Tufin and Microsoft have given details of a technology collaboration, whereby the companies joined forces to offer deeper integration from Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure, into the Tufin Orchestration Suite. Together with already existing support of Amazon Web Services (AWS), and private cloud platforms from VMware NSX and OpenStack, Tufin’s Orchestration Suite version R15-3 provides a single pane of glass for centralized management of security policies across all leading platforms, including physical networks, virtual networks and hybrid cloud environments. Private and public cloud platforms offer clear benefits to enterprises such as increased agility and cost-effectiveness. However, moving to the cloud often exacerbates enterprise network security challenges, especially in respect to unified management, visibility and control.
In Gartner’s August 2015 Hype Cycle for Infrastructure, Neil McDonald, VP Distinguished Analyst wrote: “Information security cannot be an inhibitor to the needs of digital business. Software-Defined Security will bring speed and agility to the enforcement of security policy, regardless of the location of the user, the information or the workload. Information security infrastructure is too rigid and static to support the rapidly changing needs of digital business and to provide effective protection in a rapidly changing threat environment.”
The Tufin Orchestration Suite helps customers by addressing the following challenges:
· Unified Policy Management - Centralized and abstracted management of Azure VNet policies, alongside network and next-generation firewall policies and hybrid cloud security groups
· Visibility - Centralized visibility of policies and changes made to Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines and network security groups
· Compliance - Automated audit trail, regulatory violations analysis and reports, required for regulatory compliance (e.g., PCI DSS, SOX)
“Enterprises are struggling with effective management of network security across these increasingly diverse IT environments,” said Reuven Harrison, CTO, Tufin. “By expanding our support into Azure, our customers can now benefit from public, private and hybrid cloud platforms with confidence that their security policy requirements are aligned across on-premises networks and cloud platforms. As enterprises continue to adopt the cloud, Tufin will continue to deliver innovative orchestration solutions for securing application connectivity with industry leading firewalls, hypervisors and cloud platforms.”
“With Tufin, our customers’ overall experience with the cloud environment will be simplified and improved, as the security policies will be aligned across heterogeneous networks and Azure,” says Venkat Gattamneni, Group Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Azure. “With this collaboration, we’re seeing an ease in transferring applications and workloads to Azure in a secure and simple manner.”