PLUMgrid Offers Networking Suite for Securing OpenStack

Ask many IT adminstrators about sticky issues they are facing as they pursue OpenStack deployments, and lots of them will say that they are wrestling with the security features built into the platform. Enterprises simply don't want to trust a cloud platform and move apps and data to the cloud without having confidence in platform security.

Now, OpenStack may be getting an assist in this area from software-defined networking (SDN) vendor PLUMgrid. PLUMgrid's just released OpenStack Networking Suite provides virtual networking  and security through many cutting-edge technologies.

Neutron, previously known as Quantum, is an OpenStack project focused on delivering networking as a service, and PLUMgrid's OpenStack Networking Suite works with Neutron, allowing cloud administrators to create and manage virtual cloud networks. The PLUMgrid suite integrates with the current OpenStack Icehouse release and the OpenStack Havana release that arrived in 2013.

According to PLUMgrid's announcement:

"Whether building a Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) on OpenStack, your cloud is only as good as the virtual network infrastructure you choose. The PLUMgrid OpenStack Networking Suite is a secure, comprehensive and open software-only solution that delivers terabits of performance and scales across tens of thousands of workloads. Built on PLUMgrid Platform and IO Visor technology, it provides highly automated workflows that significantly reduce the deployment time of OpenStack clouds and enables users to create private Virtual Domains for applications and projects. Virtual Domains provide isolation, security and policy enforcement across tenants. It ships with a rich set of distributed virtual network functions such as routers, switches, NAT, IPAM, DHCP, security policies, end-to-end encryption, and third party Layer 4-7 serviceinsertion. These network functions provide the capabilities and scale required for today's cloud applications."

"By providing a comprehensive suite of capabilities and fully distributed Virtual Networking Functions (VNF), PLUMgrid OpenStack Networking Suite overcomes the scale, availability, feature set and lifecycle limitations of OpenStack Networking."

You can find out much more about PLUMgrid's suite here.