Security

From network security to secure networks

A new age of edge-less, multi-cloud, multi-device collaboration for hybrid work has given rise to a new network that transcends perimeters. As hybrid work models continue to gain precedence through the new network, it has become vital for organizations to address the cascading attack surface. Continuously evolving cyber threats can no longer be mitigated by reactionary bolt-on security measures. Instead, organizations need security to permeate everything that happens on the network today.

Security measures need to pivot from reactive to a more proactive approach of continuous contextual network monitoring that ensures a threat is detected before it can lead to a significant data breach.

Being secure in the new network, the zero trust way.

A zero trust networking approach to security is paramount for organizations looking to build a robust cybersecurity ecosystem today. Based on the premise of explicit trust, zero trust security ensures complete visibility and control over any enterprise network activity, regardless of which device, application, or user is accessing that resource.

This paradigm shift has prompted best-in-class enterprises to bake security into the core of their network infrastructure. Implementing security at this layer reduces operational costs and complexity and represents the most effective way to track and successfully manage threats coming in from the wider attack surface.

Zero Trust Networking

Arista’s suite of security solutions helps customers accelerate their journey towards zero trust maturity. Based on the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model, Arista supports all the key functions CISA recommends for the network: network segmentation, network traffic management, traffic encryption, and network resilience along with controls for visibility and analytics, automation and orchestration, as well as governance.

Arista Security: Zero Trust Everywhere

The new network needs security that can scale and adapt based on context. Traditional security measures were simply not built to scale for the new network. Legacy solutions lack the deep integrations necessary to ensure real-time context flows through the entire system. Instead, most organizations struggle with a security strategy that relies on multiple vendors and individual point solutions that are narrowly focused.

How does Arista help? As evidenced by the Universal Cloud Network (UCN) architecture, Arista helps customers build networks that are secure by design. Arista’s zero trust portfolio eliminates the need for several network monitoring and security tools by delivering a unified architecture that provides real-time visibility to the threat posture across the network and the ability to take action. Arista is uniquely positioned to deliver these capabilities across a variety of networks: from the campus to the data center and the cloud.

Zero Trust for the Data Center:

Arista’s DFX (DANZ Forensics Exchange) solution combines the network packet filtering, forwarding, and storage capabilities of DANZ Monitoring Fabric™ (DMF) with the advanced Network Detection and Response (NDR) capabilities of the Arista NDR Platform powered by AVA™ (Autonomous Virtual Assist), the world’s first AI-based security expert system. Arista offers the industry's first multi-hundred gigabit solution for NDR that allows security teams to capture and monitor aggregated data center traffic, detect mal-intent or potential threats, and provide full packet network forensics.

DFX delivers visibility at the network, device, workload, application, and user level while also enabling autonomous threat hunting, detection, and response. It also offers fully programmable and API-friendly capabilities: from selecting the specific traffic to be monitored, to easily creating custom threat hunting models for threats unique to an enterprise’s data center and applications.

Zero Trust for the Cognitive Campus:

Arista’s zero trust campus solution embeds AVA NDR sensors into the switches and is thus uniquely able to offer a deep packet-inspection security analytics solution built into the campus network fabric. Unlike legacy NetFlow-based solutions that are limited in their depth of visibility–just port and IP address information along with the protocols, Arista AVA sensors analyze the full packet for a number of protocols and send that information to the NDR nucleus for further analysis.

Similarly, CloudVision Arista Guardian for Network Identity™ (CV AGNI) is a software-as-a-service network access control (NAC) solution that simplifies the onboarding and ongoing governance of network identity across users, their associated devices, and the Internet-of-Things, for both wired and wireless campus networks. CV AGNI uses existing identity providers and performs dynamic authorization via real time posture assessments based on data from Arista NDR as well as from third party technologies such as endpoint detection and response solutions.

Having AVA Sensors and CV AGNI capabilities provides the enterprise with broader visibility, increased traffic analysis, and robust enforcement mechanisms across the campus, and an integrated solution that enables both manual and automated remediation actions.

Securing the New Network with a Unified Security Strategy

Networks have evolved in the last 20 to 30 years, but network security still hasn’t. Siloed traditional models persist. Most organizations have several diverse cybersecurity solutions that are patched together to fix known threats. Arista’s solutions are designed to scale and support a variety of networks. Arista’s security approach allows organizations to proactively set up enforcement mechanisms via scalable encryption and segmentation approaches; enable predictive analytics that uncover malicious intent as early in the attack lifecycle as possible, and deliver prescriptive guidance so analysts can take remedial action. Arista’s security solutions support out-of-the-box automated integrations with the rest of the infrastructure while also delivering the necessary decision-support data to the human analyst.

The links below dive deeper into the various components of Arista’s Zero Trust Networking solution:

DANZ Monitoring Fabric (Arista DMF)

Edge Threat Management (Arista ETM)

CloudVIsion AGNI (CV AGNI)

Macro Segmentation Services (Arista MSS)

Network Detection and Response (Arista NDR)