Security News > 2022 > June > Intel offers 'server on a card' reference design for network security

Intel has released a reference design for a plug-in security card aimed at delivering improved network and security processing without requiring the additional rackspace a discrete appliance would need.

The NetSec Accelerator Reference Design [PDF] is effectively a fully functional x86 compute node delivered as a PCIe card that can be fitted into an existing server.

According to Intel, the new reference design is intended to enable a secure access service edge model, a combination of software-defined security and wide-area network functions implemented as a cloud-native service.

All of this this would typically be delivered as virtualized or containerized services running on a standard server instead of a dedicated network appliance, but the NetSec Accelerator Reference Design offers an alternative approach that reduces the infrastructure footprint by effectively putting that server onto a plug-in card, Intel claims.

One advantage of this approach is that existing security software developed for Intel-based systems should be easily ported to any product based on this reference design, with Intel claiming that developers can run them "Practically straight out of the box" on what amounts to a mini-server built on standard Intel technology.

"This reference design enables a PCIe add-in card to deliver the capabilities of a server within a small, power-efficient package. Vendors can integrate SASE functions in this card to maximize the capabilities of their server infrastructure at the edge," said Intel VP for the Network & Edge Bob Ghaffari in a blog post.

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https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/06/08/intel_security_reference_design/