VMware is set to acquire cloud-based application security startup Mesh7. With this acquisition, VMware hopes to boost its Kubernetes, microservices, and cloud-native services.
To deal with such requirements, VMware has been actively tapping open-source technologies. One such technology is Envoy, an open-source Layer 7 proxy designed for large modern service-oriented architectures.
Envoy is based on proxy server solutions such as NGINX, HAProxy, cloud load balancers, and hardware load balancers. It runs along with the application, and abstracts the network by providing features, irrespective of the platform being used.
Security to APIs
VMware Senior Vice President and Networking and Security Business General manager Tom Gills said once the deal closes, the Mesh7 technology will enable VMware to bring visibility, discovery, and better security to APIs.
“VMware is seeing increased demand for a fully integrated API + service mesh product with Envoy as the foundation. The exact same Envoy architecture used in the initial service mesh use case can also control how one application can talk to another application via APIs,” said Tom Gills
With Mesh7 on board, VMware can leverage its contextual API behaviour security solution with Tanzu Service Mesh. This integration will enable VMware to deliver a high fidelity understanding of the communication between applications.
Developers
So while Tanzu Service Mesh will handle intra-service communication, Mesh7 will be responsible for inter-service communication from external sources.
Additionally, developers and the security team can administer better DevSecOps as they would better understand how applications and microservices are communicating via the APIs.
What makes Mesh7’s contextual API behaviour solution perfect for Tanzu Service Mesh is that both the technologies are based on Envoy, allowing for better integration. Mesh7 technology improves application resiliency and reliability. It also addresses issues related to security and compliance for cloud-native, API-based, and other distributed applications.
