Altor Networks
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cybersecurity |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Redwood Shores, California , United States |
| Products | Virtual Network Security Analyzer (VNSA), Altor VF (Virtual Firewall) series |
| Parent | Juniper Networks |
Altor Networks, Inc., a subsidiary of Juniper Networks, specializes in delivering security solutions tailored for virtualized data centers and cloud infrastructures. The company pioneered the creation of the first firewall explicitly designed for virtual networks—a software-based security "appliance" that operates within virtual environments and applies security controls at the individual virtual machine level. This innovation allows data center managers to identify diverse virtual network security threats and enforce role-specific policies, ensuring uninterrupted protection as virtual machines (VMs) migrate across the data center.
Based in Redwood Shores, California, Altor was established in 2007 by industry veterans from Check Point Software, Cisco, and Oracle Corporation. The firm attracted investment from Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Foundation Capital, and Juniper Networks. On December 6, 2010, Juniper Networks completed its acquisition of Altor Networks for $95 million in cash.
Background
The development of virtualization technology dates back to IBM's VM/370 system in the early 1970s, with broader adoption emerging through VMware Workstation in 1999 and VMware Server in 2001. By 2012, projections indicated that half of all computing workloads would operate within virtualized settings.
Hypervisors facilitate the creation of virtual networks inside virtualized platforms, providing benefits and management duties comparable to those of physical networks but also presenting distinct security challenges. Recognizing the rapid growth of virtualization and the insufficient response from traditional IT security providers to these new demands, Altor’s founders identified a gap in effectively securing virtual networks. Conventional security solutions fell short when protecting assets within virtualized infrastructures.
Altor’s approach centered on developing a solution embedded entirely within virtual environments as a specialized appliance, offering firewall and other protective services directly inside the virtual network layer. This method removes dependence on external physical firewalls or intrusion detection systems and avoids the inefficiencies associated with rerouting traffic through VLANs between virtual and physical network segments.
Products
In March 2008, Altor introduced the Virtual Network Security Analyzer (VNSA) to oversee traffic within virtual networks. This was followed by the release of Altor VF 1.0 in October 2008, which incorporated VNSA as a component. The September 2009 launch of Altor VF 3.0 integrated signature-based network intrusion detection capabilities. Subsequently, Altor VF 4.0 debuted in June 2010, featuring virtual machine introspection to improve compliance evaluation and automate enforcement of security policies.
- Altor VNSA (Virtual Network Security Analyzer), March 2008 (currently integrated into Altor VF)
- Altor VF 1.0 (Virtual Firewall), October 2008
- Altor VF 2.0, March 2009
- Altor VF 3.0, September 2009
- Altor VF 4.0, June 2010
The virtual security appliance developed by Altor Networks is primarily engineered for VMware ESX environments, with continuous efforts underway to extend compatibility to Xen/Citrix and Microsoft HyperV platforms.