The Benefits of Virtualizing Network Appliances on Proxmox Virtual Environment

Virtualization has become a popular solution for businesses looking to improve their IT infrastructure and reduce costs. Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) is a powerful open-source platform that allows users to easily create and manage virtual machines (VMs) and containers.

One of the major benefits of virtualizing network appliances on Proxmox VE is increased flexibility and scalability. With Proxmox VE, you can quickly and easily create, clone and migrate VMs, allowing you to easily scale and adjust your network setup as needed. This is especially useful for businesses with fluctuating network requirements or those looking to quickly expand their network.

Virtualizing network appliances on Proxmox VE means improved reliability. It offers a number of features that help ensure the availability and integrity of your network appliances, including live migration, high availability clustering, and backup and restore capabilities.

I have extensive experience in running VyOS, pfSense, MikroTik RouterOS as well as other network appliances on top of Proxmox VE. This includes use cases such as Border Network Gateway (BNG) or Broadband Remote Access Servers (BRAS), VPN concentrators, Perimeter Firewalls with IDS/IPS, BGP routers for edge and core, as well as Network Access Control (NAC) platforms such as PacketFence.

Proxmox VE also offers cost savings for businesses looking to implement reliable remote access solutions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses were forced to quickly transition to remote work, and Proxmox VE provided a cost-efficient way to securely enable remote access for employees in a scalable level.

Over the years, I have deployed hundreds of Proxmox VE clusters in data center and provider networks around the world.