Network complexity, talent shortages drive shift in enterprise IT buying habits

Increased network complexity, constant security challenges, and talent shortages are driving enterprises to depend more on channel business partners, including managed service providers, system integrators, resellers and other tech providers.Greater use of partners by enterprises is expected to continue over the next few years, experts say. IDC in its research on the future of industry ecosystems found that by the end of 2023, almost 60% of organizations surveyed will have expanded the number of partners they work with outside of their core industry.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Infrastructure teams need multi-cloud networking and security guardrails

Public cloud migration long ago wrested control over digital infrastructure from network and security teams, but now is the time for those groups to retake the initiative. Cloud operations and DevOps groups will never cede ground, but they will welcome self-service networking and security solutions that provide guardrails that protect them from disaster. Cooperation between traditional infrastructure teams and cloud teams is even more important as enterprises embrace multi-cloud architecture, where complexity and risk are increasing. In fact, my research has found that security risk, collaboration problems, and complexity are the top pain points associated with multi-cloud networking today.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Networking and security teams tasked to converge, collaborate

Cloud computing, hybrid work, and remote connectivity are amplifying the need for networking and security teams to be in lockstep. Increasingly, enterprises are considering consolidating the two groups – or at least boosting collaboration between teams, according to research from Cato Networks.In a recent survey of 1,694 IT leaders worldwide, 44% of respondents said networking and security teams “must work together,” and another 30% said they “must have shared processes.” Another 8% said they’re working to create one networking and security group.The goal of shared processes could be a hefty challenge for some organizations. In the Cato Networks survey, 12% of respondents reported that their networking and security teams either have “turf wars or struggle working together,” and another 34% said they “occasionally have problems working together.” The remaining 54% reported that the two teams work well together now.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Fortinet secures campus networking with high-end switches

Fortinet has expanded its campus network portfolio with two new switches that feature integration with Fortinet’s security services and AIops management tool.The FortiSwitch 600 is a multi-gigabit secure campus access switch that supports up to 5GE access and 25GE uplinks. The FortiSwitch 2000 is a campus core switch designed to support larger, more complex campus environments by aggregating high-performance access switches, including the FortiSwitch 600.The new switches are integrated with Fortinet’s FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services and FortiAIOps management tool, which lets customers utilize security and operations features such as malware protection, device profiling and role-based access control.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Generative AI set to reshape SD-WAN market

There are baseline security and connectivity requirements for any SD-WAN service, and then there are optional, emerging product capabilities that indicate how the market is maturing and customer requirements are expanding. AI networking support – such as for proactive remediation and incident management – is one of those optional capabilities, according to Gartner, which just released its latest analysis of the SD-WAN vendor landscape.There’s a trend toward AI capabilities that enable networking decisions to be made with little or no human intervention. These capabilities can help enterprises to streamline network design, configuration and ongoing management as well as increase agility and improve performance, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that by 2026, generative AI technology embedded in SD-WAN offerings will be used for 20% of initial network configuration, up from near zero in 2023.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Kyndryl expands network security lineup with Palo Alto SD-WAN, SASE

Kyndryl continues to fill out its stable of network security partners, most recently inking an alliance with Palo Alto Networks for cybersecurity, SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE) services.As part of the deal, Kyndryl will integrate Palo Alto’s security products and services into its own managed security services, which include security monitoring, incident response, and threat intelligence.  Palo Alto brings a wide range of security offerings, including a family of next-generation firewalls, the Prisma Cloud security platform for cloud-based applications and workloads, endpoint security, and operational automation support.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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10 questions to ask about secure service edge (SSE)

In 2019, Gartner created the term secure access service edge (SASE) to describe a cloud-based service that combines networking and security in order to give remote workers safe access to internet-based resources.Gartner had put its finger on a new set of challenges that enterprise IT faced as employees shifted to remote work during Covid and applications migrated to the cloud. But Gartner overshot the runway a bit; vendors were caught flatfooted and scrambled to cobble together full suites of SASE features.On the customer side, a recent Gartner survey of CISOs revealed that “a majority of buyers are planning for a two-vendor strategy for SASE,” with security and networking teams making separate buying decisions rather than opting for single-vendor SASE.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Google’s Cross-Cloud Network service aims to simplify multicloud networking

Google Cloud has added a new service that promises to make it easier for enterprise customers to securely network multiple cloud-based resources.The Cross-Cloud Network service consists of new and existing Google Cloud technology and includes a partner ecosystem to help organizations develop, build and support distributed enterprise applications across clouds.“We know that 70-plus percent of our enterprises are going to adopt multicloud. [The] idea behind Cross-Cloud Network is that today many organizations operate bespoke networks with turnkey security to connect to those clouds that are operationally complex to manage and build, thereby resulting in a much higher total cost of ownership and soaring costs,” said Muninder Sambi, vice president and general manager of networking for Google Cloud. “They set up private data centers to connect and secure the hybrid workforce to access cloud and on-prem resources and manage multiple CDN clouds to accelerate web apps. All of this can also lead to an inconsistent security posture and drives up total costs,” Sambi said.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Gartner: SSE landscape shifts as vendors add more security services

The market for managed security services is shifting as enterprises weigh their requirements for cloud-based security capabilities and vendors refine their feature sets and product integrations.Converged security services can offer significant benefits to enterprises when it comes to manageability, scalability, security, and price, according to research firm Gartner, which introduced the term SASE, or secure access service edge. SASE is a network architecture that combines software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and security functionality into a unified cloud service that promises simplified WAN deployments, improved efficiency and security, and application-specific bandwidth policies.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Multiple SD-WAN vendors can complicate move to SASE

Enterprises over the past several years have embraced SD-WAN for many reasons, including the flexibility of cloud architecture, enhanced security, centralized management of distributed locations, and improved application availability and performance. In turn, the popularity of SD-WAN has helped propel interest in secure access service edge (SASE), a network architecture that converges connectivity and security services.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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