A10 Networks unveils ACOS 4.0 and the A10 Harmony architecture

A10 Networks has announced ACOS 4.0 with significant new features and capabilities, including A10 Harmony, an architecture that lays the foundation of a rapid services integration platform for enterprise, cloud, and service provider networks. With A10 Harmony, developers can integrate intelligent application networking services more easily with high-performance A10 Thunder Series Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs); enhancements include Secure Interconnect IPsec VPN, SSL Insight, Application Access Management (AAM) and Web Application Firewall (WAF).

“ACOS 4.0 is our most significant release since the launch of the 64-bit version of ACOS,” said Lee Chen, CEO of A10 Networks. “ACOS 4.0 with A10 Harmony ushers in a new era of SDN and cloud computing; it lays the foundation for next-generation SDN ADC and paves the way for programmable intelligent application and security services.”

Application infrastructure is going through a major transformation and customers must be able to rapidly integrate application and security services to meet the business objectives. In ACOS 4.0, A10 Harmony accelerates service integration and manageability through open and standards-based programmability. A10 Harmony leverages the award-winning ACOS platform with well-known open standards. The new A10 Harmony Policy Engine provides the intelligence, efficiency and scale required for solving next-generation problems. In addition, the expanded aXAPI SDK and RESTful APIs within the A10 Harmony architecture enable effective provisioning, telemetry for rich analytics and comprehensive security for application networking and security development. The programmability and services integration can be leveraged by high-performance cloud, virtual or physical Thunder ADC appliances to rapidly deliver rich application networking services.

Demonstrating the advanced services A10 Harmony empowers, ACOS 4.0 introduces Secure Cloud Interconnect with hyper-scale performance IPsec VPN and offers significantly enhanced SSL Insight, WAF, and AAM features. Because of the ACOS 4.0 policy engine, A10 can accelerate development and swiftly create consistent API, CLI and web management interfaces supported by advanced telemetry. A10 customers and partners will be able to take advantage of ACOS 4.0 and A10 Harmony architecture to integrate their own advanced networking, security, and management services.

ACOS 4.0 benefits include:
- A10 Harmony allows enterprises to rapidly and consistently integrate third-party services and prototype, test and provision new applications. Organizations can consolidate application networking and security on a unified platform. Enterprises can deploy on-demand services for applications in different cloud consumption models.

- Private and public cloud providers can ensure consistent security and application policy enforcement as workloads move across multi-tenant shared environments. Integration with orchestration and SDN platforms allows service insertion and granular security according to tenant-defined or provider-defined policies. Agile configuration of dynamic security policies allows Secure Cloud Interconnect between different cloud domains.

- Service providers can select virtualized network functions from their choice of vendors to derive efficiencies from commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. Integration with open, standards-based orchestration platforms and management tools simplify network operations. A unified platform allows dynamic resource and service allocation per tenant, maximizing infrastructure utilization.

“Programmability is key to delivering consistent policy enforcement across all breeds of applications, whether they are custom or off-the-shelf applications. As server load balancers evolve into full application delivery controllers, programmability is a must have,” said Jim Metzler, Founder and Vice President at Ashton, Metzler & Associates. “A10 scores high on providing these programmatic interfaces as well as delivering the necessary analytics hooks to monitor traffic once applications are deployed.”

“Out-of-the-box integration of PingFederate together with A10 Thunder ADC allows joint customers to easily provision identity management,” said Patrick Harding, CTO, Ping Identity. “Ping Identity can take advantage of A10’s standards-based interoperability to rapidly deliver an integrated solution to organizations of all sizes.”
“Integration with leading SDN and Cloud Orchestration vendors is important as we address emerging cloud frameworks,” said Raj Jalan, CTO of A10 Networks. “A10 Harmony provides L4-L7 policy enforcement in Cisco ACI and VMware NSX networks.”