NetCitadel Unveils Industry's First Software Defined Security Solution for Centralized Security Intelligence in Cloud, Virtual and Physical Environments

Online, January 29, 2013 (Newswire.com) - NetCitadel, Inc., a pioneer in Security Orchestration and the first company to centralize network security intelligence across a variety of networking environments and vendors' equipment, today introduced its OneControl Security Orchestration Platform™. OneControl makes existing security infrastructure more intelligent and responsive, enabling network security policy changes to be accurately implemented across cloud, virtual and physical environments in minutes rather than days or weeks.

Today, IT is challenged with delivering agility, security and compliance in increasingly dynamic data centers and networking environments that include virtualization and cloud. Until today, solutions required manual changes that are time-consuming, static, and susceptible to human errors; and fail to enforce consistent policies across dynamic and heterogeneous cloud, virtual and physical environments. Now, enterprises can confidently adapt to changing business needs with centralized security intelligence that is integrated with their cloud and virtualization environments. This results in an accurate, context-aware security infrastructure that is dynamically synchronized with the latest network state, enabling organizations to securely take advantage of the agility that cloud and virtualization have to offer.

With today's OneControl introduction, NetCitadel also announced its formal company launch, addressing gaps in today's cloud, virtual and physical networks by making network security infrastructure agile. With its patent-pending technology platform, the company is laying the foundation for the future of Software Defined Security. See accompanying company launch announcement issued by NetCitadel today at: http://www.netcitadel.com/news-events/press-releases/company-launch-130129/

"Security policies must shift from hardware-based attributes to logical and context-based attributes, such as applications, virtual machine (VM) identities, user or group identities, and sensitivity of content," writes Neil MacDonald, principal analyst at Gartner in a recent report. "A common misconception with the shift to software-defined security is that all security controls must move to software. For security, the primary goal must be to ensure that the appropriate security controls automatically remain in place, regardless of where an application moves, whether on-premises or to public clouds, and without requiring re-architecting security controls." 1

The OneControl Security Orchestration Platform is a virtual appliance that automatically orchestrates security intelligence by mapping context about cloud, virtual and physical environments to a wide range of security infrastructure and vendor devices. It is the industry's only solution that separates the control plane from Policy Enforcement Points (PEPs), transforming existing security infrastructure into a context-aware environment that transcends security silos and adapts to dynamic changes across cloud, virtual and physical environments. This context-awareness delivers intelligence about workloads from sources such as VMware® vCenter™ and Amazon AWS to security infrastructure such as Cisco® ASA and Juniper® SRX devices, all through a single pane of glass that enables consistent security policies and enforcement across heterogeneous environments.

"NetCitadel's OneControl allows me to integrate my virtualization environment with the existing physical security devices used to protect it, replacing traditional slow and manual processes with an automated solution that works across my entire infrastructure," said Ken Dobbins, Kenettek Service Manager. "Kenettek is a managed service and hosting provider, and OneControl gives me the power to react to customer changes in minutes rather than days without compromising their security, increasing their agility and satisfaction. OneControl's centralized GUI also simplifies the management of multi-vendor, complex CLI-based security policies, reducing ongoing costly training while freeing up my valuable resources to work on strategic initiatives with customers versus implementing cumbersome manual policy changes."

According to Gartner, "Through 2018, more than 95 percent of firewall breaches will be caused by misconfigurations, not firewall flaws." 2 Unlike traditional solutions that lack integration between security devices and third-party applications making security blind to infrastructure activity, OneControl ensures a consistent and accurate security policy across heterogeneous environments no matter where the workload is created, ultimately accelerating the movement of high-governance workloads to the cloud.

OneControl reduces risk and enhances compliance across cloud, virtual and physical environments with security policies that adapt dynamically based on context, instead of today's manual, error-prone change processes. Finally, OneControl leverages existing security infrastructure CAPEX investments and better utilizes IT security resources for reduced OPEX.

NetCitadel OneControl is shipped as a virtual appliance and supports modular security options, including the Virtual Security Module and the Cloud Security Module that are sold as add-ons. The OneControl Security Orchestration Platform delivers a centralized policy management framework and security device integration that simplify traditional security policy management. The optional Virtual Security Module enables tracking of virtualization environments, including VMware vCenter, and maps this information to network security infrastructure. The optional Cloud Security Module enables tracking of cloud environments, including VMware vCloud™ Director and Amazon AWS, and maps this information to network security infrastructure. Additional modules are expected later in 2013.

"This new approach of adding centralized, context-aware intelligence at the right places in existing network security infrastructure ensures that organizations can remain secure and agile as they keep up with the ever-changing business requirements that virtual and cloud environments create," said Anthony James, NetCitadel VP of Marketing. "With OneControl, for the first time organizations have the right security controls at the right place and at the right time to best serve their growing business needs."

Availability and Pricing
The OneControl Security Orchestration Platform is available today directly from NetCitadel at http://www.netcitadel.com. Solution pricing starts at $25,000 for up to 25 security devices, and increases depending on the number of additional devices supported. Pricing for the Virtual Security Module and Cloud Security Module starts at $5,000 each. Free evaluations are now available.

Note 1 - Gartner, "The Impact of Software-Defined Data Centers on Information Security," by Neil MacDonald, Oct. 16, 2012.
Note 2 - Gartner, "One Brand of Firewall Is a Best Practice for Most Enterprises," by Greg Young, Nov. 28, 2012.

About NetCitadel
NetCitadel is the pioneer of security orchestration across cloud, virtual and physical environments. Its OneControl Security Orchestration Platform is the industry's only solution that creates a security control plane, transforming existing security infrastructure into a context-aware environment that transcends security silos and adapts to dynamic changes across cloud, virtual and physical environments. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., the company is venture backed by NEA and other investors. For more information about NetCitadel and its solutions, call (650) 564-4285 or visit http://www.netcitadel.com.

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NetCitadel and OneControl are registered trademarks of NetCitadel in the United States and other countries. All other company and product names are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.