IP addressing could support effective network security, but would it be worth it?

Why is it that over 90% of enterprises tell me that they expect to spend more on security over the next three years, and almost 60% say they expect to spend less on networking? We obviously think that network technology is getting more efficient, more competitive. Why isn’t that the case for security? The short answer is that enterprises have been chasing acronyms and not solutions.Acronym-chasing comes about because by nature, security is hard to plan for. The average network expert finds out there’s an issue because some higher-up reads or hears about a breach. Maybe they do a quick search, and they find out that what they really need is SASE. Or maybe they need SSE, which we’re told is SASE without SD-WAN. In any event, what happens is that there’s pressure to add this new thing on, and that creates another layer of protection…maybe.  Complication and cost? Surely.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more

Basing network security on IP addressing: Would it be worth it?

Why is it that over 90% of enterprises tell me that they expect to spend more on security over the next three years, and almost 60% say they expect to spend less on networking? We obviously think that network technology is getting more efficient, more competitive. Why isn’t that the case for security? The short answer is that enterprises have been chasing acronyms and not solutions.Acronym-chasing comes about because by nature, security is hard to plan for. The average network expert finds out there’s an issue because some higher-up reads or hears about a breach. Maybe they do a quick search, and they find out that what they really need is SASE. Or maybe they need SSE, which we’re told is SASE without SD-WAN. In any event, what happens is that there’s pressure to add this new thing on, and that creates another layer of protection…maybe.  Complication and cost? Surely.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more

Cisco SD-WAN software gains broader application access, enhanced analytics

Cisco has tweaked its flagship SD-WAN software package to increase customer application flexibility and improve visibility into the performance of distributed resources.The company announced Cisco SD-WAN release 17.8, which adds support for new business and customized cloud applications, analytics and security features.SD-WAN buyers guide: Key questions to ask vendors
Specifically, the company upgraded the SD-WAN Cloud OnRamp for SaaS service, which links branch offices or individual remote users to cloud applications such as Cisco’s Webex, Microsoft 365, AWS, Google, Oracle, Salesforce and more.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more

Gartner: SSE is SASE minus the SD-WAN

SASE adoption has been skyrocketing since the start of the pandemic. Secure access service edge, a term Gartner coined in 2019, combines security and networking in a single, scalable, cloud-based platform that fits well in a world in which employees work from home and mostly access cloud-based apps and services.Now Gartner is pushing a new acronym. Turns out, companies might prefer to get their SASE without the “A” — just security service edge, or SSE. Gartner this month published a Magic Quadrant for SSE (something the company never did for SASE); it’s available from vendors listed in the report (here and here, for example).To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more

Cato adds fine-grained CASB controls to SASE platform

SASE vendor Cato Networks is adding fine-grained cloud access security broker (CASB) controls to its platforms.When employees working from home or branch locations log into SaaS services such as Office 365 or Dropbox or Salesforce, a CASB gateway can track the applications employees access, where they log in from, and sometimes even what they do when using those applications.Previously, Cato only offered limited CASB controls, enabling companies to allow or prohibit the use of particular SaaS tools, says Dave Greenfield, Cato’s director of technology evangelism. Now, individual behaviors can be controlled. For example, users might be allowed to download documents from certain cloud file-sharing providers but can only upload documents to a company’s preferred platform.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more

Aryaka broadens enterprise targets with managed SD-WAN, SASE services

Aryaka Networks is looking to target more enterprises with a new managed secure access service edge (SASE) offering and an improved, lower cost SD-WAN offerings.Aryaka is known for offering WAN and SD-WAN services over its global Layer 2 network with more than 40 points . The new services spring from that backbone to provide additional, flexible WAN services. SD-WAN buyers guide: Key questions to ask vendors
The first is based on a new iteration of Aryaka’s L2 core—the L3—which is optimized for cost and non-mission critical applications or sites that don’t require top-shelf performance. The L2 core is optimized for performance-sensitive applications.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more

Rethinking the WAN: Zero Trust network access can play a bigger role

The WAN as initially conceived was about one simple job: the WAN was the network that “connects my sites to each other.” That is, the network connecting users in corporate sites to corporate IT resources in other corporate sites or perhaps colocation facilities. It was all inside-to-inside traffic.Over the past decade so much has changed that, just before COVID-19 work-from-home mandates took hold, only about 37% of a typical WAN’s traffic was still inside-to-inside, according to Nemertes’ “Next Generation Networks Research Study 2020-2021”. The rest touched the outside world, either originating there as with remote work against data-center systems or terminating there as with SaaS use from a company site or both as with VPNing into the network only to head back out to a SaaS app.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more

Cisco tool makes it easier to meld SD-WAN, security domains

Cisco has upgraded two of its core software programs to make it easier for enterprise customers to secure data-center and WAN-connected resources.https://www.networkworld.com/article/3599213/what-are-data-centers-how-they-work-and-how-they-are-changing-in-size-and-scope.htmlCisco has introduced what it calls Integrated Domain, which combines the domain controllers of Cisco DNA Center and Cisco SD-WAN vManage to tie together network connectivity between the two domains as well as ensuring security-policy consistency end-to-end, according to Justin Buchanan, Cisco director of product management, security policy and access.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more

Palo Alto shapes SASE package for hybrid enterprises

Palo Alto Networks has bolted together its SD-WAN and security technologies to offer an integrated, cloud-based, secure-access service edge (SASE) offering aimed at simplifying distributed enterprises.Called Prisma SASE, the package brings together the company’s core Prisma Access package of cloud-based, next-generation security gateways with its Prisma SD-WAN technology it got when it bought CloudGenix for $420 million last year.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more

5 steps for modernizing enterprise networks

The business value of the network has never been higher, and this is driven by digital transformation as borne out businesses accelerating their digital initiatives by as much as seven years due to the pandemic. This is had a profound impact on the enterprise network as most of the enabling technologies such as cloud, mobility and IoT are network centric.This intense focus on digital transformation has exposed many flaws with legacy networks. They are rigid, require intensive manual processes, and lack the agility and intelligence to meet the demands of digital business. Organizations need to make network modernization a priority if they are to maximize their investments in other technologies. Here are five steps that all businesses should consider when modernizing the network.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

Read more