Wedge Networks Wins Multiple 2016 Info Security PG’s Global Excellence Awards® Including Gold for Internet of Things (IOT) Security

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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San Francisco, 2 March 2016 – Wedge Networks, the leader in Cloud Security and orchestrated threat management today announced Info Security Products Guide, the industry’s leading information security research and advisory guide, has named Wedge Networks’ Cloud Network Defense™ a winner in the following 3 2016 Global Excellence Awards® award categories: Gold for Wedge Cloud Network Defense™ with WedgeIQ in the Category of Internet of Things (IOT) Security, Bronze for Most Innovative Security Product and Bronze for Cloud Security Product of the Year.

The security industry celebrated its 12th Annual 2016 Global Excellence Awards in San Francisco by honouring excellence in every facet of the industry including products, people behind the successes and best companies. More than 50 judges from a broad spectrum of industry voices from around the world participated and their average scores determined the 2016 Global Excellence Awards Finalists and Winners. Winners were announced during the awards dinner and presentation on February 29, 2016 in San Francisco attended by the finalists, judges and industry peers.

“We are very honoured to be recognized by the Info Security Products team in 3 categories and to win the Gold Award for Internet of Things (IOT) Security. This is a great achievement for Wedge Networks who has won Gold for its third year running, and for Cloud Network Defense™, which was launched in December 2014” said Dr. Hongwen Zhang, CTO and Co-founder of Wedge Networks.

He continued: “Establishing plans to address the unique security and compliance challenges for the IoT is becoming a critical concern for many businesses, and this was a hot topic at Mobile World Congress last week. We have responded to the challenges businesses face for IoT by further enhancing our offering. On 23rd February we announced a family of new Security-as-a-Service packages, to provide urgently needed Security and Compliance enforcement services for the rapidly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) in Enterprise networks globally.”

About Info Security Products Guide
Info Security Products Guide plays a vital role in keeping end-users informed of the choices they can make when it comes to protecting their digital resources. It is written expressly for those who are adamant on staying informed of security threats and the preventive measure they can take. You will discover a wealth of information in this guide including tomorrow’s technology today, best deployment scenarios, people and technologies shaping info security and market research reports that facilitate in making the most pertinent security decisions. The Info Security Products Guide Global Excellence Awards recognize and honor excellence in all areas of information security. To learn more, visit www.infosecurityproductsguide.com and stay secured.

Wedge Cloud Network Defense™ (CND) Security-as-a-Service
Wedge Networks has developed a revolutionary cloud-based, network security platform called Wedge Cloud Network Defense™ (CND). This industry leading security platform can be implemented in a virtualized cloud compute environment to provide advanced network security applications such as web filtering, anti-malware, anti-spam, data loss prevention, mobile security, application control, server security, application filtering and more, with unrivaled scale, performance, and service agility. CND’s sustained performance over scale, multi-tenancy support, and the software-based licensing model of the platform have proven to be an ideal combination for service providers seeking to offer innovative new security services, while minimizing capital investments and business risk.

About Wedge
Wedge Networks™ is transforming the way security is delivered. Powered by the innovative WedgeOS™, Wedge Networks’ Cloud Network Defense is an orchestrated threat management platform designed to combat the shifting threat landscape associated with cloud, mobility, bring your own device, Internet of Things and consumerization of IT. By applying security policies at the cloud-layer, enterprises and network operators offering security-as-a-service can achieve more effective security, using best-in-class, continuously updated multi-vendor technologies for EverGreen Security™, with greater efficiency and scale. The award winning Wedge Platform is deployed globally, delivering security protection for tens of millions of users in Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, internet and broadband service providers, and across all industry verticals. Wedge Networks is headquartered in Calgary, Canada and has international offices in Dallas, USA; Beijing, China; and Manama, Bahrain. For further information visit: http://www.wedgenetworks.com/

Contact:
Hannah Whitrow
Zonic Group PR
hwhitrow@zonicgroup.com
+44 (0)7760 806 070

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Wedge Networks Enriches Industry Leading Asymmetric Web Filtering Solution With Value-Added Services For Internet Compliance

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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Disruptive Solution Enables Internet Service Providers to Achieve Compliance and Offer Value-Added Services While Reducing Solution Footprint by a Factor of 10

SAN FRANCISCO Feb. 29, 2016 — From the RSA 2016 show in San Francisco, California, Wedge Networks, the leader in orchestrated threat management, today extended its solution offering to enable value-added services in conjunction with its market leading Web filtering solution. Web Filtering for Internet compliance can be implemented with Wedge Cloud Network Defense (CND), using an Asymmetric filtering technique that compared to traditional techniques requires as little as ten percent of the footprint to achieve compliance.

“Internet traffic continues to grow at a rapid pace, with some of our customers’ reporting that traffic levels across their networks are doubling every twelve to eighteen months”, said James Hamilton, recently appointed CEO of Wedge Networks, Inc. “Wedge CND enables them to achieve regulatory compliance, and offer their customers the choice of a more customized internet experience, while reducing the solution footprint, complexity and cost.”

Conventional proxy-based Web filtering systems require both the outbound Universal Resource Locator (URL) web page request, which accounts for typically ten to fifteen percent of HTTP/HTTPS traffic, and the inbound web page reply, which accounts for the remaining eighty-five to ninety percent of traffic. Wedge CND’s Asymmetric Web filtering technique scans only the outbound URL requests and blocks requests for unapproved URLs and categories of URLs, to enforce compliance requirement before the request reaches the internet. This approach has a corresponding reduction in the scale of Web filtering equipment that must be procured, installed, powered, cooled, routinely updated, and otherwise maintained for dramatic capital and operational expense reductions. The reduction in equipment and operational complexity positions Wedge CND’s Asymmetric Web Filtering system as the platform of choice for Internet Compliance applications.

Wedge CND’s latest system release introduces support for multi-services policies, enabling service providers to offer personalized, value-added Web filtering and security services to meet the diverse needs of government agencies, enterprises, schools and residential consumers. Wedge CND’s industry leading support for multi-services with multi-tenancy allows network operators to extend Web filtering administrative domains to their internal and end-user ISP customers, so they may self select and modify criteria from an available selection of value-added security services.

The Wedge Cloud Network Defense™ (CND)
Wedge Networks has developed a revolutionary cloud-based, network security platform called Wedge Cloud Network Defense™ (CND). This industry leading security platform can be implemented in a virtualized or a cloud compute environment to provide advanced network security applications such as web filtering, anti-malware, anti-spam, data loss prevention, mobile security, application control, server security, application filtering and more, with unrivaled scale, performance, and service agility. Applications such as Web Filtering and others can also be supported with Wedge CND’s security mediation system called WedgeOS™. This system can alternatively be packaged as a more conventional security appliance, or a virtual instance, with the Web Filtering application and Wedge’s patented Deep Inspection engines, providing superior web filtering accuracy with imperceptible latency.

Media briefing opportunity: Wedge Networks will be at RSA from 29 February – 4 March and will be available for briefings at the Ontario Government booth, number N4329 North Expo. Wedge Networks CEO James Hamilton who is widely recognized as one of the cybersecurity industry’s most respected and influential leaders will be presenting at the AGC conference Information Security and Broader Security Conference on February 29th from 9:15-9:30am at the Westin, St. Francis – Union Square, San Francisco. To arrange a briefing with Wedge Networks please contact: ejefferies@zonicgroup.com

About Wedge
Wedge Networks™ is transforming the way security is delivered. Powered by the innovative WedgeOS™, Wedge Networks’ Cloud Network Defense is an orchestrated threat management platform designed to combat the shifting threat landscape associated with cloud, mobility, bring your own device, Internet of Things and consumerization of IT. By applying security policies at the cloud-layer, enterprises and network operators offering security-as-a-service can achieve more effective security, using best-in-class, continuously updated multi-vendor technologies for EverGreen Security™, with greater efficiency and scale. The award winning Wedge Platform is deployed globally, delivering security protection for tens of millions of users in Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, internet and broadband service providers, and across all industry verticals. Wedge Networks is headquartered in Calgary, Canada and has international offices in Dallas, USA; Beijing, China; and Manama, Bahrain. For further information visit: http://www.wedgenetworks.com/

Media Contacts:

USA & International PR contact:
Emma Jefferies
Zonic Group PR
ejefferies@zonicgroup.com
+44 (0)1672 550 130
+44 (0)7804 903 026

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IoT at MWC: We Need Secure Network Infrastructure – Not Shiny Rings – To Keep Us Safe

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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Wearables, sensors, batteries, cool apps, great wristbands – sure, those are necessary for IoT success, but the real trick is to provision reliable, secure and private communications that Black Riders and hordes of nasty Orcs can’t intercept

By Alan Zeichick, IDG Contributor Network, Published on Network World, February 26, 2016.

Excerpts:

“Barcelona, Mobile World Congress 2016—IoT success isn’t about device features, like long-life batteries, factory-floor sensors and snazzy designer wristbands. The real power, the real value, of the IoT is in the data being transmitted from devices to remote servers, and from those remote servers back to the devices.

“Is it secret? Is it safe?” Gandalf asks Frodo in the “Lord of the Rings” movies about the seductive One Ring to Rule Them All. He knows that the One Ring is the ultimate IoT wearable: Sure, the wearer is uniquely invisible, but he’s also vulnerable because the ring’s communications can be tracked and hijacked by the malicious Nazgûl and their nation/state sponsor of terrorism.

Are IoT communications links secret? Are they safe? Are they reliable, consistent, and easy to manage by the device’s service provider? (I haven’t seen the specs for the wireless provisioned by Mordor, but we could call it 3rd-Age-G.)

At Mobile World Congress 2016 this past week, the unquestioned buzz was mostly about the forthcoming 5G wireless trials, but the IoT was a close second. Sure, many of the most attention-getting IoT (and 5G) discussions were about specific devices, such as smartphones, wearables, connected cars and industrial systems.

Fortunately, everyone seemed to realize that without safe, secure, persistent, affordable and management communications, the IoT is a #FAIL. And that means not only the last mile (say, 5G) over-the-air link, but all the mobile backhaul, intracarrier and intercarrier links. It also means the fixed server end of the data flow, that is, between telcos and cloud service providers, enterprise data centers, and collocation facilities. After all, a tunnel is vulnerable on both ends, as well as in the middle.

Here are some of the announcements at Mobile World Congress that struck me as being especially relevant to the connectivity, privacy and security issues of the Internet of Things, even if none of them require devices to be forged in the molten lava of Mount Doom.”

“Treebeard keeps you safe, and is strong enough to take down black-hat wizards. However, while you can’t subscribe to Ents-as-a-Service, carriers can sign up to resell a set of new Security-as-a-Service packages from Wedge Networks. According to the company, its new IoT Security and Compliance Enforcement packages provide IoT optimized security and compliance services with enforcement at the cloud layer to consistently apply policies to all network connected devices, both physical and virtual. There’s also a healthcare package designed for Health Information Privacy and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance obligations to medical device manufacturing which is far less regulated but increasingly dependent on IoT stuff.”

For the full article, please see networkworld.com.

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Wedge Networks Announces IoT Security and Compliance Enforcement Security-as-a-Service Packages

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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New Security Options Address Critical Gaps in Enterprise Security and Enable Compelling Security-as-a-Service Offerings for MSSPs

BARCELONA Feb. 23, 2016 — From the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain, Wedge Networks, the leader in orchestrated threat management solutions, today announced a family of new Security-as-a-Service packages, to provide urgently needed Security and Compliance enforcement services for the rapidly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) in Enterprise networks globally. The new packages are available immediately for implementation using Wedge Cloud Network Defense™ (CND) which can be deployed by Enterprises with their own data center cloud, and by Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to offer Security-as-as-Service to their business customers.

The explosive growth of wirelessly connected monitoring and control devices is ushering in an era of increased productivity and effectiveness, and creating gaps in conventional security and compliance enforcement systems for many Enterprises. Wedge CND’s IoT Security and Compliance Enforcement packages provide IoT optimized security and compliance services with enforcement at the cloud layer to consistently apply policies to all network connected devices, both physical and virtual. Packages are available to address diverse needs of different vertical markets, such as healthcare which is subject to Health Information Privacy and Protection Act (HIPPA) compliance obligations to manufacturing which is far less regulated but increasingly dependent on the IoT.

“IoT, compliance, and Security-as-a-Service are all hot topics at Mobile World Congress and the networking industry at large”, said Alan Zeichick, Principal Analyst of Camden Associates. “Wedge’s new Security-as-a-Service offerings for IoT security and compliance will give service providers a variety of new services to support their enterprise customers. We expect that those new services will solve real-world enterprise security problems, as well as differentiate forward-thinking service providers.”

“IoT innovation continues to push new boundaries here at Mobile World Congress, 2016”, said Dr. Hongwen Zhang, chief technical officer and co-founder of Wedge Networks. “Establishing plans to address the unique security and compliance challenges for the IoT is becoming a critical concern for many businesses, and we believe Security-as-a-Service will prove to be an ideal approach for many industries.”

Wedge Cloud Network Defense™ (CND) Security-as-a-Service

Wedge Networks has developed a revolutionary cloud-based, network security platform called Wedge Cloud Network Defense™ (CND). This industry leading security platform can be implemented in a virtualized cloud compute environment to provide advanced network security applications such as web filtering, anti-malware, anti-spam, data loss prevention, mobile security, application control, server security, application filtering and more, with unrivaled scale, performance, and service agility. CND’s sustained performance over scale, multi-tenancy support, and the software-based licensing model of the platform have proven to be an ideal combination for service providers seeking to offer innovative new security services, while minimizing capital investments and business risk.

About Wedge

Wedge Networks™ is transforming the way security is delivered. Powered by the innovative WedgeOS™, Wedge Networks’ Cloud Network Defense is an orchestrated threat management platform designed to combat the shifting threat landscape associated with cloud, mobility, bring your own device, Internet of Things and consumerization of IT. By applying security policies at the cloud-layer, enterprises and network operators offering security-as-a-service can achieve more effective security, using best-in-class, continuously updated multi-vendor technologies for EverGreen Security™, with greater efficiency and scale. The award winning Wedge Platform is deployed globally, delivering security protection for tens of millions of users in Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, internet and broadband service providers, and across all industry verticals. Wedge Networks is headquartered in Calgary, Canada and has international offices in Dallas, USA; Beijing, China; and Manama, Bahrain. For further information visit: http://www.wedgenetworks.com/

Media Contacts:
USA & International PR contact:
Emma Jefferies
Zonic Group PR
ejefferies@zonicgroup.com
+44 (0)1672 550 130
+44 (0)7804 903 026

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The IoT Calls for an AI-Based Security Approach

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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Smart Clouds and Smart Networks

By Alan Zeichick, IDG Contributor Network, Published in Network World on December 14, 2015

Excerpt:

“Our home water is purified by both the local water company and by our own on-premise filtration system. Securing data flowing to and from the IoT requires this same dual approach

I am afraid of the Internet of Things. Is my television listening to me? Maybe someone has hacked into Alexa or Cortana or Siri, or is using my Nest thermostat as an attack vector into my wireless LAN or enterprise WAN. Can someone track me via my smartwatch or fitness band? What about all the automotive stuff? I don’t believe there’s any one technology that will provide the security we need. We need to harden all connected devices to make sure they are resistant to attack. And we need to ensure that network traffic is filtered, cleaned, sanitized, to prevent the hijacking of data or connections back to devices or remote data centers.

We need artificial intelligence. Crypto – that’s good and necessary, but not sufficient to protect our devices and their data. Virus definitions and malware profiles are too big, too slow, and too risky, especially when it comes to small, low-powered devices. Plus, by definition, signature files are always protecting against the past attack vectors, not the ones that nobody sees. Security has to be smarter and focus on detecting bad behavior.

How big is the problem? Big. As cited in Maria Korolov’s recent article, “Most hackable devices,” the Pew research center estimates that 68% of U.S. adults own a smartphone, and that mobile shopping will account for 30% of online shopping this year. She cites research showing that half of smartphone owners use mobile banking, and 1.4 billion people log into Facebook each month using their mobile devices.

What’s more, 30% of Android users don’t protect their smartphones with passwords, and 44% do not have an anti-malware solution installed, according to research from Kaspersky Labs and B2B International. Bluetooth is another vector; Korolov quotes Bruce Snell, director of security and privacy at Intel Security, explaining that some devices use default pairing passwords for Bluetooth, like 0000 or 1234, allowing cybercriminals to pair and gain access to a device easily.”

“And we need solutions like Wedge Networks’ Cloud Network Defense to protect carrier networks because we can’t trust the IoT endpoints, enterprise data centers, or cloud service providers.

Because CND works on an SDN-based carrier network via NFV, it can be always watching – and never affected by the malware itself. Wedge’s founder and CTO, Hongwen Zhang, explained about the company’s new filter technology, called WedgeIQ, that goes beyond deep packet inspection to apply AI machine learning and Big Data-style analytics to see new real-time threats – and apply instant countermeasures. What’s more, CND is a multi-tenant system, if one carrier catches a new attack against once of its customers, all other customers will be protected as well.”

For the full article, please visit networkworld.com.

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The Proof is in the Demo: A Dozen Compelling Proof of Concept Demonstrations at MEF GEN15

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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By the MetroEthernet Forum. Published on Telecomkh.com on December 3, 2015.

The Third Network is more than a concept, it’s a reality, as organizations showed SDN, NFV, LSO and CE2.0 solutions running in real-world scenarios – including customer deployments on production networks

More than 1,000 networking and telecommunications professionals saw the first fruits of the MEF’s “Third Network” vision at the GEN15 conference, held mid-November in Dallas, Texas, USA. The highlight for many attendees was the GEN15 Proof of Concept (PoC) Showcase, where discussions about standards and collaboration came to life.

MEF is the industry association behind standards like Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) and Ethernet Access Standards. The “Third Network” vision, announced at MEF GEN14, held late 2014 in Washington, D.C., combined the power of SDN and NFV, along with CE2.0 and Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) to create networks that have the ubiquity and cost-effectiveness of the Internet along with the scalability, reliability and security of business-class CE2.0 networks. Nearly 200 hardware and software manufacturers, as well as carriers and other telecommunications service providers, belong to the MEF and are committed to delivering on the “Third Network” vision.

The first impression of the PoC showcase at GEN15: A literal doubling in size from GEN14, which had six demonstrations from 12 participating companies and organizations.

Here are the 12 PoC demonstrations from the GEN15 conference:

1. Accedian Networks with Cox Communications, NEC and Zoho Corp.: Agile, LSO-Ready Performance-Assured Small Cells as a Service

With two telephone poles and actual strand mount small cells as configured by Cox in their regional trials, the audience was guided through the installation, commissioning, provisioning of the small cells and backhaul services offering multiple CoS and H-QoS (Hierarchical Quality of Service) enforcement, from a fully automated network management platform, and using OpenDaylight for provisioning.
The ZoHo WebNMS orchestrated network and UNI management, triggering automated turn-up testing using the ITU-T Y.1564 Ethernet service activation test methodology upon unit installation, and dynamically increased the CIR during peak load conditions as measured by the UNIs. The audience participated by helping to define peak loads for the demo, and experienced the small cell connection directly on their handsets during each stage of the service lifecycle.

2. AT&T: Application-Aware Business Services with SLA Assurance

The showcase was a live demo of a leading-edge implementation of NFV and SDN based on AT&T’s cutting edge network cloud architecture. The demo was highly interactive and relevant to a broad spectrum of participants, both on the business and technology sides.
The PoC offered a first-of-its-kind direct view into an intelligent, intuitive, self-service networking solution. This innovative capability allows users to rapidly provision network services with direct self-service access. It used a hands-on touchscreen monitor that took users, operators and IT practitioners through a typical add, remove, build scenario in near real-time environment. It showed the users the control and speed they have over their networks, and demonstrated the value of bringing SDN/NFV/virtualization capabilities to the business community.

3. AVDA Optical Networking with Time Warner Cable: Assuring Superior VNF Performance at the Network Edge

The demonstration showed Time Warner Cable’s present-day deployment of business services comprising CE 2.0 connectivity services and multiple different hardware based network appliances. The demo showed how this solution is enabled by Virtual Network Functions in a highly automated way, creating significant savings in installation and operational cost.
The showcase also explored the unique assurance and agility extensions of CE2.0 demarcation devices responding to NFV-specific requirements, such as resulting from an increased attack surface of open network technology compared to vendor-specific solutions or from L3 OAM requirements due to VxLAN and GRE technologies for chaining VNFs between remote sites.

4. CENX: Assuring IoT Service Quality over NFV with Lifecycle Service Orchestration

This interactive demo illustrated innovations in LSO for service assurance in hybrid networks, where the end-to-end service spans both traditional physical and new Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). This involved monitoring, real-time troubleshooting and service restoration.
CENX’s Cortx Service Orchestrator performed real-time performance monitoring of a M2M service from machine endpoint to the enterprise Data Center. The service ran across a core network with traditional routers as well as a virtualized Packet Core Gateway running as a virtual machine on NFV infrastructure. Utilization of the VNF and VM infrastructure was monitored in real-time, via Cortx interfacing with OpenStack. This provided operations personnel the capability to diagnose service issues and VNF faults immediately, and take intelligent action to restore high service quality.

5. Ciena with Versa Networks and VMware: Orchestrating NFV vCPE Services Across the Data Center and WAN

This PoC showcased the application of service orchestration across a NFV-ready data center infrastructure and an SDN-enabled Carrier Ethernet WAN to enable the rapid development and operationalization of new, value-added business services.
The demo was relevant to network architects, strategic planners, and product managers at communications service providers and data center operators. The showcase showed an open and future-proof architecture, leveraging SDN and NFV, to enable multi-vendor interoperability and service agility. It provided a real-world framework for utilizing SDN and NFV to lower costs, automate service deployment, and realize faster ROI for carriers and service providers. The three individual solutions providers explained their respective components of the demo as the vCPE service was orchestrated from end-to-end, in real-time, from the perspective of a network operator.

6. Cisco Systems: SDN-based LSO on Self-healing Agile Carrier Ethernet Infrastructure

This showcase explored Cisco Systems implementation of the “Third Network,” featuring CE2.0 Lifecycle Service Orchestration through SDN over self-healing infrastructure including physical and virtual network elements.
Key to this demo was showing the business benefits of automating service lifecycle orchestration through integrating SDN into Carrier Ethernet infrastructure to achieve service agility. Network infrastructure featuring physical and virtual elements demonstrated NFV applicability for both service provider and enterprise deployment requirements. Viewers saw how specific SDN protocols and controllers were used to simplify the management and deliver the end-to-end orchestration and service assurance.

7. MRV with SecurePush: Easily Secure a Distributed NFV Environment with a Cloud-based, Multi-Factor Authentication Service

The PoC demonstrated Distributed NFV with a multi-factor authentication as a cloud service. This use case is relevant to operators and enterprises. In a distributed NFV environment, where customers have access to the provider’s networking environment and can run and control applications on top of its virtualized environment, security becomes a bigger concern.
Attendees saw an NFV deployment on OPX-1, which is MRV’s 100GE CPE and aggregation device. Connectivity to the cloud authenticated domain and guest users. Viewers saw the standard, OPNFV-based dynamic VNF deployment, as well as live successful and unsuccessful authentication attempts using the SecurePath cloud service and a cellular phone as the second tier authentication. The showcase combined the themes of CE2.0, NFV and Security as a Service, all of which play an important role in virtualized services using LSO.

8. Oracle, with Axtel, InfoVista, Juniper, PCCW, Spectrum Business and TM Forum: Zero Touch, Business-Ready NaaS 3.0 with vCPE over an Elastic Network

By demonstrating ”Business-Ready Zero Touch Network-as-a-Service with Elastic Network in the Cloud,” this PoC showed a radically simplified B2B self-care user experience for ordering a complex connectivity service, with zero-touch orchestration, end-to-end performance assurance and full integration with critical business and operations processes over an SDN/NFV-enabled network architecture, including vCPE, vPE and elastic Carrier Ethernet network.
This showcase demonstrated many innovations aligned to CE 2.0, LSO, SDN and NFV business requirements and technical specifications. It included an end-to-end live demonstration of a customer web portal, along with a service provider BSS/OSS operations environment; a wholesale partner BSS/OSS operations environment; service provider performance management operations environment; live vCPE residing in a data center; and live vPE routers residing in a data center.

9. PCCW Global: Inter-Domain Cloud Federation

This PoC demonstrated PCCW Global’s capability for full service Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) from order to service provisioning and self management. It also showed how PCCW Global adopts full orchestration on its private network and cloud platforms to enhance the agility, flexibility of speed of the entire lifecycle, from order to server. The PoC showcased online ordering and auto provisioning network connectivity to cloud platforms through orchestration.
Using multiple screens, PCCW Global showed the user interface to the company’s live online service portal, including price quotation, ordering process and provisioning status. The demo also explored video streaming and data backup running in the cloud. A key element was the process flow and systems architecture that PCCW Global offers to support inter-domain cloud federation.

10. RAD, with Sandvine and CenturyLink: Application Aware Business Services with SLA Assurance

This PoC demonstrated how service providers can deploy Application-Aware Network Policy Control (Layer 7) in conjunction with Layer 2/Layer 3 SLA Assured services for a richer, more reliable, and more intelligently-managed business application experience.
The demo showed service providers can enhance both their MEF CE 2.0 and IP/MPLS based services. This was achieved through traditional layer 2 and layer 3 performance monitoring tools combined with control and monitoring of application usage (layer 7) to protect and align business-critical application performance with business productivity objectives. Furthermore, the demo explained how application-based classification helps address the growing BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend, and how application reporting, blocking, prioritization and boosting further improves QoE.

11. WebNMS with Omnitron Systems and Veryx: Life Cycle Orchestration of SDN Managed Data Center and CE 2.0 WAN Network

This showcase demonstrated LSO, based on MEF’s Third Network Vision and strategy, by enabling agile networks to deliver dynamic connectivity among virtual and physical service end points orchestrated in an on-demand, automated and assured manner. This type of capability enables service providers to rapidly introduce new, on-demand services, via cloud-based customer portal. It leverages ITU-T Y.1564, MEF SAT (MEF 48) and CE 2.0 based dynamic Service Activation and Y.1731-based performance-assured services. It also uses MEF standardized APIs with LSO functionalities for existing WAN network and SDN managed by an OpenStack SDN controller.
The network architecture consisted of Omnitron CE2.0 certified compliant NIDs (1G and 10G) connected via two G.8032 ERPS Rings and an G.8031 ELPS access link, with MEF EVCs (EPL, EVPL) pre-provisioned between the end points. Veryx SAMTEST controller was connected to Omnitron NIDs through the Test Probes to initiate tests, validate connectivity and gather statistics.
WebNMS Symphony Orchestration Platform communicated via NetConf on the southbound, with the network to assure services and manage the Omnitron NID. The WebNMS Symphony Orchestrator Platform pulled activation reports from the Veryx controller, which is made available to the enterprise customer through a cloud based customer portal.

12. Wedge Networks with Lightwave: Security for Cloud Connected Enterprises Delivered as a SecaaS (Security as a Service)

This PoC was a working example of using NFV to drive agile, scalable and on-demand security services. The demonstration showed an actual functioning install of Wedge Networks’ Cloud Network Defense (CND) with a mid-sized Texas-based carrier delivering NFV-based security from its data center to protect a critical web server located within a customer’s own server closet. The CND install was at the carrier data center, and thanks to NFV, intercepted the traffic between the client’s web traffic and the Internet, applying a series of web security services including advanced threat protection, anti-spam, anti-virus and data loss prevention.
The CND solution intercepted or “lifted” traffic between the client and server, routed it to the CND instance (in this case, in the carrier’s private cloud) and applied security controls to that traffic without introducing latency. A key element of this is CND’s Elastic Security Services Orchestration, where security services were initiated on demand through a virtualized stack of security NFVs. As traffic increased and decreased, new NFV instances were spun up or shut down dynamically using auto-scaling and end-to-end orchestration.

For the full article, please visit Telecomkh.com.

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SECaaS Is an SMB Market Opportunity

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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By Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video, Light Reading. Published on LightReading.com on December 3, 2015.

NEW YORK — Carrier Network Security Strategies — Security-as-a-service may need a better moniker (ahem, SECaaS), but if it makes money for service providers, does that really matter?

In a panel moderated by Heavy Reading Chief Analyst Patrick Donegan at the Carrier Network Security Strategies event, executives from Telefónica , Wedge Networks and Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) examined the opportunities for monetizing security services, and all agreed that there’s a sweet spot for sales in the small to midsized business market.

“I would say, just given our history, certainly the small to medium businesses are the best opportunity,” said James Hamilton, CEO of Wedge Networks. “And to be able to go to them and say we’re going to be able to offer you an extension of this broadband … security [as an add-on service] I think has resonated the most.”

Hamilton also explained why SMB customers are more attractive when it comes to security services than other parts of the market.

Large enterprises already address security in house, and that means anything a service provider can offer would only be at a level of augmenting technology and processes already in place. At the other end of the spectrum, there might be some opportunity to sell security services to consumers, but that type of offering would have to be packaged just right, and the model (beyond free antivirus software) isn’t well proven yet.

In the SMB market, however, security is something companies need, and, at some level, something they’re willing to pay for.

For service providers, the other advantage to the SMB market is the opportunity for standardization. That’s true from a technology perspective, but also from an operational perspective. Where large enterprises need customization, the end-to-end process with smaller companies can be refined and then replicated. As Luis Francisco Gonzalez, the head of marketing for part of Telefonica’s Global B2B Security business characterized it, that standardization includes everything along the customer journey from the initial marketing of a service, to collecting feedback, and even to helping a customer exit the service if they decide to try another solution.

All of the executives on the panel also highlighted the same reason that security-as-a-service makes sense in the SMB market now. When a service is delivered over software versus proprietary hardware, it’s suddenly feasible to offer a try-before-you-buy model — something the SMB market often requires. With a free trial, customers can see the value of a security service before having to invest any money.

The issue of virtualization also came up with regard to a new possible entry point in the SMB sales process. Bob Ghaffari, director for the Data Center/Network Platforms Group at Intel, noted that service providers now have an opportunity to experiment with virtual CPE offerings, and once a proprietary piece of hardware is subtracted from the customer premises, that opens the door to a discussion of introducing a new software-based security service.

“You’re taking a look at an entry point where you’re sort of consolidating functions on a standard piece of hardware,” said Ghaffari, “and you basically are in a way de-risking the different elements in a small/medium business from having a separate router.”

In the near term, the most compelling security application for SMB companies is the virtual firewall. However, Wedge Networks’ Hamilton also pointed out that URL filtering has appeal. If security as a service takes off, those applications are likely where the SMB market will spend its money. And it’s where service providers should place their early bets.

For the full article, please see LightReading.com.

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Securing The Enterprise Network With Big Data Science – From The Cloud

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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By Wedge Networks. Published on Telecomkh.com on November 26, 2015.

Forget simply defending the network perimeter. There is no perimeter. Mobility, cloud IT and hosted applications have nearly dissolved the boundaries that once defined the perimeter. Enterprise networks are vulnerable from malicious websites, hostile content, compromised end points, and new vulnerabilities that exploit mobile hotspots, and of course the cloud. Ironically, security solutions based in the cloud also represent the best approach for securing the enterprise network, using tools provided by Internet service providers and secure telecommunications carriers

For years, enterprises have assumed full responsibility for their data security, at considerable expense. Deploying hardware appliances like firewalls; software solutions like intrusion detection/prevention systems; management platforms and more. A lot of time, a lot of expenses, all to try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. All the while, evolving threats and new mobility and cloud vulnerabilities have generally rendered those premises-based approaches insufficient.

What about carriers? Their traditional role is to provision connections and move packets between Point A and Point B. The competitive differentiators of carriers were factors such as bandwidth, latency, geographic reach, ease of creating new services, uptime, redundancy, service level agreements, and of course price. Thanks to evolving technologies like Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), carriers and ISPs are now able to offer their customers Security-as-a-Service – and this is a game changer, especially with the type of innovations offered by pure-play cloud-based security players like Calgary, Alberta-based Wedge Networks.

Wedge has become well known for its Cloud Network Defense platform, which is a massively scalable security software system that runs within a carrier’s network. As a software solution designed to run in the new service provider data center architecture, it can be deployed with minimal upfront costs and scaled up as the carrier adds new security customers. Installed on typical data center servers, it allows ISP or carriers operating as Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) to enforce enterprise grade Security-as-a-Services to individual enterprises according to their subscribed security services agreement. Because it runs in cloud environments using SDN and NFV, the software dynamically scales to process high volumes of network — without slowing down the traffic.

The security technologies in Cloud Network Defense are state-of-the-art, including Wedge’s deep inspection engines to detect and block malicious attacks and data exfiltration from L3 to L7 and content; an identity based policy engine that selectively applies security services that meets the subscription level; an intuitive single-pane-of-glass user interface for enterprise customers; and support for all current and evolving virtualization platforms, such as OpenStack and KVM. That’s only the start, however.

The newest twist in Cloud Network Defense is a data science based service called WedgeIQ. This Big Data functionality employs a set of unique threat detection and remediation algorithms and a variety of pattern-matching and machine learning techniques to identify targeted cyber threats against individual enterprises. It enables real-time response to security outbreaks, and presents the results as easy to understand analytics to the enterprise customers to help them appreciate the security services in action.
Consider this real-world security intervention with a service provider running Cloud Network Defense with WedgeIQ: Phonoscope Lightwave of Houston,deployed the Wedge Cloud Network Defense platform,and was using it in a detect-only mode to monitor the broadband traffic of one of their customers, a school in Texas. The intent was to gather threat intelligence data that would be shared with the customer, along with information about a new Security-as-a-Service offering under consideration. Ironically during the monitoring period, the customer experienced a massive network attack, resulting in a customer network outage. Phonoscope Lightwave immediately used the threat intelligence data gathered by WedgeIQ analytics and threat learning techniques to help the customer to rapidly detect, isolate and resolve the problem.

In this example, the Wedge system was in detect-only mode, but the detection of the threat illustrated that the entire attack and network outage could have been detected and blocked if the Security-as-a-Service offering was already in place.

Because WedgeIQ is based in the cloud, security is becoming democratized. In the past, very large enterprises – think Fortune 500 – could afford world class, multi-layered defense systems. Small and mid-size businesses, not so much: They only had the security and countermeasure capabilities commensurate with their IT staff’s capabilities, and of course, their ability to buy and manage expensive on-premises solutions. This not only left their data systems, customer data and intellectual property vulnerable, but placed them at a competitive disadvantage compared to better-funded corporations.
That is changing: As carriers across the globe adopt SDN and NFV, and add Security-as-a-Service solutions like Cloud Network Defense, small and mid-size businesses can receive the same security technologies as their larger counterparts – and only pay for what they use.

The enterprise network perimeter no longer exists. Remote employees, field offices, mobile users and cloud computing have rendered premises-based security systems insufficient. The only way to effectively protect the small, medium or enterprise-sized network is to filter traffic as it traverses the network. As more carriers adopt SDN and NFV, Software-as-a-Service is becoming the new model for effective network defense. Multi-tenant solutions like Wedge Networks’ Cloud Network Defense, augmented by data science with WedgeIQ, are at the leading edge of protecting the modern business.

For the full article, please see telecomkh.com.

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At GEN15, Network Operators Stepped Their Game

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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By Rob Powell. Published on TelecomRamblings.com on November 25th, 2015

“Last week I had the pleasure of attending the MEF’s GEN15 conference in Dallas, Texas as a media sponsor. Software-defined Networking, Network Functions Virtualization, and Lifecycle Service Orchestration were the big buzzphrases just as they were last year. But there was a distinct difference in the air.

The vendors were there, talking up their wares as usual. The MEF was of course everywhere, talking up its ongoing Third Network LSO standards efforts. But this year, it was increased engagement of the network operators that I really noticed. The US contingent was led by AT&T, who seemed to be everywhere, with Verizon, Cox, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Windstream, Level 3, and CenturyLink also there in force. International operators like Colt, PCCW, TI Sparkle, and Telstra were as well.

And more to the point, they were pretty much all there to talk about what they are actually doing with all the new technologies at their disposal, and how their industry would be reshaped by them. Last year, the tone was set by the vendors, who were making the case for those technologies — apparently they succeeded. Most of the time, the technology actually being used was still on a limited scale, but with little doubt of future expansion and transformation. At GEN15, the story was about current implementations, the need for more extensive implementations, and the even bigger need to adjust internally to really take advantage of the potential of those implementations.

There were a variety of interesting Proof of Concept demonstrations, with a growing emphasis on relevant real-world implementations.

Two network operators showed off new capabilities solo, as AT&T demonstrated its new network-on-demand platform, and PCCW did similarly.

And there were of course many team efforts.

Colt, which seemed to have a bit of a headstart at last year’s event, continued their collaboration with the Ciena (formerly Cyan) Blue Planet team with LSO-powered, vCPE-hosted NFV across both data center and WAN.

Another interesting demo was by Cox Business and Accedian, who showed the automated provisioning and operation of strand-mounted small cells. I suspect we’ll be hearing more about that sort of thing in 2016.

Wedge Networks teamed up with Houston fiber operator Phonoscope Lightwave to demonstrate Security as a Service using VNFs, SDN, and service Chaining. CenturyLink, Sandvine, and RAD teamed up for application-aware network policy control.

WebNMS teamed with Omnitron and Veryx to show an LSO-orchestrated on-demand service via CE 2.10 and an SDN-powered data center network.

CENX, which has seen rapid revenue growth this year helping the wireless carriers manage their backhaul networks, took aim at service quality for the Internet of Things via LSO and NFV.

MRV demonstrated distributed NFV via cloud-based multi-factor authentication.

Another interesting impression I had of GEN15 was how little I heard the word ‘Ethernet’ in comparison to things like SDN, NFV, LSO, and the like. Oh it was there, complete with Bob Metcalfe and some pretty good keynote jokes, but Ethernet was more present as the background of the painting than of the subject being painted.

I also got a look at GEN15’s LSO Hackathon, which despite the name had little to do with cracking anyone’s security. Rather, it was simply a room full of software guys from companies around the sector test-driving and improvising on each other’s latest APIs. I suspect a few of next year’s Proofs of Concept will have been born in that room.”

For the full article, please visit TelecomRamblings.com.

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OpenCloud Connect Elects New Board

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Wedge Networks Administrator
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and promises OCC standard interface definitions will be with you shortly
OpenCloud-Connect-Large
London 25th November 2015: The board of OpenCloud Connect (OCC), the open source movement which is the driving force behind a new wave of network innovation and higher levels of industry collaboration, has approved its 2015-2016 Board of Directors, and reaffirmed its mission to advance vendor-neutral industry standards for cloud connectivity.

With virtual machine populations running into the millions across geographically dispersed datacenters, plus the rise of SaaS and other cloud based services, companies face many business and technical challenges. OpenCloud Connect provides a unique consensus-building framework for industry stakeholders to collectively develop solutions that address the challenges of integrating multiple clouds, managing security and policy models across multi cloud and carrier environments, and enabling applications and networks to exchange status requirements and changes.

James Walker, President of the OCC, said, “Our aim over the next few months is to enable our members to start aligning their external API interfaces to the OCC’s standard interface definitions. There are huge benefits to enterprises, including dramatically reducing the cost of integrating their suppliers, allowing them to enforce a single consistent security policy across all their network and cloud services, as well as opening up new business opportunities.

I’m extremely excited and proud to be at this stage where all the hard work done over the last two years, will be visible and start delivering the promised benefits our members believe so passionately in.”

The new Board of Directors who will serve for a year in office were elected during the 2015 Annual Members Meeting in Dallas on November 16, 2015.

Serving on the OCC Board of Directors for 2015-2016 are:
Chairman:
Jeff Schmitz is Executive Vice President of Spirent, where he is responsible for leading the business segments that deliver solutions for Wireless Networks & Devices, Service Assurance, Positioning & Automotive, and Customer & Network Analytics. Jeff serves as Chairman of the OCC, where he led the OCC in defining key initiatives to address the growing demands of delivering cloud services.

President:
James Walker is Vice President, Managed Network Services for Tata Communications, and is responsible for leading the company’s VPN line of business – covering enterprise and wholesale Ethernet, MPLS, managed IPSec and datacentre interconnect services. James launched OpenCloud Connect in May 2013, and has served as President since OCC’s formation.

Treasurer:
Doug Wills is vice president of marketing for Akanda, Inc, an OpenStack network virtualization start-up that delivers routing-as-a-service inside VMs and Linux containers. Wills has 20 years software and network infrastructure experience, working for Cisco, Ericsson, Juniper and Microsoft. At Juniper, Doug was responsible for its network operating system and several software defined networking programs and was Juniper’s lead representative at the Open Networking Foundation, OpenStack, MEF and CloudEthernet Forum.

Plamen Minev is a Director of Engineering at Cisco’s Chief Technology and Architecture Office (CTAO). He leads a team focused on next generation network and systems management architectures for cloud and communications service providers and large enterprises.

Vinay Saxena is Distinguished Technologist at HP, and acts as the Chief Architect for HP’s NFV business. In this role, Vinay is responsible for defining the overall NFV technology architecture, strategy and future vision including the evolution of the solution plan of record.

Dr. Mehmet Toy is Distinguished Engineer of Comcast, co-chair of OpenCloud Connects Programmability Working Group and chair of IEEE Cable Networks and Services Committee. Currently he is leading the development of Business Ethernet Services over DPoE (DOCSIS over EPON).

Dr. Hongwen Zhang is a co-founder of Wedge Networks. As Chief Technical Officer, he is instrumental in developing Wedge’s high performance security platform. Dr. Zhang holds a Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Calgary; an M.Sc in Computer Engineering from the Institute of Computer Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Fudan University. With more than two decades of high-tech leadership experience, Dr. Zhang is a co-inventor and holder of several patents in the area of computing and networking. Prior to establishing Wedge Networks, he was a co-founder of the 24C Group Inc., which pioneered the first digital receipts infrastructure for secure electronic commerce. Dr. Zhang was previously principal of Servidium Inc., now ThoughtWorks Inc., a global leader in agile development methodology.

Dawane Young is the Division Vice President of Platforms and Applications for Verizon’s Partner Solutions organization. Dawane’s team engages in Security, Data Center Collocation, Professional Services, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud sales opportunities with partners and resellers globally.
Dawane holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mass Communications from James Madison University.

About: Open Cloud Connect;
Open Cloud Connect is an industry organization that are focused on facilitating the $200B cloud services market through open standards development thus making cloud services easier, faster, more secure, and affordable to deploy and manage.

A global industry alliance of market-leading cloud service providers, network service providers, equipment manufacturers, system integrators and software developers their founding mission is to address the need for deploying, managing and securing services built across the cloud ecosystem.

OCC’s members include: Akanda, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, Comcast, CoreSite, Coriant, Cyan, Ericsson, HP, Interxion, Iometrix, Neustar, Nuage Networks, PCCW Global, Spirent, Tata Communications, Verizon, Veryx, and Wedge Networks.

Open Cloud Connect is an independent MEF organization. For more information, please visit www.OpenCloudConnect.org.

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Asia Pacific:
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USA:
Greg Cross
Zonic Group
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