Service Insertion

What Does Service Insertion Mean?

Service insertion is a concept in virtualized networking where services can be inserted and removed at will. It is targeted toward Layer 4 through Layer 7 devices, such as firewalls and load balancers. The advantage of this approach is that it allows complex configurations to be defined quickly and from a central location.

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Techopedia Explains Service Insertion

As more companies adopt virtualized networks, including software-defined networking and network functions virtualization, one of the selling points is the flexibility of having network devices defined in software instead of hardware. With service insertion, Layer 4 through 7 devices can be mixed, matched, added and removed quickly. As enterprise networks can be very complex, spanning multiple buildings and often multiple countries, they can take a long time to configure. Software-based solutions can be managed from a central dashboard and reconfigured at will.

Some of the services targeted for service insertion include:

  • Firewalls
  • Load balancers
  • Traffic inspection
  • SSL offloading
  • Application acceleration
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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…