F5 integrates products into 'Distributed Cloud Services'
(2022/02/15)
- Reference: 1644926470
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/02/15/f5_distributed_cloud_services/
- Source link:
Security vendors always seem to be acquiring rivals and promising to integrate their wares into a suite of products that make it less likely you'll get whacked by online villains.
Now it's the turn of F5, which has announced "Distributed Cloud Services" that brings together the API security product it acquired along with [1]Volterra in 2021, plus its existing web application firewall, Shape AI bot defense tech, and DDoS deflectors.
All of the products can be managed together, an arrangement that Haiyan Song, F5 executive vice president and general manager for security and distributed cloud, believes makes life easier for users because they don't need to master distinct tools for different products.
[2]
F5's new DDoS detection console
Again, this is established doctrine for vendors when they acquire and integrate products. In F5's case the doctrine applies if its new SaaSy platform is used as the control plane for all its products.
[3]Refresh? No, F5 says supply of networking chips is still awful, getting worse...
[4]Here's a list of the flaws Russia, China, Iran and pals exploit most often, say Five Eyes infosec agencies
[5]Now it is F5's turn to reveal critical security bugs – and the Feds were quick to sound the alarm on these BIG-IP flaws
[6]What do F5, Citrix, Pulse Secure all have in common? China exploiting their flaws to hack govt, biz – Feds
F5 has also ensured that the tools managed by Distributed Cloud Services can be deployed to whatever on-prem rig or public cloud a user prefers. In the latter environment, F5 has figured out the plumbing peculiarities of the major clouds so that the suite, and a user's preferred security policies, can be deployed without having to learn the intricacies of each platform.
"We have abstracted to the structures of the clouds," Song told The Register .
[7]
The individual components of the suite have been modernised a little, but it's the centralised management and promised ease of use that are the real changes in this new product. ®
Get our [8]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/08/f5_buys_volterra/
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/02/15/supplied_f5_ddos_protection_console.jpg
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/26/f5_clips_revenue_forecast/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/29/top_vulns_list/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/11/f5_critical_flaws/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/14/chinas_hackers_f5_citrix/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YgvcO-bO5Th7XTel6-bpdAAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Now it's the turn of F5, which has announced "Distributed Cloud Services" that brings together the API security product it acquired along with [1]Volterra in 2021, plus its existing web application firewall, Shape AI bot defense tech, and DDoS deflectors.
All of the products can be managed together, an arrangement that Haiyan Song, F5 executive vice president and general manager for security and distributed cloud, believes makes life easier for users because they don't need to master distinct tools for different products.
[2]
F5's new DDoS detection console
Again, this is established doctrine for vendors when they acquire and integrate products. In F5's case the doctrine applies if its new SaaSy platform is used as the control plane for all its products.
[3]Refresh? No, F5 says supply of networking chips is still awful, getting worse...
[4]Here's a list of the flaws Russia, China, Iran and pals exploit most often, say Five Eyes infosec agencies
[5]Now it is F5's turn to reveal critical security bugs – and the Feds were quick to sound the alarm on these BIG-IP flaws
[6]What do F5, Citrix, Pulse Secure all have in common? China exploiting their flaws to hack govt, biz – Feds
F5 has also ensured that the tools managed by Distributed Cloud Services can be deployed to whatever on-prem rig or public cloud a user prefers. In the latter environment, F5 has figured out the plumbing peculiarities of the major clouds so that the suite, and a user's preferred security policies, can be deployed without having to learn the intricacies of each platform.
"We have abstracted to the structures of the clouds," Song told The Register .
[7]
The individual components of the suite have been modernised a little, but it's the centralised management and promised ease of use that are the real changes in this new product. ®
Get our [8]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/08/f5_buys_volterra/
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/02/15/supplied_f5_ddos_protection_console.jpg
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/26/f5_clips_revenue_forecast/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/29/top_vulns_list/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/11/f5_critical_flaws/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/14/chinas_hackers_f5_citrix/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YgvcO-bO5Th7XTel6-bpdAAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"Distributed Cloud Services"
The whole point of cloud was originally that it would be a distributed, vendor independent fully interoperable cluster of services (rather like the internet itself). However as [1]Lucas, Ballay and Lombreglia of MAYA Design pointed out as far back as 2009, what emerged was, instead of a storage infrastructure modelled on the internet, " a bunch of corporate dirigibles painted to look like clouds. You can tell they’re fake because they all have logos on them "
I have struggled on behalf of clients with the problems of the resulting lack of interoperability - particularly with the pitfalls of extrication and migration between vendors.
So now, after all this time, are we being offered a limited way of returning to the original concept?
[1] http://www.maya.com/file_download/126/The%20Wrong%20Cloud.pdf