Securing the EUC Environment with VMware NSX

Frank Abagnale (who was portrayed in the famous movie Catch Me If You Can) once said that most security breaches happen because somebody does what they shouldn’t do or because somebody doesn’t do what they are supposed to do. And this is especially true for incidents in End-User Computing (EUC) environments. Misbehaved, uneducated, or simply unfortunate users, desktop OS security holes, default services no one disables, patches, and updates to user desktop OSes that get delayed or even never deployed, etc. These risks make the EUC environment one of the most exposed and security-sensitive parts of IT infrastructure. Moreover, a breach in the EUC environment – that is very close to enterprise applications, services, and data – can literally devastate your business.

Access control lists and filters are not enough

It is crucial to properly secure EUC environment with more than just simple filters and access control lists. Users accessing their desktops in the EUC environment log in using their identity, desktop guest OSes should comply with certain standards, allowed communication should be kept at a minimum (i.e. only necessary communication channels).

However, to set up and deploy the solid security policies, you need to overcome the following challenges:

Adequate assessment of the EUC environment and identification of security shortcomings and vital requirements
Defining the means by which the EUC environment should be secured
Design and implementation of infrastructure components needed to secure EUC environment
Design and implementation of security policies for EUC environment
Cost-efficient operation and maintaining the desired security posture over longer time

Assessment and analysis of the existing EUC environment
Identification of security issues and exposures of the existing EUC environment
Definition of security issues severity levels (e.g. criticality level – high, medium, low)
Mapping of identified security issues and exposures to the defined severity levels
Design and implementation of EUC and NSX infrastructure components and functionalities
Design of security policy components and the policy itself
Implementation of PoC/pilot to verify the designed security policies
Implementation of the required infrastructure components and functionalities (i.e. NSX infrastructure components, guest introspection services, file and network introspection tools…)
Implementation of security policies (i.e. AD user authentication and security groups, NSX security services and groups, security hardening of vital and infrastructure applications/services…)
Verification of deployed security policies for the EUC environment
Transfer of information/building the skills workshop to run secure EUC environment for customer’s operations team

Secure EUC environment technology platform

The following key technologies and components are typically used in securing the EUC environment with VMware NSX service:

VMware Horizon View based EUC system
VMware vSphere server virtualization platform
VMware NSX SDN virtual network platform with the proper NSX infrastructure
Distributed security data plane
Centralized security management and control plane
EUC client desktops with Windows OS
Active Directory based user authentication
Active Directory based security groups
Guest introspection service
File and network introspection tools
Security hardening for business vital applications/services
Security hardening for infrastructure critical applications/services

We are flexible in using and applying the listed technologies and components in a particular solution architecture. The goal is to implement policies with the required VMware NSX functionalities to optimally secure your EUC environment.

Benefits of NIL’s approach

Our methodology has the following core strengths that guarantee a cost-effective solution deployment that meets your expectations:

Optimal security posture that doesn’t harm productivity

Our approach to building a secure EUC environment is based on field experience in deploying optimal sized infrastructure components, rapidly assessing EUC environment issues, and implementing security policies.

10+ years of experience and expertise

We have been engaged in designing, deploying, migrating, and operating EUC environments for more than 10 years, and have been working with VMware NSX technology since its introduction

Flexibility

Our service is flexible in terms of designing and deploying security policies for EUC environments with VMware NSX functionalities that take into account the requirements and specifics of your environment.