What Is Network Virtualization and Which Solutions Lead the Market?

Why Network Virtualization Matters

Hardware maintenance has long been a costly challenge for enterprises; regular upgrades, high repair costs, and complex management drive many companies to adopt virtualization, converting storage, servers, and other network hardware into virtual versions for easier deployment and maintenance.

What Is Network Virtualization?

Network virtualization turns physical network hardware into software, increasing flexibility and scalability. It creates a software‑based network view, separates the management and control planes, and combines existing hardware and software components into a unified software entity. While the virtual network retains hardware for packet forwarding, all other functions run in software, fully decoupled from the underlying hardware.

Types of Network Virtualization

Internal virtualization: Uses multiple software containers to simulate the behavior of a single network.

External virtualization: Combines several localized networks into one virtual network to reduce distributed management and improve overall efficiency.

Cloud‑based virtualization: Similar to internal and external types but leverages cloud computing resources to create the virtual network.

Top Network Virtualization Solutions

VMware NSX

Considered the industry standard for network virtualization and security, VMware NSX brings networking and security closer to applications and the virtual machines that run them. It supports zero‑trust security, multi‑cloud networking, network automation, container networking, SDN automation, rapid workload migration, and load balancing. It also provides top‑tier security and monitoring for containerized applications and micro‑services.

Features:

One‑click provisioning of a full L2‑L7 stack

Unified management for public cloud, private cloud, VMs, containers, and bare metal

Network segmentation and micro‑segmentation per workload

Context‑aware security policies and IDS/IPS for lateral threat protection

Automated configuration and management of network and security services

Pros: Strong security features, extensive encryption, micro‑segmentation, and end‑to‑end visibility.

Cons: Interoperability issues with external vendors and products.

Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)

Cisco NFV moves network functions to software on x86 platforms, reducing reliance on dedicated hardware. It helps administrators monitor network issues and provides orchestration and service management resources, improving incident response speed.

Features:

Deployable on any platform, including Cisco and third‑party devices

Enterprise NFV optimization for faster deployments

NFVI includes a Linux‑based virtualization layer with expanded VNF options

Supports service chaining, lifecycle management, and open APIs

Software‑based network services: routing, firewall, application acceleration, wireless LAN controller

Pros: Strong security background with advanced security functions for NFV customers.

Cons: Some users desire more modular upgrade options.

FlexiHub

FlexiHub acts as a third‑party support resource, ideal for enterprises that need to outsource extensive hardware maintenance. It creates virtual network connections for remote diagnostics of sensors, vehicles, or smartphones, and enables remote monitoring, maintenance, and troubleshooting of enterprise devices.

Features:

Remote customer support, diagnostics, USB device repair, and cross‑domain maintenance for industry‑specific equipment

Remote monitoring and maintenance of enterprise devices

Redirect USB and COM port devices to cloud‑based VMs

Wireless connection for admins to troubleshoot customer phones remotely

Pros: Covers IoT devices and data management, offering advanced third‑party services for traditional and mobile enterprise equipment.

Cons: Occasionally fails to recognize attempted remote device connections.

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager does not handle network tool migration or initial startup but excels in hypervisor management, VM monitoring, and troubleshooting. Integrated with the SolarWinds Orion Platform, it provides single‑pane visualizations, predictive recommendations, and cross‑infrastructure management for servers, storage, and virtual networks.

Features:

Capacity planning tools

VM expansion management

Predictive recommendations

Management across on‑prem, hybrid, and cloud infrastructures

Visibility into the entire application stack

Pros: Enables troubleshooting of diverse enterprise virtualization setups from a single console.

Cons: Licensing is considered complex and expensive by many users.

oVirt

oVirt is a free, open‑source virtualization solution built on the KVM hypervisor and community projects like libvirt, Gluster, PatternFly, and Ansible. It offers a powerful management platform for developers who want to customize source code and collaborate with the community.

Features:

KVM hypervisor usage

Web‑based UI for admins and non‑admins

Integrated host, storage, and network configuration management

Live migration of VMs and disks between hosts and storage

High availability for VMs during host failures

Pros: Easy to use and manage, especially for virtualized storage.

Cons: Limited recognition and integration support from many vendors.

Vagrant

Vagrant, developed by HashiCorp, is open‑source software for creating and managing portable virtual development environments. It simplifies configuration management and improves virtual network efficiency, supporting platforms such as VirtualBox, KVM, Hyper‑V, Docker, VMware, and AWS.

Features:

Consistent environment for developers, operators, and designers

Images replicate production OS, packages, users, and test configurations

Integrates with Ansible, Chef, Docker, Puppet, Salt, etc.

Cross‑platform support: macOS, Linux, Windows, and more

Configuration files describe software requirements, packages, OS settings, and users

Pros: Comprehensive documentation guides both developers and non‑developers through deployment.

Cons: Command‑line interface and initial deployment steps can be more complex than comparable Linux tools.

Altaro VM Backup

Altaro VM Backup provides backup and replication for virtual machines, featuring inline deduplication that reduces storage consumption. It supports WAN‑optimized replication for remote VMs and stores backup copies across multiple off‑site locations such as Azure, Amazon S3, Wasabi, or enterprise servers.

Features:

Single‑console management for Hyper‑V and VMware hosts

WAN‑optimized replication for remote VMs

Continuous backup enabling data recovery after loss

Multi‑site storage options (Azure, S3, Wasabi, etc.)

Archival of different backup versions based on schedules

Pros: Diverse backup destination options support disaster‑recovery needs.

Cons: File‑share and file‑level backup limitations for some users.

Gigamon GigaVUE‑VM

GigaVUE‑VM addresses visibility concerns in virtualized networks, providing traffic monitoring and forwarding to existing security and monitoring tools. It integrates tightly with VMware NSX and ESX, offering east‑west traffic visibility, threat tracking, and multi‑tenant visibility for OpenStack/KVM clouds.

Features:

Enhanced visibility for VMware ESXi and NSX environments

Forward VM traffic to existing security and monitoring solutions

East‑west traffic visibility

Track lateral threat propagation in virtual environments

Multi‑tenant visibility for OpenStack/KVM clouds

Pros: Easy deployment and integration with VMware ecosystems.

Cons: Considered relatively expensive compared to open‑source security alternatives.