SD-WAN Cyber Essentials: putting security at the centre of your application estate strategy

Here we highlight the importance of user experience in application design, the impact of effective applications on productivity and morale, and the changing requirements for security measures as traditional network edges disappear. 

The way organisations work is in the process of change. How we access applications, where data is stored, the security measures needed for a wider attack surface, and how we communicate is no longer all operated from the same centralised location. Today, business resources are often distributed across many SaaS and cloud services.  

At the same time, the end user experience is now an essential part of how applications are designed and operated. An application that works effectively and without latency can help reduce stress, improve workforce morale, and help increase productivity. That’s why application health and performance is a key metric for any business to monitor and constantly improve upon.  

With the workforce now distributed in many geographic locations - working from home or from one of many offices and connecting to distributed applications - the edge of the network is being redefined and, in many cases, is completely disappearing. Importantly, this changes or removes the need for centralised security protections that have been historically built into existing WAN architectures.  

all sites require protection and security controls to keep organisations safe and secure."

Like a fort of old, which held all the riches of the kingdom, all protections and security would be positioned around the main gateway. In place would be archers, boiling oil, and large multi-layered gates to stop any would-be attackers. But the crown jewels are no longer held inside this single location and the defences set up to protect the fort need to be distributed across the whole kingdom.  

In much the same way, all sites require protection and security controls to keep organisations safe and secure. Centralised security protections no longer make sense when everything is distributed. 

For this new way of working we need a more agile, flexible, and security conscious way of building connectivity between users, sites, and services. This requires application intelligence built in to provide actionable reporting, with controls that allow the tuning of the application experience. Robust security processes are also essential to help protect your organisation from external threats. 

Moving to SD-WAN can provide many benefits that will allow organisations to meet these challenges head on. They can gain a new ability to:  

• See and tune application traffic.
• Intelligently route traffic to its destination based on the quality of the underlying links.
• Spin up new services and sites quickly and flexibly.
• Deliver agile solutions to fit the requirements of a modern WAN deployment.
• Implement advanced security across your whole WAN infrastructure.

At Claranet we believe that security should be integrated into any solution. Because of this, we only choose SD-WAN technologies that have the capability to offer a full suite of security features. This enables organisations to introduce advanced security features to all sites, bringing the security controls and protections closer to the users and improving visibility of their security status. The result is a significant improvement in the overall security posture of the business.  

We have many additional security services that can further enhance your security posture for organisations. With services such as Penetration Testing to confirm the effectiveness of your SD-WAN solution, Managed Detection and Response (MDR) to manage the risk for you and monitor your SD-WAN for unseen threats, or Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to protect your end point devices from the risks of Ransomware. 

To help get you started on this security journey when you purchase a SD-WAN solution, we offer a Cyber Security Essentials Assessment as standard, with in-depth guidance from our experienced penetration testing team.  

Cyber Security Essentials questions the security hygiene your company should adopt to prevent an opportunistic attack. It will help you understand if your business is at risk from a wide variety of the most common cyber-threats: 

Certification will give you peace of mind that your defences will protect your organisation against the vast majority of common cyber-attacks. It also demonstrates to your partners and customers that your organisation has the tightest security controls in place. 

Find out more about the SD-WAN services we offer, or our cybersecurity solutions to protect your organisation.