global Professional Services Partner of
the Year Award in 2016. We’re experts in
all phases of data center transformation,
from cloud technologies to virtualization
and beyond.

For 40 years, we’ve helped enterprises

large and small improve their business
and their bottom line through trusted
technology products and services.
Today, we offer expert advisory services
that focus on actionable steps toward a
better future, from data-centric security
strategies to virtualization roadmaps.
We help you assess where you are
today, determine where you need to be
tomorrow and identify the best steps to
move your business forward.

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 About Rolta AdvizeX
Since 1975, Rolta AdvizeX has been a provider of advanced information
technology solutions that enable optimal business performance.
Recognized for technical innovation and excellence, Rolta AdvizeX designs,
implements and manages integrated solutions from the industry’s best
strategic business partners.

Adhering to our ”clients for life” philosophy, Rolta AdvizeX is focused on

creating long-term customer relationships supported by our highly skilled
teams based around the world.

For more information on Rolta AdvizeX, visit us online at www.advizex.com.

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