FINAL WORD
A software abstraction of the network
and other infrastructure enables technologies
such as micro-segmentation. This allows
the virtual network to be segmented down
to an extremely small and granular level, in
fact down to the level of individual apps and
processes. Since each micro-segment is by
default isolated from other segments, this is
functionally equivalent to surrounding each and partners, it also gives rise to major
headaches for IT and security teams because
existing security paradigms are not designed
to cope with such a diverse and complex
environment. Security needs a vehicle – the
network is that vehicle.
Because modern applications are
increasingly modular, existing as linked
microservices, or running from multiple
app with its own zero-trust firewall, allowing
you define through policy what connectivity
the app can have. This mitigates the effect of
breaches since malware can only propagate
as far as the next micro-segment before
encountering the next firewall.
Since this is all implemented in software,
the security policies associated with micro-
segmentation can be automated, allowing
the management of a degree of complexity
that would simply not be possible. Security
through software can effectively be self-
managed, removing the bottle neck of having
expensive, inflexible hardware or error-
prone human interaction. containers, or distributed between clouds,
the single common denominator is that
the modular elements of each app are all
connected together by the network.
It’s the common fabric that links
everything together, so as it touches
everything in the infrastructure, it’s also
the perfect vehicle to deliver security
to everything in the infrastructure with
technologies such as micro-segmentation,
service-defined internal firewalls and
application-level whitelisting. Because
of this, and the need to transform both
security and the network as part of Digital
Transformation, networking and security are
rapidly converging together.
With infrastructure abstracted as
software, you can build in security across the
entire software stack using these principles
– so when customers are deploying their
applications across any cloud, any device
– there is a common element that delivers
these capabilities – the network.
Utilise the network as the vehicle to
deliver the ‘new security’
Most organisations are in the midst
of becoming fully digital. While this
transformation promises to deliver new
experiences for customers, employees
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From the cloud to the edge
and beyond
Five years ago, the idea of Edge Computing
seemed impossible – everything was about
the data centre. But much like the threat
landscape itself, the capabilities of what
computing can deliver is changing on an
almost daily basis. This has resulted in the
power of the network taking over – allowing
Edge Computing and IoT to open up new
opportunities for every data driven industry.
The quantity of useful actionable data
being generated near to where the sensors
are – in cars, trains, planes, manufacturing
machinery, washing machines, etc – is so
large that it simply isn’t possible any longer
to transfer all this data back into the cloud
for real-time processing. Edge Computing is
about processing this data close to its point
of collection to allow its use in real-time.
While we are only at the beginning
of this revolution and don’t really know
what’s beyond what we can see in the near
future, two things are clear – we know the
foundational software that’s being used to
enable Edge needs to be intrinsically secure,
in and of itself, and using the network as the
vehicle to achieve this. If we look at security
in this way – a fundamental, integrated part
of the infrastructure itself, rather than trying
to add it on to the perimeter – then we are
enabling and future-proofing foundational
technologies such as Edge.
We now live in a world of way greater
complexity, even compared to only five
years ago, with more interactions, connected
devices, sensors, dispersed workers and new
models such as the cloud, all of which have
created an exponentially larger attack surface
for cyberthreats to exploit. While this has
raised questions of enterprises’ abilities to
protect themselves in this more sophisticated
digital age, it also provides an opportunity for
partners to re-engineer the conversation with
their customers. Implementing a new intrinsic
security, fit for the requirements of modern
business today and into the future, is a unique
opportunity for our partners in the market.