Cloudistics(R) and Pica8(R) Partner to Deliver Secure Virtual Networking for Superconverged Infrastructures

RESTON, VA--(Marketwired - Dec 1, 2016) -  Cloudistics, an enterprise cloud computing company, announces a partnership with network operating system vendor Pica8 to extend the Cloudistics virtual networking capabilities to include industry leading OpenFlow™ and SDN. This partnership enables highly simplified deployment and management of physical and virtual networks and secure connectivity between applications to protect against unauthorized access to applications.

Built-in Network Virtualization

The digital transformation to the cloud computing model has triggered a major shift in how applications are built, delivered and secured. Modern applications are being developed with new application architectures containing hundreds of components using modular and micro segmented service models. These architectures pose many new challenges for businesses --- scale, rapidly changing network requirements, redundancy and the need for layered micro-segmented defenses against security threats. Current Layer 2 approaches based on VLANs are slow, manual and error-prone, restrict application mobility, and restrict the number of network segments allowed. 

"With just a click, our customers can secure applications within a micro-segmented virtual network," said Najaf Husain, CEO Cloudistics. "Unlike hyperconverged solutions, our networking innovations are built into the platform and not only secure the underlying network but simplify its configuration and management."

Along with storage and compute, Cloudistics integrates software defined networking used for the underlay network, with its patent pending Layer 3 based network address virtualization technology for overlay networks. This combination of capabilities enables true end to end software control over design, deployment and management of physical and virtual networks within a single pane of glass. Underlay network layout is achieved using OpenFlow and Pica8's unique CrossFlow technology, enabling rapid deployment of physical networks.

By implementing the overlay network in Layer 3 (IP Layer), Cloudistics is the only solution that delivers network virtualization at line rates from 10 GB/s to 100 GB/s for switching functions and over 6 TB/s for hardware accelerated physical and overlay network routing functionality. Operating at Layer 3 significantly simplifies network design, layout and redundancy requirements, enabling fully non-blocking BGP based leaf-spine architectures that scale to handle the demands of the largest private cloud infrastructures.

"Performance and scale for CrossFlow / OpenFlow is unsurpassed with Pica8," said Niraj Jain, VP of Business Development at Pica8. "We are the OpenFlow leaders and experts in that protocol. We are delighted to partner with Cloudistics to help them deliver a secure enterprise grade networking solution out of the box".

Unified Control Plane

Cloudistics integrates complete network function virtualization (NFV) including fully distributed firewalls, DHCP, NAT and load balancers. NFV is managed from a unified cloud controller allowing IT to centrally secure and control networks between virtual machines, microservices and container based applications across multi-site, multi-geo environments. Using the unified control plane, virtual and physical networks can be deployed across the infrastructure in minutes and eliminates the need for complex, manual and error-prone solutions to secure applications.

Micro-Segmentation Secures Applications

"Micro-segmentation is a new frontier where networks are split into isolated network segments directly at the network layer," said Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan, CTO of Cloudistics. "The advent of modular containerized/multi-VM applications presents new opportunities for granular security policies that can be tightly coupled to the layout of each application."

Micro-segmentation at the network layer (either Layer 3 or Layer 2) isolates network traffic into individual islands and each island cannot even see the packets or the existence of other islands. Micro-segments can be combined with firewall policies that further restrict traffic within each micro-segment. It is important to note that micro-segmentation and firewalls are different mechanisms and they are complementary - micro-segmentation restricts the view at the network layer and firewalls can further apply permissive or restrictive policies based on application needs.

Cloudistics combines micro-segmentation at Layer 3 with distributed firewalls for virtual networks to provide a complete security solution for modern applications. In conjunction with hardware accelerated routing for overlay networks, this enables fast line rate performance. Distributed firewalls also improve performance by moving firewall functionality to the edge and eliminate "hairpin" connections to centralized firewalls. Most importantly, it is simple - virtual networks, microsegments and per segment distributed firewalls can be deployed and monitored within seconds from a single centralized pane.

Product Availability
The Cloudistics Platform including network virtualization capabilities, micro-segmentation, network function virtualization and SDN router are shipping today. An additional set of APIs for network orchestration will be available by January 2017.

About Cloudistics

Cloudistics, an enterprise cloud computing company, delivers superconverged cloud infrastructures to medium and large enterprises. Its software-defined technology natively converges network, storage, compute, virtualization, and management into a single platform to drive unprecedented simplicity in the datacenter. Customers can start with a base infrastructure and scale to multi-site and multi-geo infrastructures with predictable economics and performance. With proprietary and secure virtual networking, elastic storage, application orchestration and SaaS management, Cloudistics is the blueprint for application-optimized enterprise cloud infrastructures. Learn more at www.cloudistics.com or follow @cloudistics on Twitter.

About Pica8

Pica8 is the one-stop source for white box networking. Since 2009, Pica8 has pioneered open networking with PicOS™, the first network operating system that enables data center customers to easily integrate Layer-2 / Layer-3 networking and software-defined networking (SDN) using commodity white box switches. PicOS supports an industry-standard CLI for Layer-2 / Layer-3, unmodified Linux, and OpenFlow 1.5. Pica8 makes white box adoption seamless by providing PicOS on both pre-loaded switching hardware or as standalone software on a growing list of compatible bare metal switches. Pica8 is a global company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit www.pica8.com or follow @pica8 on Twitter.