Organizations explore new data center architectures to increase IT agility. Today’s competitive environment forces companies to minimize complexity, reduce costs and accelerate service delivery while increasing control over IT.

Procurement and distribution processes in traditional IT infrastructures are rather cumbersome. Business users and developers working with these infrastructures must wait weeks, even months, to purchase and provision physical infrastructure components. However, in today’s changing market conditions, teams are racing against time to meet customer expectations, and in some cases, they need IT resources ready within minutes.

The software-defined data center (SDDC) is a cloud-based architecture that dramatically improves IT agility. SDDC pools infrastructure resources, standardizes management tools across tiers, and provides policy-based provisioning, enabling IT groups to respond more quickly to new resource demands. SDDC solutions also enable IT teams to have a say in procurement, reduce costs and create a roadmap to application modernization.

What is a software defined data center (SDDC)?

Organizations clearly saw the advantages and necessity of pooling IT infrastructure resources in their virtualization quests that started with servers. Isolating computing resources from physical hardware reduces hardware expenditures and speeds up the procurement processes of IT resources.

Software-defined data centers (SDDC) culminate many years of virtualization experience. SDDC carries virtualization from operation to storage and network resources and provides ease of management by offering a single toolset to manage all assets. On the other hand, it makes the IT department’s job easier than ever before with infrastructure management, with principle-based procurement and management automation that accelerates resource allocation and increases efficiency.

Components of a software-defined data center

SDDC gathers virtualized computing, storage, and networking resources on a single platform to manage the integrated IT environment effectively.

Organizations are now adept at virtualizing computing and servers using hypervisors. IT administrators use virtual machines to run many different applications and operating systems on a single server. Organizations have used virtualization extensively for more than 10 years to reduce server sprawl and reduce resource usage.

Like servers, storage virtualization pools resources, eliminating islands of disconnected storage systems. Virtualized storage increases flexibility and scalability by enabling IT to offer storage from the pool without purchasing new capacity. Virtualized storage dynamically manages storage, delivering the capacity each application needs on-demand.

Network virtualization is the final component of SDDC and allows networks to be provisioned and managed independently of physical hardware. The abstraction of resources allows workloads to be more easily moved between data centers without physical constraints. Network virtualization solutions also include security features to protect networks and isolate workloads.

By transforming all virtualization layers into a single solution, cloud-based SDDC creates a single hyperconverged infrastructure that facilitates IT resources as a service. SDDC’s integrated management platform for the entire infrastructure standardizes management across virtualization layers and enables policy-based automation that simplifies operations.

What does SDDC promise for organizations?

SDDC architecture offers organizations both short-term and long-term benefits. The main short-term benefit of the architecture is the increased agility for IT. SDDC significantly reduces the time to provision new resources. It doesn’t take days or weeks to install a new physical server, add more storage capacity to an application, or replace the physical network. Policy-based automation further speeds up the provisioning process, enabling resources to be deployed in minutes.

SDDC also improves infrastructure performance. IT can optimize computing, storage, and networking for any application and workload without making physical changes to the infrastructure.

In the long run, SDDC helps to keep costs under control. Consolidating resources improve infrastructure utilization and eliminate the need for new infrastructure deployments. Efficient use of resources also means less infrastructure is idle, thus requiring less physical space, power, and cooling. SDDC enables the transition from CAPEX to OPEX model without large upfront capital expenditures when implemented with hybrid or public cloud infrastructure.

SDDC also contributes to creating a roadmap towards infrastructure and application modernization, respectively, the first and fourth pillars of Netas’ unique digital transformation formula. Standardization with a single management platform enables easier integration of new technologies and migration of workloads to cloud environments.

Cloud-based SDDC

Cloud services and tools tremendously facilitate and accelerate the transition to SDDC architecture. Implementing SDDC on cloud-based infrastructure reduces the time and associated risks required to redesign existing infrastructures.

It is possible to create a completely new environment in the cloud and eliminate all capital expenditures with a cloud-based SDDC. At the same time, existing infrastructures can be leveraged in hybrid environments, using the cloud to expand resources without having to purchase and deploy more physical systems.

Cloud-based infrastructure offers the chance to increase capacity and access the latest technologies without constantly upgrading physical systems. Deploying SDDC in the cloud ensures high application performance and sufficient capacity to support data growth without large capital expenditures.

Leveraging public cloud services for enterprise users and developers without IT oversight can pose security, governance, and legal issues. With the right cloud-based SDDC solution, you can be sure that all users accessing cloud resources comply with internal policies and external regulations.

Cisco SDDC solutions add cloud-level speed and agility to infrastructures

Netas, the technology company that best describes digital transformation, offers Cisco software-defined data center (SDDC) solutions to create purpose-based infrastructures that make it easier to manage resources such as network, storage, and computing, which were formerly siloed in IT environments.

Cisco SDDC solutions, implemented with Netas expertise, provide the automation and efficiency needed to achieve more in less time, at a lower cost, and with fewer resources. Let’s take a closer look at Cisco SDDC solutions that enable centralized management of all infrastructure on a single platform:

• Cisco ACI

Cisco ACI is a cloud-based and software-defined solution. It lays the foundation for zero interruption network infrastructures. Increasing application agility by facilitating data center automation; this solution also leverages policy-based automation to improve network segmentation, security, and management.

Cisco ACI automatically transforms business and user purposes into policies and uses these policies to provide network, security, and infrastructure services. Providing organizations with seamless, highly available, and self-optimizing networks. The solution accelerates network operations and delivers superior application experiences.

• Cisco Intersight

The Cisco Intersight solution, which you can customize according to your unique needs with the service and product options offered by Netas, is a SaaS platform that performs the management, automation, and optimization of computing infrastructures and applications across data centers, edge and cloud environments.

Cisco Intersight provides a single platform to gain complete control over all your environments, from servers to containers, applications, and infrastructure.

• Cisco Secure Workload

Bringing security closer to applications, Cisco Secure Workload ensures that all applications and infrastructure are protected, regardless of where they are hosted. Protecting data in a zero-trust framework, the platform proactively reduces risks by automatically detecting anomalies, vulnerabilities, and risks in workloads. Detecting workload behavior deviations and vulnerabilities associated with software packages, the solution monitors application components to ensure policy compliance.

What can software-defined data centers deliver to your business? yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.

Everything from patching to account privileges and encryption must be part of your security architecture if you want your software-defined data center (SDDC) to be a foundation for secure and efficient operations.

While migrating to a software-defined data center provides flexible resource management and application provisioning, it can complicate your organization’s information security if not handled properly. We recommend considering software layer vulnerabilities, role access features, and storage encryption when developing your security strategy.

The abstraction layer allows organizations to build software-defined architectures. This approach adds another layer of complexity to infrastructures compared to the traditional data center approaches. Since the basic equation of cybersecurity is that the probability of vulnerabilities increases as complexity increases, security should be one of the top priorities when considering software-defined data centers.

The best way to mitigate the threats posed by increased security risks is to include all layers of your software-defined data center (SDDC) (operating systems, hypervisor memory, and virtual servers) in a patch management strategy. Organizations should apply available patches as soon as possible within the update framework to sustain SDDC security. It’s also vital that the IT department has apps that will regularly check for patch and version updates.

Hackers know when new patches are available, and they can easily recognize unpatched systems with known vulnerabilities and exploits.

Storm is brewing

Another common risk threatening SDDC security is privileged Unix root or Windows administrator accounts. These accounts can be hacked and allow cybercriminals to roam freely on your systems. One way to avoid this is to enforce the use of secure passwords and multi-factor authentication wherever possible.

We can mention two direct actions for protecting user accounts against security breaches. The first is to create a custom Active Directory that only provides authentication services for the SDDC infrastructure. You can add hypervisors, management servers, and other low-level infrastructure components to a domain at this level to obtain certain permissions. Active Directory-based authentication can make it easier to audit privileged account use in the software-defined database.

The second measure is to use single-purpose service accounts instead of having a single service account for the entire SSDC infrastructure. This approach makes people’s job harder than it is, but it prevents user accounts from being easy targets for hackers. Because when a service account is used for more than one purpose, that account starts gaining more privileges than required for any task. This is a tremendous danger because hacking the account will give hackers a picklock that opens every door in your SSDC environment.

It is possible to extend this anti-privilege approach to administrator accounts. Instead of giving the IT team unlimited administrative access, role-based access controls can be used to limit the scope of each privileged account. For situations where IT staff need top-level administrative permissions, we recommend creating a set of low-privileged accounts rather than assigning all necessary privileges to a single account.

Storage as an SSDC security component

SSDC manages storage resources with software, and accessing storage poses potential risks. An attacker could gain unrestricted access to your storage despite all other precautions you may have taken. However, it is possible to eliminate this risk to a large extent with authentication and encryption mechanisms.

It is necessary to ensure that iSCSI storage requires bidirectional authentication. The system must require host authentication before connecting the iSCSI target. At the same time, hosts should use a Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol to prevent fraudulent connection attempts.

Encryption layers should also be applied for data at rest and in motion. Protecting data at rest means encrypting the storage. If the volume contains virtual hard disks, the contents of the virtual disks must be encrypted. A private network segment, virtual local area network, or IPsec encryption can be used to protect the data in motion.

Accelerate your digital transformation with Cisco SDDC

Cisco software-defined data center (SDDC) solutions offered by Netas provide purpose-based infrastructures that facilitate the management of formerly siloed resources such as networking, storage, and computing in new, diverse, and yet more unified than ever IT environments.

Cisco’s software-defined data center (SDDC) solutions provide the automation and efficiency needed to achieve more in less time, at low cost, and with fewer resources. It also frees the application layer from the physical infrastructure, allowing applications to be hosted anywhere with maximum use and efficiency of the infrastructure.

Cisco SDDC solutions enable centralized management of the software-defined data center from a single platform and provide seamless workload mobility across the data center, cloud and multi-environments. The solutions ensure that security policies are consistent across all environments by automating security profiles across all devices and applications with artificial intelligence. All this, combined with a low total cost of ownership and advanced cost controls, make Cisco SDDC solutions the ideal choice for organizations looking to accelerate their digital transformation.

Cisco SDDC solutions, which bring cloud-level speed and agility to all environments, whether private, hybrid, or multi-cloud, consist of three main products:

• Cisco ACI: Cisco ACI lays the foundation for zero-disruption networking by utilizing consistent policy-based automation to improve cloud-based and software-defined network segmentation, security, and control. Facilitating data center automation and increasing application agility, Cisco ACI enables organizations to have highly available and self-optimizing networks, accelerate network operations and deliver superior application experiences.
• Cisco Intersight: Cisco Intersight is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) that manages, automates, and optimizes computing infrastructures and applications across the data center, endpoints, and clouds. Cisco Intersight is a single platform that gives you complete control over everything from servers to containers, applications to infrastructures.
• Cisco Secure Workload: Cisco Secure Workload protects the entire infrastructure using workload-level firewalls deployed regardless of where applications are hosted. Secure Workload brings security closer to applications, protecting both applications and data with a zero-trust framework; proactively mitigates risks by identifying workload behavior anomalies, vulnerabilities, and risks.

How to secure software-defined data centers? yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.

Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) handle the exponentially increasing and complex network traffic cloud computing brings. SD-WAN enables corporate users to securely connect to applications via MPLS, LTE, and broadband internet services and applies central control to intelligently and reliably route traffic to SaaS and IaaS providers over the wide-area network. This way offers a user experience that increases application performance and business productivity while reducing IT costs.

Before the pandemic, many organizations were planning to migrate to SD-WAN, and many were making new investments in this area. SD-WAN applications accelerated as hybrid operating models became clear and implemented, enabling organizations to regain control over complex network traffic.

2022 is heading to be a year when the pandemic has lost its effect to a large extent, and the new normal is becoming more and more evident. SD-WAN technology solves the network problems brought by the pandemic and is shaped by four trends this year. We will examine these trends today: SD-WAN as a service, secure remote access, artificial intelligence, and wireless wide area networks.

SD-WAN as a Service

Software-defined wide area networks as a service with connectivity, orchestration, and inter-manageability capabilities deliver organizations agility, scalability, performance, and a more reasonable cost of ownership. SD-WAN as a service has an important place in addition to network services. It also has benefits such as optimized cloud connectivity, increased security, and application optimization.

While managed SD-WAN deployments accounted for less than 8 percent of all deployments in 2017, IT departments have increasingly turned to cloud and outsourcing for wide-area networking over the past three years. By 2020, managed SD-WAN deployments accounted for half of all deployments.

Secure remote access

The pandemic has shown us that remote access technology requires a shift from location-based or endpoint to identity-based methodology. The need for remote team members to access all applications and data from any network, location, or device has become more tangible. However, critical questions such as who the remote users are, what applications they use, and what they do with sensitive data cannot be left to chance. This has accelerated the transition to SD-WAN.

SD-WAN is a cloud-based wide area network architecture designed to connect branches to data centers and multi-cloud environments. With the spread of hybrid work, employees’ homes have turned into branches, and remote access has been maintained securely over SD-WAN.

SD-WAN provides much faster access to cloud-based services by prioritizing remote access for mission-critical and latency-sensitive applications. Encryption, VPNs, firewalls, and cloud-based security integrations ensure all connections remain secure. IT administrators can manage the network through central management tools. SD-WAN technology eliminates many of the performance and security challenges both home workers and IT departments face.

AI powered SD-WAN

Artificial intelligence has been used to facilitate network management for some time and is beginning to increase its influence in SD-WAN solutions. AI promises better policy definitions, troubleshooting assistance, smarter performance, and security monitoring functions, as well as optimizing traffic path selection for SD-WAN.

Artificial intelligence and automation enable us to better leverage the extensive information and data already created by SD-WAN systems. For example, SD-WAN attack protection reduces false alarms thanks to cloud-based artificial intelligence. As SD-WAN technology evolves to provide more granular data and network insights, AI can leverage aggregated experiences across multiple businesses to better understand the trends and implications of this data over time. From this perspective, SD-WAN represents the first step towards the true transition to next-generation networks.

WWAN

The role of wireless wide area networks (WWAN) in SD-WAN connections is increasing. Advances in wireless wide-area networking, particularly 5G, promise a significant leap forward for software-defined or SD-WAN. Where WWAN is not the only connection format, SD-WAN provides policy-based control over how the WWAN service is used. Where only WWAN is present, SD-WAN can balance traffic between multiple providers, move traffic from an overloaded service to a less loaded service, and perform traffic conditioning to improve service quality. With the proliferation of 5G networks, integrating wireless wide area networks with SD-WAN will also become easier.

Cisco SD-WAN

Aiming to be the solution partner that best defines and implements the digital transformation needs of each of its customers, Cisco SD-WAN solutions offered by Netas reduce operating costs and improve resource utilization for multi-region distributions.

Network administrators use bandwidth more efficiently and achieve high performance for critical applications without compromising security and privacy with Cisco SD-WAN solutions. Simplifying tough tasks like routing, threat protection, and wide area network management makes IT’s job easier.

Cisco SD-WAN solutions are preferred by 70 percent of Fortune 100 companies. These solutions provide 94 percent less unplanned downtime, 48 percent faster application performance, 65 percent lower connection costs, 59 percent faster configuration implementation, 38 percent lower transactions cost, and 33 percent more efficient WAN management.

SD-WAN Trends of 2022 yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.

We are in a time where we are rebuilding IT infrastructures and architectures as software-defined. The virtualization trend has led to the emergence of today’s most important technologies and designs in all IT environments, from servers to backup, from storage to network, as software-defined. Software-defined IT solutions provide organizations with advanced management and automation capabilities on their infrastructure.

It is now possible to re-imagine everything as software-defined. In fact, this trend now even has a name: software-defined everything / SDE. The SDE trend is abstracting workloads from the underlying hardware to make IT infrastructures more flexible and agile. This enables IT administrators to deploy, provision, configure, manage and automate infrastructure using centralized cloud-based tools.

SD-Access and SD-WAN technologies are the biggest leaps in networking over the last couple of decades. These technologies solve many problems associated with traditional routing and switching approaches in local and wide area networks.

Differences between SD-WAN and SD-Access

SD-WAN and SD-Access are ways to approach software-defined networking terminology. While SD-Access is used to change the architecture of LAN networks, SD-WAN creates next-generation wide area networks with significant automation capabilities instead of MPLS/VPLS. It is useful to explore both old and new perspectives before moving your existing wide area network to SD-WAN and your local area network to SD-Access.

What is SD-WAN?

SD-WAN is an application-aware network architecture. It chooses paths according to basic parameters such as SLA, Jitter, and so on. Cisco SD-WAN solutions are developed to handle massive wide area network traffic brought by cloud computing, provide high application performance, and protect against potential data vulnerabilities. Cisco SD-WAN enables organizations to gain detailed visibility into their internet, cloud, and SaaS applications to proactively identify the root causes affecting digital experiences.

Features of SD-WAN

• Optimizes cloud and on-premises application performance and increases productivity with real-time analytics, visibility, and control capabilities.
• Protects users, devices, and applications by rapidly deploying embedded or cloud-based security.
• Simplifies SD-WAN and security deployment with centralized cloud management.
• Offers the flexibility of cloud-oriented architecture to connect any user to any application in any cloud.

What is SD-Access?

SD-Access separates user, device, and application traffic without redesigning the underlying physical network, providing visibility-based and automated end-to-end segmentation. One of the key pillars of the zero-trust security framework, SD-Access combines security and network operations. The solution increases visibility and defines access policies, securing networks and endpoints. SD-Access improves network operations by automating network configurations to enforce policies. SD-Access also automates user access policies focusing on security and user experience so that organizations can ensure that the right policies are set for any application, user, or device on the network.

Features of SD-Access

• SD-Access helps organizations enable policy-based automation from the edge to the cloud-based on purpose-driven networking principles.
• SD-Access provides network architects with tools to orchestrate key business functions such as secure segmentation, IoT integration, and guest access.
• SD-Access automates user and device policies for any wireless and wired network application.
• SD-Access enables IT to gain network access to any user, device, or application in minutes without compromising security.

Network transformation with Netaş and Cisco

Network transformation is the second pillar of Netas’ digital transformation formula. Re-imagining local and wide area networks as software-defined with Cisco’s SD-WAN and SD-Access solutions, Netas increases the agility and security of corporate networks. Software-defined modernizing networks increase the efficiency and performance of applications while showing full compatibility with the latest technologies.

Offering advantages such as 94% less unplanned downtime, 48% faster applications, and 65% lower connection costs, Cisco’s SD-WAN solutions provide organizations with many benefits, such as improved user experience, increased security, optimized cloud connectivity, and advanced management capabilities.

Cisco offers SD-WAN solutions supported by Viptela and Meraki architectures and brings software-defined networks to the ultimate sophistication with SD-Branch, DNA, ThousandEyes, and vAnalytics products.

SD-Access, offered by Cisco with its ISE, Catalyst 9000, DNA, and DNA Center solutions, enables advanced analytics for endpoint identification and profiling and improved visibility. Cisco SD-Access solution uses a comprehensive analysis of traffic flows between endpoint groups to define effective access policies. It enables these policies to be applied to network infrastructures through a user-friendly and intuitive interface.

SD-Access uniformly segments both wired and wireless networks to provide a seamless access experience to endpoints, increase compliance, and reduce business risks. It also makes it possible to change operating principles and ensure consistency across WAN and multicloud data center networks.

What are the differences between SD-WAN and SD-Access? yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.

The Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture modernizes the previously designed data center-oriented networks with identity and a user-based model to meet the current needs of secure access. SASE is a service delivered over the cloud that combines networking and security functions with software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN).

SD-WAN was initially designed to troubleshoot wide area networks and has become the primary choice for WAN conversion. On the other hand, SASE addresses the network and security challenges software-defined wide-area networks face. Let’s take a closer look at why the SASE model, first put forward by Gartner analysts in 2019, is important and how it shapes the future of SD-WAN.

Why do we need SASE when there is SD-WAN?

Traditional enterprise architectures were designed around data centers where internet access was provided via secure gateways in the data center. Switching to SD-WAN instead of MPLS does not change this paradigm. With the rise of the cloud, mobility, and edge computing, private data centers are no longer the epicenter of the enterprise network. SASE offers a reliable way to provide security controls everywhere, exceeding resolving the connectivity issues of MPLS. It also responds to today’s needs by doing this consistently for mobile users and branches.

What is SASE?

SASE combines networking and security functions in the cloud to provide users with seamless and secure access to applications from anywhere. The SASE models include a software-defined wide area network, secure web gateway, firewall as a service, cloud access security agent, and zero-trust network access, combining these functions into one integrated cloud service. SASE offers flexibility and investment protection for enterprises to migrate to the cloud at their own pace while utilizing the best-in-class networking, security, and observability functions on a singular platform.

Features of SASE

SASE has more than a dozen distinct features, but according to the Gartner research company, the four of them are particularly important. SASE includes an SD-WAN service running on a dedicated backbone to provide the optimum network performance possible for all applications, regardless of their hosting. Using a private network overcomes the internet’s latency issues. The backbone connects distributed PoPs that run the organization’s security and networking software. Enterprise traffic rarely reaches the internet and only reaches the SASE backbone.

SASE services not only connect devices but also protect them with inline traffic encryption and decryption scale. SASE services inspect traffic with multiple engines running in parallel. It also includes inspection engines, malware scanning, and sandboxes. SASE also provides other services such as DNS-based protection and distributed denial-of-service protection. Local regulations such as GDPR can be applied to SASE’s routing and security policies.

The SASE service uses a cloud-native architecture with no specific hardware dependencies. SASE as a service can scale as needed, be multi-tenant for maximum cost savings, and launch quickly for service expansion. Unlike other managed network services, The SASE architecture provides services based on the identity and context of the connection source. It considers various factors, including real-time factors such as identity, user, the device used, time of day, and device location.

Benefits of SASE

SASE benefits organizations by reducing the complexity and costs of IT environments and increasing security and performance. The main advantages and capabilities that SASE promises for organizations are as follows:

• Less complexity and lower costs: SASE reduces complexity and lowers the cost by reducing the number of solution partners IT teams need. The SASE model requires fewer physical or virtual branch and end-user device agents.
• Improved performance: SASE providers can offer latency-optimized routing between their own backbone and worldwide PoPs. This significantly improves the performance of latency-sensitive applications such as video, VoIP, and web conferencing.
• Increased security: SASE allows organizations to apply data policies to every user, regardless of device or context. Zero trust network access improves as companies set policies based on identity, not users.
• Improved IT operations: With regular maintenance of the inspection engines used in SASE, organizations are freed from the worry of updating to protect against new attacks, device scaling, and multi-year hardware upgrades. On the other hand, centralized policy definitions allow IT operations teams to get rid of this mundane task and devote time to important work that will add value to the organization.

Connect, manage, and converge

Cisco solutions offered by Netas bring together all the building blocks of SASE architecture in a single offer. Cisco’s SASE approach combines leading networking and security functions into a single cloud-native service to help secure access wherever users and applications reside.

Cisco SASE simplifies security, streamlines policy, and enhances protection with multifunctional cloud security services. Increasing business productivity by providing seamless connections to applications in any environment from any location. Presenting a flexible, integrated approach that meets multi-cloud demands at scale, Cisco SASE integrates security and networking as they should.

SD-WAN and SASE are covered by the network and security transformation pillars of Netas’ digital transformation formula. Cisco SD-WAN products provide end-to-end segmentation and real-time access control and application-aware policies while freeing the performance and user experience of Saas and IaaS applications across multiple clouds from the constraints of WAN.

SASE is the future of SD-WAN yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.

Nine percent of companies in Turkey use public, 35 percent use private, and 55 percent use hybrid clouds. 

– IDC, 2021

The cost advantages

Although cloud computing is one of the most prioritized investments by companies, it is one of the least understood technologies for its economic benefit and cost analysis. Given the enticing advantages of the cloud and the risks that stand between companies and those gains, how cloud services are used is critical to optimizing costs and increasing the value generated from the cloud. Otherwise, you miss out on one of the cloud’s most significant benefits, the cost advantage.

Earlier, in our article titled Digital Innovation: Leverage the Cloud to Gain On, we covered how to calculate cloud ROI and shared a simple formula you can use.

Calculating the actual cost of the cloud

Cloud migration strategies shouldn’t increase costs and complexity but reduce them.

The long-term savings and efficiencies of the cloud will vary depending on each company’s needs, circumstances, and the cloud solution they plan to migrate. However, there are general indicators that every company can look at to determine the return on investment and total cost of ownership:

The capital cost of the existing data center or cloud infrastructure can be calculated by considering expenses such as equipment lifespan, spare parts, labor, software, and licensing. To learn the actual cost of an open, private, or hybrid cloud solution, you should get proposals from the providers first, but the critical point is to predict beyond the standard pricing. Cost items such as integration, security, licensing, and training that will arise later should also be considered.

Eventually, the costs of the transition process itself must be factored in. The cost items of moving IT operations to the cloud or switching to another cloud provider are labor, integration, and application testing.

A scenario that takes all these variables into account can help IT executives understand the actual cost of migrating to the cloud or another provider and present a compelling argument.

A new profession: Cloud Economist

New expertise has emerged with the increasing adoption of the cloud: The cloud economist. These professionals are experts in cloud models, expenses, and benefits, enabling companies to predict the costs and savings they will encounter when migrating to a new cloud solution. Netaş makes the cloud economy transparently and proposes the most suitable solutions for your needs, with the consultancy services and the VMware Cloud solutions it offers.

351% ROI in three years with cloud computing

Netaş manages digital transformation end-to-end with its technology products and localization solutions, implements the most suitable modernization models for the needs of its customers. The company offers VMware products and solutions worldwide with the expertise and consultancy of an experienced R&D team.

VMware Cloud solutions offered by Netaş stand out with their efficient use of resources, minimum unplanned downtime, and a great return on investment. VMWare Cloud solutions provide companies with seamless integration and operational convenience.

According to data from independent research company IDC, companies using VMware Cloud on open cloud achieve a 351% return on investment in just three years. Many factors lie behind this tremendous return on investment. According to the research firm, VMware Cloud enables companies to move to and from the public cloud 46 percent faster, face 57 percent lower migration costs, and 83 percent less unplanned outages.

Cloud cost control and optimization

The role of the cloud economy does not end with the completion of the migration. Managing the costs and ROI of the cloud transparently and consistently is one of the cornerstones of the cloud economy. VMware CloudHealth, presented with the expertise of Netaş and shown as the world’s number one cloud cost transparency software by IDC research company, provides organizations with advanced financial control and management capabilities for multicloud environments.

VMware CloudHealth makes it easier than ever for organizations to meet the cloud challenges they face with its operational, security, and compliance features as well as cloud economy capabilities. These capabilities also make CloudHealth the world’s number one multicloud FinOps platform. (ISG, 2021)

Cloud Economics in the World and Turkey yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.

Netaş, Turkey’s 55-year-old local brand in telecom technologies, accelerated its localization efforts with its main shareholder ZTE.

Netaş produced ZTE’s server products R5300 G4 and ZTE R5300 G4X for the first time in Turkey, which broke records with their performance. Netaş brand local server was introduced at GSMA 2022 held in Barcelona with the participations of  Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Chairman of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, President of Europe & Americas of ZTE Corporation and Chairman of the Board of Netaş Aiguang Peng and  Netaş Telecom Business Unit General Manager Bülent Elönü.

Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, at the meeting, said, “The heart of telecommunication in the world beats in Barcelona. When we look at the conjuncture in the world, we understand much better the importance of our vision of locality and nationality drawn by our President. One of the conditions we placed on ZTE when it acquired the majority stake in Netaş in 2016 that It was Netaş’s staying as a Turkish company and supporting domestic production in line with Netaş’s mission. We are glad to see the local server here today according this mission. We care about the cooperation between global companies and local companies. In our vision of 5G and beyond; local will be at the highest rate. We want ZTE and Netaş to increase their locality efforts together.”

Chairman of Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, also said; “It is very important that we provide localization on the server side. I believe that being able to define the need for a server that can be shaped for future needs is a great added value for our industry.”

As ZTE, we will inspire the digital future of the near geography with Netaş

President of Europe & American Region of ZTE Corporation and Chairperson of the Board of Netaş Aiguang Peng said: “ZTE aims to “inspire the digital world” with our superiority in innovative telecommunication technologies, including 5G in the global market. Within this perspective, Turkey is a crucial market with its rapid adaptation to innovative technologies. Netaş, on the other hand, is very valuable to us with its deep experience in telecommunication technologies in the region. For this reason, we want to inspire the digital future of Turkey and the region together with Netaş.”

Peng also stated that; “we continue to deepen day by day in the Turkish telecommunication market with Netaş. In this process, we started to focus on our localization efforts. We offer localized technologies to Turkey by combining the know-how of ZTE’s innovative technologies with Netaş’s R&D expertise. In the last two years, the number of products having domestically manufactured certification, namely base stations, end-user products (modems), FTTx, and domestic servers, reached five. We believe that this number will increase soon thanks to the harmony we have achieved. By localizing different product types with the “Made in Turkey” label, Netaş’s support for Turkey’s national capital to stay in the country will increase. In the next step, our goal is to export these products to other countries in ZTE’s vast international network and where Netaş has a strong reputation.”

“Netaş is increasing its claim as a telecom producer again”

Netaş Telecom Business Unit General Manager Bülent Elönü said that; “Continuing its “domestic” and “localization” move in telecommunication technologies by establishing Turkey’s first private telecom R&D, Netaş transforms Turkey’s telecommunication infrastructure from the core to the backbone infrastructures of operators, from households to workplaces, with the most modern Technologies. After ZTE became our main shareholder in 2017, we entered a new era together to support the transformation of Turkey’s communication infrastructure.”

Elönü, gave the following information about Netaş and ZTE’s synergy; “We started to enter the backbone systems of operators, and we continue 5G tests. We installed one of the world’s first 120 commercial DWDM systems in Turkey. We have become a global pioneer in DWDM systems, which is expected to reach a market volume of 19 billion dollars with an annual growth of 11.30% until 2028. We are also carrying out Turkey’s largest IPTV infrastructure transformation project together with ZTE. While virtualizing Turkey’s largest fixed network, we are also starting the mobile virtualization business. We became the leader in the end-user devices market by far at the end of 2021, and introduced WiFi 6 to Turkey, and now we are localizing it.”

“Our last move is Netaş branded server“

Noting that the server and storage market in Turkey is close to 450 million dollars Elönü said that; “We believe Netaş server will bring momentum to the sector.”

He said that, “We have received local product certificates for five products so far including, modem VDSL HGW, FTTX Systems, Next Generation Base Station, Modem Wifi6 and server. We have always focused on the products with the highest performance and capacity in our localization efforts. For this reason, we have localized ZTE’s server products R5300 G4 and ZTE R5300 G4X in Turkey. These servers broke the world record in the performance tests of the most recent SPEC CPU (2017). Thanks to Netas’ R&D and its capabilities. We support Turkey’s vision of using domestic technology with our Netaş brand server, which is capable of operating in many environments that require high performance such as Virtualization, Cloud, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with its advanced features.”

“It will be the backbone of critical sectors”

Elönü continue to said that; “Our server has a highly flexible, expandable, and scalable design for business-critical applications. It also offers the option to optimally blend processor, memory, storage, and graphics processors. This localized server will provide a local and robust backbone for telecom, finance, transportation, and defense sectors, which are critical sectors for our country. The Netaş server can provide the processing power of systems such as local smart cars and national combat aircraft, which are working with national and local technologies in our country, can be easily integrated, and work at high capacity without interruption. It can even be designed and configured to be embedded in devices in the future.”

Technical information about product features:

• Next-generation server can 3^rd Gen Intel® Xeon® processor up to 80 cores, dense memory of up to 8 TB, and storage and fast disk options such as NVMe.
• It can easily handle all critical and high-performance workloads with its GPU (graphics processor) accelerator support.
• Offers superior expansion options than the products of our competitors. It handles all critical tasks smoothly and with top-level performance.
• Thanks to its support for different virtualization platforms, it offers an ideal environment for deploying more and highervirtual machines in data centers and cloud platforms.
• Meets different storage needs with its highly scalable storage capabilities up to 25 disk drives
• Supporting multiple 100G network interfaces, it meets bandwidth requirements up to hundreds of Gbps (Gigabits per Seconds)
• It is in 2U rack size which is the most preferred in the market.
• In regards to reliability, our server supports a variety of high efficiency platinum redundant power supply units (PSUs).
• Supports hot-swapping modules like Power Supply Units (PSUs), Disk Drives (HDD), fans to allow continuous performance.

World performance champion local server from Netaş yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.

Zero Trust is a new cyber security trend that differs from the classical security approach and provides more effective protection.

What is Zero Trust, when did it emerge?

The Zero Trust approach, which requires a radical change in the traditional understanding of trust, influences the cyber security field. Before Zero Trust, when a user logged into a system, the system would trust him and grant the necessary access privileges. However, Zero Trust is based on the principle that this system’s trust is actually a weakness.

Although the term “Zero Trust” was first coined in a Ph.D. thesis in 1994, it was first considered as a cybersecurity model in 2010. The Zero Trust Network (or Zero Trust Architecture) model, proposed 11 years ago by John Kindervag, principal analyst at Forrester Research, is now considered one of the most powerful protection standards by experts against data leaks, vulnerabilities, and cyber threats of any kind.

Research and data also support these views on ‘Zero Trust’:

• By 2022, 80 percent of new digital business applications opened to business partners will be accessible with zero trust network access (ZTNA). (Gartner)
• By 2023, 60 percent of organizations will stop using VPNs for remote access within the framework of Zero Trust policies. (Gartner)
• 40% of cyber breaches are caused by users accessing resources they do not have permission to access. (IDC)
• In 2025, 85% of successful cyberattacks against corporate user endpoints will be caused by settings and user errors rather than advanced malware.

If we can’t trust anyone, who can we trust?

There are usually two main pillars when establishing the Zero Trust approach: The first is to identify sensitive data and systems, turn their flow into a map. The second is to determine who accesses systems and data, when, where, why, and how.

The Zero Trust approach is based on the fact that organizations do not trust their customers and employees, as well as internal and external applications. It brings a single rule to the processes: When a human, system, or application wants to access data, inspect it. Thus, efforts to provide cyber security are also evolving from regular monitoring to a data-driven approach. Systems only trust other systems, people, and applications that can authenticate themselves.

How can organizations adopt a Zero Trust approach?

Fortinet establishes Zero Trust with a simple and automated approach, enhancing application and network access security whether users are in or out of the office with its ZTNA solution. The infrastructure and data-driven approach may require different steps for each organization’s transition to Zero Trust. This is where the experience and capabilities of Netaş experts come into play. It is possible to achieve effortless, automatic, and much safer digital environments by integrating the Fortinet ZTNA solution into the systems in line with the organization’s needs.

Features of Fortinet ZTNA

Fortinet ZTNA stands out with its IoT endpoint and device protection features. The information of all devices in the network, which profile they are in can be seen, and risks can be prevented by scanning for vulnerabilities with the integrated endpoint visibility feature.

The dynamic control feature can perform micro-segmentation of the devices in the network. It is also possible to perform intent-based segmentation by looking at the devices’ actions, creating rules accordingly, and ensuring that they are automatically applied.

Fortinet ZTNA’s identity and access management feature is powered by secure authentication technology to enforce an effective security policy across the entire network. While Fortinet Security Fabric authentication simplifies the user experience with a single sign-on, it also adds an extra layer of security to the system with multi-factor authentication. It also ensures that data is safe with certificate and guest management features.

Organizations with a hybrid workforce can also utilize Fortinet ZTNA’s security features. It can authenticate people and applications using remote VPN access with a session-based access feature. This feature is used for internal and external users, providing effective protection across the entire network.

Who can we trust in the age of Zero Trust? yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.

As hybrid cloud adoption continues to rise, VMware Cloud Foundation offers an ideal solution for businesses looking to migrate, bringing together workloads and applications designed to run both traditionally and on the cloud.

While the pandemic plays a significant role as a catalyst for the digitalization of businesses, organizations that started their digital transformation journey before the pandemic also realized the importance of being agile in this period. While adaptation increases in almost all technology areas, we see that cloud infrastructure, information security, and network architecture investments gain particular importance.

Global hybrid cloud deployment statistics for 2021

The hybrid cloud research published by NTT in consultation with 950 decision-makers in 2021 reveals eye-opening statistics. According to the report:

• 90 percent of decision-makers in the IT field state that their companies need more information technology than before the pandemic to continue their operations.
• Hybrid infrastructures offer advantages. 61 percent of organizations that participated in the study have already migrated to hybrid cloud or using the hybrid cloud in pilot projects.
• 33% of respondents said they will migrate to a hybrid cloud solution in 12-24 months.

Hybrid cloud boosts efficiency

By integrating existing IT infrastructures with the cloud environment, hybrid cloud provides scalability, agility, and security advantages. Thus, it increases the competitiveness of enterprises. It ensures business continuity and maintains efficiency in disaster situations. The research also presents interesting data on this topic:

• 33 percent of the organizations stated that the speed of application and service provision has increased with hybrid cloud.
• 41 percent of enterprises want more efficiency in their IT operations, and this data provides clues about the accelerated migration to hybrid cloud.

Uses of hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud solutions also attract attention because they can be used in various areas, including application modernization and data center environments. Businesses using hybrid cloud solutions can transfer their applications and workloads to the cloud to utilize container technology for traditional workloads. In addition, it is possible to develop cloud-native applications designed to work in the cloud. A 2019 study by 451 Research reveals that 95 percent of new enterprise applications are cloud-native. Another prominent use of hybrid cloud is modernizing the data center infrastructure with a software-based approach.

Companies discovering the application areas of hybrid cloud also want to know which functions they can benefit from. The hybrid cloud offers a wide range of options, including both private and public cloud functions. For example:

• Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) forms the main infrastructure of hybrid cloud platforms, offers servers, storage units, network, management functions, and allows them to be easily scaled.
• It is possible to develop cloud-native applications and workloads thanks to its compatibility with containerized workloads.
• You can create a separate security policy for any applications and workloads running on the hybrid cloud, encrypt and isolate sensitive to protect against cyber-attacks.
• The hybrid cloud also facilitates the creation of consistent infrastructures. All applications and workloads can run in a consolidated manner, whether on the private or public cloud.

Migration to hybrid cloud with VMware Cloud Foundation

VMware Cloud Foundation supports traditional, enterprise, and modern applications, facilitating the migration to hybrid cloud. The solution stands out with the following key features:

• Based on Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) technology, VMware Cloud Foundation streamlines operations and facilitates the management of container-based workloads. It also provides a ready infrastructure to the container developers.
• Provides high-security software service. VMware Cloud Foundation enables running workloads at scale without a compromise.
• Integrated container orchestration maximizes performance, flexibility, and usability.
• VMware Cloud Foundation lowers CapEx, OpEx, and total cost of ownership by providing consistent operation and the most comprehensive distribution options available.

Netaş offers an end-to-end service for VMware Cloud Foundation, one of the industry’s most advanced hybrid platforms. Netaş manages all processes from consultancy to implementation, from solution development to operation with its expertise, facilitates the transition to hybrid cloud.

The easiest way to migrate to hybrid cloud yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.

More and more applications are starting to take advantage of the container structure. Thanks to Docker, these structures have become more prevalent in the last few years and especially effective in microservice-oriented applications running on the cloud. You can now use VMware Tanzu to create this structure that provides benefits such as efficient use of resources, automatic scaling, and procedural quality improvement. The VMware Tanzu product family delivers dramatic benefits from application development to publishing and management. However, before moving on to these, let’s remember the basics.

What is a container?

Rooted from Unix and Linux-based systems, the container structure is created by packaging the code and all it needs (such as runtime, system tools, system libraries, and settings). Thus, the application can work the same in different environments.

Advantages of using containers

It is possible to easily install the application in the container in any environment, as a single package contains all needed. At the same time, things get faster with a single installation. Another advantage is security because applications work in the container in isolation from the rest of the system. This protects the data and the digital environment against threats from outside.

Where are containers used?

The containers’ journey started in Linux and Unix environments. They are now everywhere, from server operating systems to mobile devices, from consumer systems to data centers, cloud, and serverless environments.

The difference between containers and virtual machines
Utilizing a similar system of resource isolation and separation as virtual machines, containers differ functionally. Containers virtualize on the operating system rather than the hardware. This makes them more portable and efficient.

Containers running on the application layer share the same operating system kernel with other containers on the same machine but run as isolated processes from a user perspective.

Containers take up less space than a virtual machine to run more applications while using less operating system and virtual machine resources.

However, it is also possible to combine the advantages of the two and use containers on the virtual machine. This gives flexibility in terms of installing and managing applications.

What is Kubernetes?

Another major step in the containerization journey is the use of Kubernetes. Kubernetes, which has become an industry-standard, attracts attention as a tool that can provide effective resource management for tens of thousands of containers. It can also run on all different infrastructures, from on-premises hardware to private data centers or cloud service providers.

What is VMware Tanzu?

The Tanzu product line, announced by VMware with vSphere 7.0, enables modern cloud-based applications’ development, operation, and management. Introduced by VMware as a fundamental tool in application modernization, Tanzu products simplify multi-cloud operations and increase developers’ productivity when working together.

The difference of VMware Tanzu

To highlight the tangible advantages Tanzu offers:

• It shortens software development cycles by 56 percent. Changes and new features can be easily integrated into applications, reducing the time to release/present the software.
• It reduces the time devoted to debugging and patching processes by 5 times. The weak points of the software can be detected more quickly and easily fixed with Tanzu’s integrated methods and tools.
• It increases operational efficiency by 78% with innovative cloud mechanisms such as automation, standardization, and monitoring.

Key features of VMware Tanzu

Tanzu, which can run on all cloud systems, has the following key features:

• Ease of automation: You can benefit from automation on a massive scale in the field of management and governance, as well as automating container production. It is possible to perform everything from patching to platform updates during operation without interruption. The ability to automatically increase capacity in scaling ensures that your experience will not change even in traffic peaks.
• Secure containers: After choosing verified open-source containers, software, and operating system, you always make sure to select the most secure stack from the up-to-date application catalog. You can also audit the open-source libraries and binaries if you wish.
• Modern data layer: You can cache legacy data and use it in modern applications or create new data architectures for speed and scale-oriented applications.
• Kubernetes: You can provide developers with secure and self-service Kubernetes cluster access using your existing data center tools and workflows. You can also migrate existing Kubernetes runtimes to the public cloud or edge computing environments. It is also possible to reduce your risk by automating lifecycle management in multi-cluster operations.
• Management and monitoring: VMware Tanzu products provide complete transparency and allow you to implement and change operational controls over services quickly. The solution also protects data in transit, providing a secure communication environment for DevSecOps teams. Intelligent alert systems enable you to detect anomalies in your applications and Kubernetes, cloud, and other settings. VMware Tanzu can be monitored instantly with customizable dashboards and offers comprehensive monitoring capabilities with analytical-oriented measures.

Netaş offers an end-to-end solution for VMware Tanzu, including system installation, management, and software development support. Expert consultants support you to run the applications you develop in the cloud. Those who want to modernize their applications can get support from Netaş’s software and testing team, especially experienced in cloud-native, microservices, and legacy applications.

Learn more about VMware Tanzu products:

A new and effective solution for application modernization: VMware Tanzu yazısı ilk önce Netas Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. üzerinde ortaya çıktı.