industryopinion
High Assurance Delivers SD-WANs for All
Paul German, CEO, Certes Networks, explains how High Assurance SD-WAN uses crypto-segmentation to enable organisations to exploit the benefits of SD-WAN.
T
he prohibitive cost of WAN technology has become a major concern for businesses and governments and driven the explosion in adoption of Soſtware-Defined Wide Area
Networks (SD-WAN) in recent years. Yet a gap is beginning to emerge between those businesses able to explore the flexibility and low cost offered by SD-WAN and those typically regulated, organisations that have serious concerns about data security. For MSPs and SD-WAN technology providers, while this is hugely
frustrating and actively slowing the adoption of SD-WAN, there is a greater concern: liability. No carrier wants to take on the risk of managing and protecting the confidentiality and integrity of customer data – or endure the cost and reputational damage associated with a high profile breach, wherever the responsibility may lie. For MSPs and SD-WAN providers, the market has been a gold
mine over the past few years. Te ability to create a virtual network over the Internet that delivers the same user experience at a lower cost point, while also supporting innovation and enabling the rapid evolution of cloud transformation strategies is a hugely compelling business case. With one exception: regulated organisations. For a significant minority of target customers, the benefits of SD-
WAN are tempered by security concerns. Regulation is affecting an increasing number of industries as well as public organisations – and it is estimated that, for around 20% of the market, additional protection is required to achieve compliant SD-WAN adoption. Regulated organisations are compelled to ensure the integrity of
sensitive data as it travels across a network environment and that demands a number of key security principles that basic SD-WAN deployments do not offer. For MSPs, the security related push back from these regulated organisations is tough to counter. For MSPs the challenge is not simply finding a way to address the
stand-off between network teams keen to explore and exploit the value of SD-WAN and the push back from the security teams. Tere are also real concerns regarding liability and the risks associated with a data breach. Where did it occur? Whose fault is it? Even if the problem lies with the customer, the cost and resources associated with undertaking a comprehensive review can be hugely damaging. Standard SD-WAN deployments do not meet the more stringent
security demands associated with handling sensitive data. If MSPs are to empower customers with the ability to maximise the financial and operational benefits offered by SD-WAN while still meeting their regulatory security requirements a more robust approach to data
8 | April 2022
assurance is required – critically one that can be deployed easily with zero impact to performance. High Assurance SD-WAN introduces another overlay technology
that specifically targets the protection of sensitive data within regulated organisations by using crypto-segmentation to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive data. Te overlay approach supports the regulatory demand for separation of duties: the network team can configure the SD-WAN, while the data security team uses fine grained policies to define the way different data categories are handled across the network with ownership linked to specific encryption keys. Te underlying network has no visibility of either the protected data or its classification. For MSPs, this approach reinforces the essential Zero Trust approach
to the underlying network infrastructure – with High Assurance SD- WAN organisations no longer have to entrust the network carrier with responsibility for data security. Whether the network is public or private, trusted or untrusted, is irrelevant. Te customer’s data security team simply needs to define the policy and, with ownership of the cryptography keys, can be confident that data is protected at all times wherever it goes – removing any liability from the MSP. And it is an easy sell: the network agnostic overlay sits on top
of the SD-WAN and operates without affecting core functionality. Tere is no latency or impact on performance, and the solution can scale to support the customer’s environment. In addition, MSPs can offer customers real-time visibility of key security metrics to provide insight into the cyber assurance posture; while cyber security functions can use this visibility to better react and remediate out-of- compliance events. Regulation is increasing globally, and growing numbers of
organisations are now facing up to demands to add new layers of protection for sensitive data. Without high data assurance, these organisations will not be able to maximise the value and flexibility of SD- WAN – and MSPs will miss out on a key section of the potential market. Te availability of a simple to define and deploy high data
assurance solution for SD-WAN totally changes the situation for those within regulated industries, de-risking the adoption of a low cost, flexible technology that can transform the cloud-based and digital transformation strategies. For MSPs, the ability to offer an easily integrated overlay to the core SD-WAN solution reduces the risk while meeting the additional security demands of regulated industries. It’s a win win.
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