Juniper Networks Unveils Virtual Security Suite

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As part of a larger effort to unify the management of security across physical and virtual networking environments, Juniper Networks today introduced a Firefly Suite of security offerings for virtual environments that can all be managed via a central console.

According to Tamir Hardof, senior director of product marketing for security at Juniper Networks, the suite provides the elements an IT organization needs to manage virtual networks in a suite of products that can share the same management console as the company’s existing line of firewall products.

The new suite combines Firefly Perimeter, a new virtual version of the Juniper Networks SRX Series Services Gateway, with Junos Space Virtual Director, the application that automates the deployment and management of Firefly Perimeter, along with Firefly Host, a virtual firewall for servers formerly known as vGW Virtual Gateway that is based on technology that Juniper gained when it acquired Altor Networks in 2010.

Hardof says the Firefly Suite can be managed via the same console that Juniper provides to manage physical security products because all Juniper offerings share a common JunOS code base that reduces the total cost of managing security. In addition, Hardof says the Firefly Suite can be integrated with the software-defined networking technology that Juniper gained last year via its acquisition of Contrail Systems.

Having comes to terms with the fact that perfect security does not exist, IT organizations are now focused on providing the best security possible across a broad range of physical and virtual systems at a reasonable cost. Increasingly, that will mean instead of trying to integrate a lot of disparate security products, offerings that integrate the management of as many security functions as performance considerations will allow are moving to the top of the IT security agenda.