Security as a service is probably one of the most popular SaaS offerings right now due to the ubiquitous nature of threats these days and the fact that countering advanced attacks requires finely tuned defenses. If a company makes or sells something like bicycles, then they probably don’t want to invest millions of dollars becoming cybersecurity experts. It’s not their business, and every dollar they spend in that area takes away from being the best in their actual field.
When we review security service offerings, one of the things we test is how well they integrate into existing network infrastructure, including clouds from different providers, private and public clouds, and the SaaS interface with existing on-premises assets. Volterra takes that compatibility a step further, providing cloud infrastructure as a service and then protects it with robust security.
The idea behind the Volterra platform is to simplify, or even eliminate, the many different management and security tools used to monitor and configure modern hybrid cloud networks. Doing that could save a lot of time for overloaded security teams, and from our testing, the various components in the Volterra platform work very well despite the fact that they have only been servicing customers for a few months.
Pricing to use the Volterra platform is reasonable considering the number of potential third-party programs, platforms and components that it could eliminate. Mid-size companies with up to 25 users and sites can commission Volterra for either $200 per node per month or 69 cents per node per hour. Large or even massive deployments are possible and can be customized according to needs. Price breaks are also available based on scale.
Describing everything that Volterra does is a bit like the old fable about blind men trying to comprehend an elephant piece by piece. Not every organization will want or need every component, though the whole elephant is available. For this review, we’ve tried to look at the most commonly used parts of the Volterra platform with an emphasis on network security.