Skip to main content

Open Security Controller

Open Security Controller is an open-source

Software Defined Networking (SDN) security orchestration platform that automates the deployment and management of virtualized network security services across multi-cloud and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) environments.

  • Centralized orchestration and lifecycle management of virtual network security functions (network security management)
  • Policy-driven automation for deploying and chaining security services such as firewalls and Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) (security orchestration)
  • Integration with SDN controllers and virtual infrastructure managers for network-aware security placement (SDN / NFV integration)
  • Support for multi-tenant, multi-cloud environments with abstracted security policies (cloud security management)
  • Northbound and southbound APIs for integration with external management, orchestration, and security tools (platform extensibility)

More About Open Security Controller

Open Security Controller is an open-source project under The Linux Foundation that focuses on orchestrating and automating virtualized network security services in software-defined infrastructure (security orchestration). It addresses the problem of consistently deploying, scaling, and managing security controls such as virtual firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and other network security functions in environments that use SDN and NFV. The controller abstracts vendor-specific implementations and infrastructure details so that security teams can apply policies in a uniform way across different data centers and clouds.

The project provides a centralized controller that manages the full lifecycle of security virtual network functions (VNFs), including provisioning, configuration, scaling, and decommissioning (network security management). It works with SDN controllers and virtual infrastructure managers to place and chain these services along relevant traffic paths. Through policy-driven workflows, Open Security Controller can automatically instantiate and connect security services when new workloads, networks, or tenants are created, enforcing predefined security policies without manual per-instance configuration.

In enterprise environments, Open Security Controller is used to coordinate network security services across private clouds, public clouds, and NFV-based data centers (cloud security management). It enables operations teams to define high-level policies that specify what type of protection is required for particular applications, tenants, or network segments. The controller then translates these policies into concrete actions on underlying security VNFs and network constructs, integrating with SDN controllers to program flows and with hypervisors or cloud platforms to attach service instances where needed.

Technically, Open Security Controller aligns with SDN and NFV architectures, interacting with components such as SDN controllers, virtual infrastructure managers, and security VNFs through defined northbound and southbound APIs (SDN / NFV integration). Its model separates policy definition from implementation details, which supports interoperability with multiple security vendors and infrastructure platforms. This abstraction enables a single orchestration point for heterogeneous security services while maintaining consistent policy behavior.

From an ecosystem perspective, the controller functions as an orchestration layer that sits between business or security policy engines and the underlying virtualized infrastructure (platform extensibility). It exposes APIs so that external systems such as cloud management platforms, orchestration frameworks, or Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and security management tools can request security services or query their status. For enterprise taxonomy, Open Security Controller fits into categories such as security orchestration, network security management, and SDN/NFV-based cloud security automation, providing a policy-driven control plane for virtual network protection.