In a major advancement in cybersecurity, Cisco has announced the latest version of its secure workload solution that integrates NVIDIA’s BlueField-3 data processing unit (DPU). According to the NVIDIA Technology Blog, the goal of this collaboration is to improve workload security and operational efficiency to combat increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.
Cisco Secure Workload Key Features
Cisco Secure Workload is designed to protect application workloads across diverse infrastructures. Provides unprecedented visibility into workload interactions and leverages AI to automate complex tasks. Key features include:
- Micro-segmentation: Minimize the attack surface by isolating workloads and limiting lateral movement within the network.
- Workload encryption: Protect sensitive information by ensuring data encryption during storage and transmission.
- Threat detection and prevention: It uses advanced mechanisms to identify and block malicious activity in real time.
- Automated Incident Response: Automate response processes to quickly contain and remediate threats.
Integration with NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU
The integration of NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs with Cisco Secure Workload introduces a new level of security and efficiency. BlueField DPUs with dedicated Arm cores offload security-critical tasks from virtual machines (VMs), freeing up CPU resources for core application processing and improving overall performance.
BlueField DPUs are strategically placed in the data path between the network and VMs to enhance data center security. Key features of BlueField DPU include:
- Hardware acceleration and offload: Dedicated hardware accelerators for encryption, decryption, and data compression improve performance by offloading these tasks from the CPU.
- Improved scalability: Hardware offloading capabilities accommodate more VMs without compromising performance.
- Enhanced Security: Provides isolation between the network and VMs to prevent unauthorized access and complements the software-based protection of Cisco Secure Workload.
- Apply simplified workloads: Enforce security policies more efficiently by offloading security tasks to the DPU.
- Reduce latency: Offloading security functions to BlueField-3 reduces latency and improves application response times.
- Simplified operations: Centrally managing security policies reduces the complexity of security management.
BlueField technology benefits
BlueField DPU significantly improves the efficiency of Cisco Secure Workload by monitoring network traffic and providing actionable intelligence to prevent threats. Featuring 16 Arm A78 cores, the BlueField DPU optimizes high-performance packet processing applications, offloading compute- and data-intensive tasks from the CPU.
Combination of NVIDIA accelerated switching and packet processing (ASAP2) and NVIDIA DOCA improve scalability and CPU efficiency. Offloading communications and Open vSwitch (OVS) processing to the BlueField DPU simplifies security management, reduces the need for multiple agent instances, and improves overall system performance.
BlueField DPU also handles access control list (ACL) processing, freeing up the CPU for other tasks and improving system performance. Hardware acceleration for encryption and decryption of data in transit ensures data confidentiality without significantly impacting network performance.
summary
Cisco Secure Workload integrated with NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU represents a significant advance in security and operational efficiency. This combination of hardware and software innovations delivers powerful protection without compromising performance, paving the way for a more secure, agile future for businesses of all sizes.
For more information, visit the NVIDIA Technology Blog.
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