Alca-Lu security stuff goes virtual

Yet more of Alcatel-Lucent's portfolio has escaped its hardware prison to be virtualised: this time, it's the vendor's security solutions.
Alca-Lu's Motive Security Guardian (MSG) – based on technology that came with Kindsight Security Labs, which it acquired in April 2013 – is to be turned into a virtualised service, the company announced on December 1.

The vendor reckons the service processes 120,000 malware samples daily and keeps a database of 30 million “active” samples.
It's designed to live in a carrier's cloud, watching over end devices and identifying malware instances without needing end-user installation.
MSG is also supporting Alcatel-Lucent's network function virtualisation (NFV) strategy: it will be integrated into CloudBand 2.0 platform, so carriers can quickly spin up new instances if there's a malware outbreak they need to deal with. There's also (naturally) integration with the Motive customer management system.
The MSG system can fire off alerts to IT departments and customer care agents, the company says, as well as end users. El Reg can't help but wonder how the average punter is likely to react to a message saying “your device may be infected!” but at least the pros will know what's going on.
The latest announcement is part of a program that Alca-Lu has pursued throughout 2014 to virtualise its crown jewels. First announced in February, the NFV push started with mobile infrastructure. In November, the company decided its network edge routers also deserved the NFV treatment.