VMware's NSX Application Platform: what does it do?

Today's networks are large, sprawling affairs that require a robust security posture as standard. VMware's NSX and its Application Platform help enterprises achieve this with agility, flexibility and scalability.

VMware NSX Application Platform (NAPP) is a microservices application that offers high-performance security analytics, management and advanced threat prevention. It does this by collecting and analysing network traffic data.

Some types of cybersecurity have persisted over the years: multi-factor authentication, for instance. However, the security landscape is changing and cloud-first businesses need cloud-first security.

After all, "network traffic data" is now a many-headed beast. Once upon a time, networks were like model railways, with traffic going round and round from office computer to office computer.

Today, enterprise networks are international, multifaceted and divergent. Users and devices join from different locations. This gives businesses greater flexibility and unlocks new possibilities for collaboration. But it also means that the network's attack surface is bigger and more vulnerable.

NAPP is an example of how VMware is tackling this issue. It's a powerful tool that comes with VMware NSX. In this article, we take a deep dive into a platform that can improve your security posture – and ultimately save you money.

But first, a quick recap.

What is VMware NSX?

VMware NSX is a network virtualisation and security platform. It allows IT to create software-defined networks (SDNs). It can be used across many cloud-native platforms such as KVM, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenStack and AWS native workloads.

Its overriding purpose is to improve network security and management. It's a versatile platform that can be used in public and private clouds and for both legacy and modern applications.

NAPP is one aspect of NSX's security features. The platform also includes a distributed firewall and micro-segmentation features that can help reduce the risk of data breaches.

NSX also simplifies management and streamlines operations by centralising network administration.

That's VMware NSX. So, how about NAPP in particular? What is it about this tool that can help your enterprise enhance its security posture?

What are the benefits of NAPP?

NAPP's key task is to collect and analyse large sets of data. It harnesses machine learning to detect and contain threats and protect workloads in a fully distributed fashion.

Using VMware's cloud-based correlation engine, NAPP provides malware prevention and network traffic analysis. Its security policies are enforced at the level of individual workloads, making it fully distributed and highly scalable.

Several NSX Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP) security applications run on NAPP. These include NSX Intelligence, Network Detection and Response (NDR) and NSX Malware Prevention.

These are the specific strengths of NAPP. But taken together with NSX as a whole, NAPP has one clear benefit: it saves you money.
Cloud security is a classic example of speculating to accumulate. You may wince at the initial outlay, but it's sure to reap rewards in the long run.

This is because security failures are expensive. If you suffer a data breach because of inadequate threat detection, your business will be on hold while the problem gets fixed. Along with this loss of revenue, you could be slapped with a fine under GDPR or another regulatory framework.

No single application will guarantee total security. But NAPP can be a valuable string to your bow, whatever workloads you need to support.

What workloads does NAPP support?

Part of NAPP and NSX's offering is that it supports a range of workloads. NAPP supports bare metal workloads, public clouds, multiple clouds and cloud-native applications.

How do you deploy NAPP?

NAPP can be deployed either automatically or manually in your NSX environment.

First, you need to be sure you meet the minimum system requirements. You should also identify any analytics data in your current and past NSX Intelligence installations you'd like to migrate to NAPP.

The platform is deployed using NSX Manager. VMware recommends you use the NSX Application Platform Automation Appliance (NAPA) to automate the deployment.

Full details on how to deploy NAPP can be found on the Broadcom website.

Other NAPP resources

We've only touched the surface of NAPP's capabilities and technical requirements. Here are two invaluable resources to find out more, both from VMware:

If you're unsure about your cloud networking security needs, a cloud consultant can help. By leveraging external expertise, you can realise your goals more quickly and avoid operational obstacles down the road.

Other NSX-T resources

At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we like to provide accessible guides to cloud-related topics. If you want to learn more about VMware NSX-T, why not explore some of these articles?

What alternatives are there to VMware NSX?

For our money, VMware NSX is an excellent platform for enterprises looking to enhance their security posture. However, it's not the only horse in town. Popular and highly performant alternatives include Azure Firewall, Cisco and ManageEngine.

How we can help

At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we don't just move workloads from A to B. We also provide post-migration cloud security solutions to help businesses lock down their cloud environment.

Our team is made up of ex-VMware employees, so you can count on us for the experience and expertise needed to spot and manage risks before they come to haunt you. On top of this, we can work with you to implement and automate security controls.

Finally, we provide flexible management and optimisation services to ensure peak performance and peak security.

So, if you're looking for a cloud security consultant, get in touch with us today and learn more about our services. We guarantee a flexible, tailored service that will keep your workloads under lock and key.

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