As cloud-native technologies continue to converge with traditional networking in the data center and enterprise, understanding how Kubernetes, Cilium and eBPF work is crucial for network engineers. Hybrid mesh firewalls are the latest trend, and distributed firewalls (like Cisco's Hypershield) are emerging in the market.

As cloud-native technologies continue to converge with traditional networking in the data center and enterprise, understanding how Kubernetes, Cilium and eBPF work is crucial for network engineers. Hybrid mesh firewalls are the latest trend, and distributed firewalls (like Cisco's Hypershield) are emerging in the market.

Back-to-back firewalls were effective 15-20 years ago, but in today's encrypted, identity-driven and rapidly evolving threat landscape, they add cost and complexity without meaningful protection. Modern security replaces duplicated perimeters with platform-integrated NGFW enforcement, segmentation and coordinated prevention—delivering stronger, measurable defense through intelligent design rather than stacked legacy controls.

As cloud-native technologies continue to converge with traditional networking in the data center and enterprise, understanding how Kubernetes, Cilium and eBPF works is crucial for network engineers. With hybrid mesh firewalls being the latest trend, and distributed firewalls (like Cisco's Hypershield) emerging in the market. Understanding how Kubernetes transforms traditional IP networking concepts into a dynamic, software-defined environment is crucial. This article demystifies Kubernetes security, making it accessible for network engineers familiar with ACLs and VLANs. You may think this doesn't apply to you, but if you're planning a firewall refresh anytime soon, then these concepts will need to be part of your vernacular going forward.

As cloud-native technologies continue to converge with traditional networking in the data center and enterprise, understanding how Kubernetes, Cilium and eBPF work is crucial for network engineers. Hybrid mesh firewalls are the latest trend, and distributed firewalls (like Cisco's Hypershield) are emerging in the market.

With a lot of good news around Cisco Secure Firewalls recently, we decided to put them to the test, ATC style!

Let's discuss the natural evolution from just getting things working to adding all the bells and whistles, a Flannel to Cilium discussion, powered by eBPF, as the logical next step for Kubernetes networking. Looking at how Isovalent Enterprise enhances scalability, security and observability, offering a robust, production-ready platform for complex, multi-cluster environments. Transitioning to Cilium signifies embracing advanced capabilities for modern network engineering.

Cisco Secure Firewall's TLS inspection offers powerful security but often leaves gaps due to misconfigurations and broad bypass rules. This article explores the challenges of encrypted traffic, the importance of strategic decryption, and the role of Encrypted Visibility Engine (EVE) in enhancing visibility without full decryption, urging a tiered, thoughtful approach.

Cisco's Secure Firewall now integrates Compliance Posture with Policy Analyzer and Optimizer, enhancing firewall policy management. While Policy Analyzer optimizes rule bases by identifying redundant objects and shadow rules, and now recently announced we now have Compliance Posture which evaluates configurations against PCI DSS 4.0.1 requirements. This dual approach ensures policies are both efficient and compliant, transforming firewall management from mere optimization to comprehensive compliance validation.