Network Security Policy Control Plane for Cloud Policy Reconciliation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge of reconciling a large number of diverse and changing security policies defined by developers for applications on a cloud computing server system, while ensuring compliance with a unified security posture and preventing conflicts or breaches.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for intent-based network security policy definition, combined with a configuration realization control plane that generates cloud-native enforcement artifacts, ensures compliance with baseline policies, and implements a hierarchical model with guardrails to manage policy integration and distribution across cloud components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple developers define security policies using DSL for their applications, then application-specific security requirements are met, but policy complexity and conflict risk increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a control plane as an intermediary between developers and the cloud infrastructure. This control plane receives DSL policies from multiple developers, reconciles them against guardrail policies, and generates unified cloud-native enforcement artifacts. The intermediary absorbs the complexity of policy reconciliation, allowing developers to focus on application-specific requirements without managing policy conflicts directly.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments security policies into two distinct layers: guardrail policies (system-level constraints) and DSL policies (application-specific requirements). This segmentation allows independent management of each policy type, with guardrail policies providing a stable foundation and DSL policies enabling flexible application-level customization without direct interference between them.
2Productivity
If security policies are continuously updated to reflect changing application requirements, then policy relevance and effectiveness improve, but reconciliation overhead and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent establishes guardrail policies in advance as pre-defined system-level constraints. These preliminary policies are configured once and serve as a stable foundation, eliminating the need to re-evaluate them during every policy update. When DSL policies change, the system only needs to reconcile against the pre-established guardrails, significantly reducing reconciliation time.
Solution Approach 2:
The control plane implements continuous monitoring and automatic reconciliation of DSL policies against guardrail policies. This continuous action ensures that policy updates are processed immediately without manual intervention, maintaining policy relevance while automating the reconciliation process to minimize time loss.
3Reliability
If a unified security posture is enforced across all applications, then system-wide security compliance improves, but flexibility for application-specific security needs decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a hierarchical dimension to security policy enforcement, operating at two levels: system-wide guardrail policies and application-specific DSL policies. This dimensional approach allows simultaneous enforcement of unified security postures at the guardrail level while permitting application-specific flexibility at the DSL level, resolving the contradiction between compliance and adaptability.
4Reliability
If comprehensive policy validation and conflict detection are implemented, then security policy reliability improves, but processing overhead and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation of DSL policies against guardrail policies during the policy creation and update process. This early detection mechanism identifies conflicts before they propagate through the system, ensuring reliability while containing validation overhead to specific policy changes rather than requiring comprehensive system-wide analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, devices, and techniques are disclosed for network security policy generation and distribution. A security policy written using a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for network security may be received. The security policy may be associated with a service owner and a control plane. A representation of the security policy may be generated from the security policy. A configuration bundle of the service owner may be updated with the representation of the security policy. The security policy may be determined to be approved. A rule set may be generated from the representation of the security policy. A differential between the rule set and a current rule set may be determined. A security component associated with the control plane based on the differential may be configured.