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NSv Series and Microsoft Azure’s Government Cloud: Strengthening Cloud Security

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While the benefits of cloud computing are widely recognized, Federal agencies have been among the last to enjoy these benefits due to the national security implications of the data they handle.

But with the recent directives for government to accelerate movement to secure cloud services — such as the U.S. White House’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity — and technology such as Microsoft Azure’s Government Cloud and SonicWall NSv Series virtual firewall, the benefits of the cloud are now within reach of Federal agencies.

What is Microsoft Azure’s Government Cloud?

Microsoft Azure’s Government Cloud is an isolated region that meets the regulatory and compliance requirements of the U.S. government agencies and customers. Azure Government Cloud (U.S.) consists of isolated regions designed to allow U.S. government agencies, their partners, and customers interested in cloud services that meet government security and compliance requirements to move sensitive workloads into the cloud. Its services provide world-class security and compliance and can accommodate data that is subject to various U.S. government regulations and requirements.

Azure Government Cloud delivers a dedicated cloud, enabling government agencies and their partners to transform mission-critical workloads.  Only U.S. federal, state, local and tribal governments and their partners have access to each particular instance, with operations controlled by screened U.S. citizens. In this way, SonicWall is extending the protection of government workloads with virtual security products optimized for Microsoft Azure.

Image of the Microsoft Azure logo, for an article about how SonicWall NSv virtual firewalls strengthen cloud security.

What is SonicWall NSv virtual firewall?

SonicWall’s NSv Series virtual firewalls provide all the security advantages of a physical firewall, plus all the operational and economic benefits of the cloud — including system scalability and agility, speed of system provisioning, simple management, and cost reduction. NSv delivers full-featured security tools including VPN, IPS, application control and URL filtering. These capabilities shield all critical components of the private/public cloud environments from resource misuse attacks, cross-virtual-machine attacks, side-channel attacks, and common network-based exploits and threats.

Users can login to their Azure Government Cloud console via U.S.-West and U.S.-East regions using BYOL (Bring Your Own Licenses) and deploy NSv on Microsoft Azure Government Cloud.

Summary

Most Federal customers are moving their datacenters away from traditional on-premises deployments and to the cloud. It is imperative that security teams provide the same level of security for government cloud server instances as they have been doing for on-premises physical servers. A next-generation firewall with advanced security services like Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI™), IPS and application control is the first step to securing cloud instances against cyber threats.

In addition to security features, it also important to choose a firewall that provides the right level of performance needed for a given cloud workload. SonicWall NSv series offers a variety of models with performance levels suited to any size of cloud deployment, with all the necessary security features enabled.

NSv Series and AWS GovCloud: Facilitating Government’s Move to the Cloud

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Due to the highly classified nature of the information they handle, Federal agencies have been among the last to move their workloads to the cloud. But with guidance such as the U.S. White House’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, which directs the Federal government to accelerate movement to secure cloud services, and technology such as AWS GovCloud and SonicWall NSv Series virtual firewall, the flexibility and scalability of cloud solutions is now available to government customers as well.

What is AWS GovCloud?

The AWS GovCloud is an isolated AWS region that meets the regulatory and compliance requirements of government agencies. AWS GovCloud (U.S.) are isolated AWS regions designed to allow U.S. government agencies to move sensitive workloads into the cloud by addressing their specific regulatory and compliance requirements, including Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High, Department of Defense Security Requirements Guide (DoD SRG) Impact Level 5, and Criminal Justice Services (CJIS).

To assist customers in managing their obligations under U.S. export control regimes such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), AWS GovCloud (U.S.) is logically and physically administered exclusively by U.S. citizens.

To secure the workloads that contain all categories of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) data and government-oriented, publicly available data in the AWS GovCloud (U.S.) Region, SonicWall’s NSv Series virtual firewalls provides the same security features in AWS GovCloud as on the standard AWS public cloud. Through this partnership, SonicWall is extending the protection of mission-critical government workloads with virtual security products optimized for AWS.

What is SonicWall NSv virtual firewall?

SonicWall’s NSv Series virtual firewalls provide all the security advantages of a physical firewall, plus all the operational and economic benefits of the cloud — including system scalability and agility, speed of system provisioning, simple management, and cost reduction.

NSv delivers full-featured security tools including VPN, IPS, application control and URL filtering. These capabilities shield all critical components of the private/public cloud environments from resource misuse attacks, cross-virtual-machine attacks, side-channel attacks, and common network-based exploits and threats.

Users can login to their AWS GovCloud console in U.S.-West and U.S.-East regions using BYOL (Bring Your Own Licenses) and deploy NSv on AWS GovCloud.

Summary

Most Federal customers are moving their datacenters away from traditional on-premises deployments and to the cloud. It is imperative that security teams provide the same level of security for government cloud server instances as they have been doing for on-premises physical servers. A next-generation firewall with advanced security services like Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI™), IPS and application control is the first step to securing cloud instances against cyber threats.

In addition to security features, it also important to choose a firewall that provides the right level of performance needed for a given cloud workload. SonicWall NSv series offers a variety of models with performance levels suited to any size of cloud deployment, with all the necessary security features enabled. To learn more about how SonicWall NSv Series excels in AWS environments, click here.