January VM-Series and CN-Series News

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Welcome to a new year of security opportunity and innovation! We hope this January edition of our monthly software firewall update finds you healthy, rested, and ready to make the most of our recent developments with VM-Series virtual firewalls and CN-Series container firewalls. 

Kick off 2021 by being among the first to know about the many ways we continue to make deploying firewalls in public clouds faster and more efficient. You’ll find several exciting developments about VM-Series firewalls in Azure, as well as Alibaba and Oracle Cloud. Read on to learn about the latest VMware NSX certifications, running VM-Series on the Aryaka SD-WAN platform, and more.

Radically Simplify VM-Series Deployments in Azure

Building and operating your firewall deployments in Azure is radically simpler with the availability of Panorama Orchestrated VM-Series Firewall Deployments in Azure. This feature eliminates the need to manage complex templates for firewall deployments in Azure. You can use the integrated workflow in Panorama to build and manage scalable firewall deployments without the steep learning curve associated with Azure networking constructs. Learn more about this important productivity-enhancing feature by reading this blog post and watching this video demo. This feature is available beginning with Panorama Plugin for Azure 3.0. Make sure to review the compatibility requirements in the Plugin Compatibility Matrix before you install this plugin.

Consistently Enforce Security Policy in Azure with New Monitoring Enhancements

The Azure monitoring capabilities in the Panorama plugin for Azure have been extended to include Service, Subnet, VNET, and Load Balancer tags. You can use these new tags to dynamically update security policy rules and to consistently enforce security policy across all assets deployed within your Azure subscription. This feature is available beginning with Panorama Plugin for Azure 3.0. Make sure to review the compatibility requirements in the Plugin Compatibility Matrix before you install this plugin.

Discover Support for Dv3-series, Dsv3-series, and Fsv2-series Azure VM Types

Along with simplifying deployment and extending policy enforcement in Microsoft Azure, VM-Series firewalls now run on additional Azure VM types:

• Dv3: D8_v3, D16_v3
• Dsv3: D8s_v3, D16s_v3
• Fsv2: F8s_v2, F32s_v2

Discover Real-World Flexibility with the Oracle Cloud Marketplace PAYG Listing for VM-Series Firewalls

Deploying VM-Series firewalls on Oracle Cloud just got a whole lot simpler with the availability of pay-as-you-go (PAYG) options on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace. You can choose from the VM-500 and VM-700 VM-Series firewalls with either the Bundle 1 or Bundle 2 subscription. Additionally, you can bootstrap PAYG VM-Series firewalls in the same way that you bootstrap with a bring-your-own-license (BYOL) firewall.

Simplify Deployments on Alibaba Cloud

Deploying VM-Series firewalls on Alibaba Cloud has never been easier. To secure traffic to and from an Alibaba virtual private cloud (VPC), use the latest VM-Series firewall BYOL image from the Alibaba Marketplace and deploy the firewall as an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance. When you configure the instance, just provide your BYOL license and enter your basic bootstrap configuration information as user data. This feature is available beginning with VM-Series Plugin 2.0.3.

Stay Current with the Latest VMware NSX-T and NSX-V Certifications

We work closely with VMware to ensure that your VM-Series firewalls work well with and are certified for the latest NSX releases: 

• VMware NSX-T 3.1 Certification—VM-Series firewalls are qualified with NSX-T 3.1 and included as certified firewalls in the VMware compatibility guide. PAN-OS 10.0 or later and Panorama Plugin for VMware NSX 3.2.0 or later is required. Make sure to review the compatibility requirements in the Plugin Compatibility Matrix before you install this plugin.

• NSX-V 6.4.8 Certification—VM-Series firewalls are qualified with NSX-V 6.4.8 and included as certified firewalls in the VMWare compatibility guide. Panorama Plugin for VMware NSX 3.1.0 or later is required. Make sure to review the compatibility requirements in the Plugin Compatibility Matrix before you install this plugin.

Help Others Understand Why You Need Virtual Firewalls in NSX

You understand that microsegmentation by itself won’t detect or respond to threats. But do the people in your organization understand why you need virtual firewalls in VMware NSX environments? Send them this short video that explains how NSX can dynamically route allowed traffic to a VM-Series firewall so that you can see and control every packet and prevent both known and unknown attacks from getting past open ports.

Aryaka Partner Driven Qualification

If you depend on Aryaka managed service WAN, you’ll be glad to know VM-Series firewalls are partner-qualified by Aryaka to run on the Aryaka 2600 and Aryaka 3000 hardware platforms.

Don’t Miss Other Recent VM-Series and CN-Series Firewall Technical Updates

Looking back can help you look ahead. Did you miss December's update? Take a look for information about the VM-Series firewall integration with the AWS Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB), tips for migrating VM-Series deployments from VMware NSX-V to VMware NSX-T, and more.