Broadcom eyes security, performance boosts with vDefend and Avi Load Balancer updates

Broadcom has unveiled a series of new features for VMware vDefend and Avi Load Balancer, aimed at expanding private cloud security capabilities and optimizing infrastructure costs.

The updates include a new threat protection framework, on-premises malware preventions, support for air-gapped environments, and application programming interface (API) protection.

Umesh Mahajan, vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s application networking and security division, said the new features come in direct response to rising AI-related threats.

“As AI-fueled cyber attacks and vulnerability exploits redefine the threat landscape, a fragmented security approach is no longer an option,” he commented.

“With today’s updates to vDefend and Avi Load Balancer, we are giving enterprise customers the protection, performance, and automation they need to defend their application infrastructure at scale.”

What to expect with new vDefend features

Lateral security has been enhanced with vDefend Security Services Platform (SSP), according to Broadcom. Accelerated Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP) with vDefend 1-2-3 now includes a three-step deployment framework aimed at speeding up time-to-value for ATP.

Similarly, this 1-2-3 workflow for ATP now comes with Distributed Firewall (DFW) to highlight security posture, recommend rules, and provide guided workflows.

Elsewhere in the update, Broadcom highlighted new on-prem malware prevention capabilities, bringing malware sandboxing on-premises. This, the company said, will allow teams to analyze static and dynamic artifacts within local networks.

All vDefend capabilities are now fully supported in air-gapped environments, with Broadcom promising secure, offline threat intelligence updates so that sensitive environments can stay up to date on the latest threat vectors without ever connecting to the cloud.

To help deal with the increasing number of software vulnerabilities being discovered by frontier AI, vDefend IDPS now enables distributed virtual patching to block workload-level exploits in the hypervisor itself, buying time to roll out software patches.

Avi Load Balancer updates on the menu

Meanwhile, Broadcom revealed upgraded security features for Avi Load Balancer.

The update will now include native API protection for virtual machines (VMs), vSphere Kubernetes Services (VKS), and AI workloads.

The combination of Web Application Firewall and API Protection (WAAP), it said, protects vulnerable APIs and gives enterprises comprehensive visibility to close security gaps, while reducing the cost and complexity of multiple disconnected tools.

Performance enhancements

Rising hardware-related costs are a key focus in the latest string of updates, according to Broadcom, with the company aiming to reduce server costs with performance optimization improvements.

vDefend, for example, now has a two-node SSP model that cuts the physical hardware needed to run the platform by up to a third, lowering infrastructure costs while delivering comprehensive lateral segmentation.

The company claims it can deliver significant throughput gains by driving distributed firewall performance speeds up to 22Gbps on 25G NIC servers and up to 75Gbps on 100G NIC servers.

Application delivery performance has also been improved, with Avi Load Balancer scale-out throughput boosted up to 12.25Tbps per controller instance.

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