As networks make the transition to software, so must the security used to protect them. Security is the leading virtualized network function that both enterprises and service providers are looking to incorporate into their environments.

Using a traditional security appliance to protect a virtualized data center or cloud environment is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Virtualized security solutions are better able to match the fluidity, scale, and cost-efficiencies of the virtualized network resources they are charged with protecting.

They keep things simple: Traffic doesn’t have to be rerouted from within the virtual infrastructure to an outside control point, nor does a complex web of VLANs need to be set up, managed, and maintained. Instead, virtualized security functions can be quickly implemented wherever they are needed – for example, as an application directly on a bare metal hypervisor or as a hosted service on a virtual machine (VM).

As a result, virtualized security is able to offer security advantages that traditional, perimeter-based, physical appliances simply can’t match. It is these advantages that are driving many of the security virtualization trends we are seeing in the market today. For more on the future of virtualized security, Read More.