VMware’s Matthew Schneider: Software-Defined Networking, Micro-Segmentation Key to Application-Level Security

Matthew Schneider, senior director for the U.S. public sector at VMware, has said government agencies and companies should adopt the software-defined networking model in order to meet the requirements of applications and manage big data workloads amid the use of cloud platforms.

Schneider wrote that the implementation of an SDN model should be combined with micro-segmentation that works to protect applications in a network from security vulnerabilities as network traffic moves from machine to machine.

He noted that the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act recommends the practice of micro-segmentation of a network “down to the lowest level possible” in order to safeguard applications from security risks.

SDN requires a “cultural change” and that the presence of operational silos within government agencies hampers the widespread adoption of such a model, according to Schneider.

Schneider added that “federal agencies can realize the full potential of both the firewall for broad perimeter protection and application-level security to limit exposure to insider threats” through the adoption of SDN combined with micro-segmentation.