<p>One of the lesser noted consequences of virtualization is the blurring of the lines between enterprise infrastructure and the wider data ecosystem.</p><p>It shouldn't come as any surprise that the same forces reshaping the network as a whole are upending the network edge as well. The edge's traditional role as the castle wall is fading into history, forcing enterprise executives to rethink longstanding approaches to network management. After all, if you don't really know where your network edge lies, all the traditional means of keeping data safe and available are no longer reliable.</p><p>For example, look at most mobile architectures. Now that tablet and cell phone users are increasingly employing social networking and the cloud, the very concept of the edge is open to debate. John Thielens, chief security officer at Axway, wrote in The Guardian that with every mobile device now accessing data from public domains like Amazon and Facebook, the edge is quickly evolving from a fixed, known quantity into an ever-changing miasma of endpoints.</p><p>In response, the enterprise's security approach should move away from the traditional firewall method and toward a more granular method that stresses data protection over infrastructure protection.</p><p><a href="http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/datacenter/datacenter-blog/virtualization-muddles-the-network-edge.html">Keep reading...</a></p>