The Growing Trends In Network Virtualization

Steve Pao, GM Security, Barracuda Networks

What significant changes did the networking sector witness in 2013? What did these changes mean to vendors and customers?

We began seeing our customers continue to both observe and participate in cloud adoption. At Barracuda we have designed new products to help organizations use the cloud better by optimizing network performance and prioritizing for business critical cloud applications over more casual Internet use. As an example, we use the elasticity of the cloud to deliver advanced malware scanning and content security as new threats emerge without stressing the limited computing resources of purely on-premises devices.

Can you paint us the picture of how landscape for networking sector will change in 2014? What are some of the broader trends you are closely watching?

We continue to see growth in network virtualization. The virtualization of server infrastructure has continued to catalyze a trend towards network function virtualization within existing frameworks, where virtual security and networking appliances are being deployed to protect virtual servers and endpoints.

Can you highlight how the customer spends in the sector will change in 2014? What makes you think customers will by buying more/less?

As data growth continues, we see corporate IT continuing to invest in online file sharing. At Barracuda, our online file sharing service has more than 2 million users, and we launched the service less than one year ago. In the era of the personal cloud, we believe this type of functionality extends to businesses as many organizations are looking for ways to enable productivity by providing secure ubiquitous access.