Security in the Cloud: SD-WAN, SASE, and Staying Ahead of Threats

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Simon Waller at Epsilon Telecommunications

The cloud has revolutionised the way the world works, seamlessly connecting more people and businesses to the online world than ever before.

In the face of this cloud growth, newer networking models have emerged, offering greater flexibility and agility to keep pace with the speed of the cloud.

Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) is gaining popularity among millions of enterprises around the world. Compared to its legacy counterparts, it delivers performance, reliability and scalability, often being more cost-efficient. According to Markets and Markets, the SD-WAN market is expected to grow from its current market value of $3.4 billion to $13.7 billion by 2027.

However, the growth of cloud and online infrastructure comes with potential vulnerabilities. Truly transforming a network goes beyond the WAN edge. As businesses shift more operations into the cloud, and users become more dispersed due to remote work, protecting themselves against new security threats becomes imperative.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) can address these issues by converging SD-WAN, security, and remote access into a global, cloud-based model. SASE is a rapidly growing market projected to grow from $1.9 billion in 2023 to $5.9 billion by 2028, according to Markets and Markets.

Security must be at the forefront of businesses’ online strategies as the world becomes more connected, and online threats become more prevalent.

Online Threats

To thrive in the ever-online business landscape, enterprises must ensure fast and stable connectivity. This has driven explosive growth in areas like SD-WAN and cloud infrastructure.

However, as digital operations expand, we see an uptick in the number of vulnerabilities due to enterprises’ IT ecosystems having a wider attack surface. These can arise from a multitude of sources, including Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, ransomware, and more. According to Statista, more than six million data records were exposed worldwide through data breaches in the first quarter of 2023. These attacks can have devastating financial impacts on businesses, erode public trust, and incur lengthy downtime and repair costs.

The rise of cloud-based services and applications necessitates investments in SD-WAN, security, and remote access to thrive. These can be expensive and complex for businesses to implement separately, especially if these services come from different sources.

Enterprises must adopt solutions that can enable secure connections and cover the vulnerabilities associated with doing online business.

A Security-First Approach

By taking a SASE approach that combines SD-WAN, remote access, and security, enterprises can reap many benefits, including:

• Central Network Management – Enterprises gain complete visibility and control across disparate networks and multiple locations through a centralised management portal.
• Improved Security – SASE enhances security capabilities, incorporating features including traffic encryption, tunnelling, layered firewalls, cloud security, and more, while also delivering Zero Trust Network Access and data loss protection to maximise network security.
• Scalability and Agility – SD-WAN can be easily scaled for both on-site and cloud networking needs, providing a fast and dependable way to manage network workloads.
• Application Optimisation – Enterprises can improve application performance with SD-WAN by prioritising business-critical applications, dynamically routing traffic, and automatically mitigating performance issues.
• Reduced Costs – Software-defined models can cut costs and simplify network management while maintaining performance.

With SASE, businesses seeking to connect to the cloud and utilise SD-WAN can capitalise on new opportunities and expand globally with new levels of security.

The Key to a Secure Online Future

To flourish in our increasingly online and cloud-centric world, it is vital that businesses prioritise online security.

Enterprises should invest in the latest security options to stay ahead in the ever-shifting business landscape. With the right tools, they can securely connect to the cloud, offer services to customers, and maintain connection speed, stability, and cost-efficiency.

SASE offers many solutions that align with enterprises’ needs in today’s cloud-focused landscape. Businesses can rest assured that their connections will be secure, stable, and efficient, all from a single expert provider.

With these services in place, enterprises can fully embrace the opportunities presented by the rapidly evolving digital economy and grow their customer base worldwide with fast and secure connectivity.

About the author

Simon Waller is the Regional Director, EMEA & US at Epsilon Telecommunications. He leads the region’s sales and business development activities including channel partnership and enterprise sales. Simon has over 22 years of experience in IP data sales with a proven history of building successful sales teams, developing new markets and closing high value opportunities.

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Categories: Industry Viewpoint · SDN · Security · Uncategorized