Dubai Airports, responsible for managing both Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International (DWC), stands as a testament to the United Arab Emirates’ remarkable progress in establishing itself as a major international travel destination. DXB, a global aviation hub, retained its position as the world’s busiest international airport for the 11^th consecutive year, serving 92.3 million passengers annually in 2024.

With such immense passenger volumes, as well as 2.2 million tons of cargo annually, a plane landing or taking off every 71 seconds and a 100,000-strong workforce, the operational demands at DXB necessitate a robust and resilient digital infrastructure.

To maintain uptime, reliability, operational efficiency and most importantly guest safety, Dubai Airports relies on VMware Cloud Foundation as the bedrock of its private cloud, with VMware vDefend providing integrated advanced security.

“It’s a huge responsibility to make sure everything is running securely. It’s not just about ensuring the comfort and well-being of guests and employees, we need to make sure our systems are protected from cyber threats too,” said Biju Hameed Kayal, head of infrastructure operations, Dubai Airports.

Changing cybersecurity landscape requires a Zero Trust approach

Given the ever-increasing volume of cyberattacks – 764 were recorded in the aviation sector in 2023 – coupled with the constant evolution of threats, ensuring the security of Dubai Airports requires a proactive and vigilant approach. Dubai Airports has adopted a Zero Trust model, which assumes that nothing inside or outside the organization’s network is inherently trustworthy.

“The cybersecurity landscape has changed recently, driven by geopolitical situations and the evolution of threats. Critical infrastructure is now a prime target. Given our scale of operations, staying ahead of these threats is crucial. Increased technology adoption within the airports also introduces new security risks that we must proactively address,” he said.

Private cloud secured with VMware vDefend

Dubai Airports embarked on its virtualization journey in 2009, progressively virtualizing compute, storage and then network functions. This culminated in an advanced software-defined data center. However, Dubai Airports’ stringent security demands needed a further layer of security enhancements.

“We quickly recognized we needed to enhance our microsegmentation strategy: it primarily focused on north-south traffic and needed additional visibility into east-west traffic. VMware vDefend proved to be the right solution. It not only enhances our east-west visibility but also offers the capabilities to regulate and enforce security policies governing the interactions between our internal assets and services,” he said.

More recently, the team at Dubai Airports have taken advantage of VMware vDefend Firewall with Advanced Threat Prevention, using features such as the Distributed Intrusion Detection/Prevention System (IDS/IPS), which detects malicious traffic patterns in the distributed east-west traffic.

“With IDS/IPS, we’ve got a high level of intelligence for both threat detection and control. We want to ensure robust prevention and protection while maintaining comprehensive visibility into our network traffic,” he added.

Accelerated time to value

Given their prior experience with VMware Cloud Foundation, the team at Dubai Airports was already familiar with the capabilities of the VMware solution stack, which meant the training requirements to use VMware vDefend were minimal and hence time-to-value accelerated.

“We were already comfortable with the VMware Cloud Foundation toolsets and architecture when we adopted VMware vDefend, so it’s simply been a matter of layering existing skills and adding new ones. Our organic approach to integrating virtualization and security has fostered a deeper understanding of how the entire stack contributes to achieving our security goals. It also eliminates the challenges associated with managing disparate point solutions and ensuring their interoperability,” Biju said

Dubai Airports is committed to increasing the maturity of their security strategy as they strive to maintain uptime, reliability, operational efficiency, and passenger safety across the airports.

“We are eager to explore the broader capabilities of vDefend to further enhance our security posture and cement our position as the busiest and safest airports in the world,” Biju said.

Learn more about Dubai Airports’ story here.