(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Network and virtualization technology provider Vyatta (www.vyatta.org) has released an early alpha version of Vyatta Core 6 (VC6), the company's open-source router, firewall and VPN software, which includes support for 802.11 wireless connectivity and Netflow traffic statistics collection. 

According to Vyatta's announcement last week, the final release of VC6 is slated for the first quarter of 2010. Support for 802.11 wireless connectivity lets VC6 provide the ability to use Vyatta in branch offices that have integrated wireless connectivity to user machines, eliminating the need to buy a dedicated access point for the branch office.

"This alpha release is another milestone in our four year commitment to delivering the industry's most complete open source routing and security solution," Vyatta strategy vice president Dave Roberts said in a statement. "Our user community plays an important role in our growth and we're very excited about the upcoming Vyatta Core 6 software. We take user input seriously and look forward to the feedback from our community on the addition of 802.11 support and Netflow."

VC6 Alpha supports both Netflow versions 5 and 9 and Sflow, providing advanced traffic flow statistics, enabling enterprises and service providers to manage their networks more effectively, as well as by service provider billing systems.

As more businesses look to the cloud for their business IT needs, the market for network technology behind the data center continues to heat up. Earlier this month, Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com) launched the HP Converged Infrastructure Architecture, and a set of related services and partner offerings that create a virtualized, on-demand data center. And rival network equipment provider Cisco (www.cisco.com) bolstered its Unified Computing System strategy, with recent partnerships with EMC (www.emc.com) and VMware (www.vmware.com) to create private cloud infrastructures for businesses.

Given all the competing clouds and technologies, Vyatta's open network and network virtualization solution provides a key tool in the cloud toolbox. It features full support for the Citrix XenServer hypervisor, including optimized drivers and XenServer management tools. It has enhanced firewall capabilities including IPv6 firewall, P2P firewall, time- based firewall rules, rate-limiting and zone-based rules, and address groups. NAT enhancements include per-rule logging, and its WAN load balancing features source-based routing.

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