Open networking and vitrualization company Vyatta has launched Version 6.1 today, the latest in its open network OS upgrades.  It’s an important milestone for the Cisco alternative, as it is a compilation of several factors and successes that help to establish the company in its cloud-computing services for the enterprise.

With Vyatta Version 6.1, there’s improved security, additional software-based networking tools, and cross-network computing between physical and virtual infrastructures.  From Vyatta,

“The Vyatta Network OS allows us to deploy firewalling and VPN in our cloud as a virtual machine and on customer premise as a hardware device using the same software package,” said Sanjay Basu, senior technical architect, virtual utility services, Infrastructure Solutions at Dell Services. “Vyatta is able to provide the network services and secure connectivity that Dell GIS Cloud requires in a package that addresses the virtualization, commoditization and cost-benefit requirements of cloud computing.”

Major Features

Vyatta Core 6.1

·         Layer 2 Bridging / Cloud Bridging
·         Stateful Firewall/NAT Failover
·         LLDP – Link Layer Discovery Protocol
·         QoS Input Interfaces
·         Port Mirroring and Redirection
·         BGP Hop Count Security
·         DHCPv6
·         IPv6 BGP
·         IPv6 SNMP
·         GTSM BGP
·         More Than 120 Bug Fixes

The recent completion of IPv6 certification also brings Vyatta greater standing for its security protocols.  As with all major cloud-computing initiatives geared towards the enterprise, security is a weighted factor when considering the shift.  Vyatta’s steps leading up to Version 6.1 demonstrate the company’s desire to become a trusted networking system in that regard.

“One of the biggest barriers for customer to be comfortable with moving from a physical infrastructure to a virtual or cloud environment is security,” notes Stuart Miniman, Principal Research Contributor at The Wikibon Project. “Following the trend of taking capabilities that would be in a stand-alone appliance or embedded in large hardware, virtualization players such as Vyatta are taking security functionality such as firewall and VPN into a virtual appliance.

“These security enhancements are especially crucial for enabling multi-tenancy and federated (internal/external) cloud deployments.  Since the virtualized security functionality is very new compared with solutions from Juniper and F5, customers should plan to bring it into test/dev environments first.”