Page 4 - Telecom Reseller October November 2020

4 Telecom Reseller
DAVID GINSBURG
market, which allows IT and infrastructure teams to rapidly adapt to the needs of the business
Operational simplicity: New cloud models/ platforms allow customers to radically simplify complexity and distribute simplicity Multi-cloud ready architectures: Architectures that support multiple clouds offer enterprises the ability to bring any application to any cloud connecting public cloud providers, SaaS providers, or partner clouds delivering consistency of experience
The three of these together bring an integrated architectural design that can deliver an unparalleled user and application experience.
Gartner predicts that at least 20 percent of enterprises will leverage an on-demand consumption model for their WAN. That’s up from less than 1 percent in mid-2020. The pandemic has no doubt accelerated
this trend. But, for this to work, a network provider, such as a telco or MSP, must be able to implement the required agility. This includes a services architecture that is based on a flexible foundation, automation via orchestration and a focus on application performance.
SD-WAN Requirements for Multi-Cloud Architectures
In a recent blog, Lee Doyle of Doyle Research outlined the SD-WAN requirements for a multi-cloud world. He said a few key SD-WAN capabilities need to support multi-cloud connectivity including: Application delivery: Doyle notes that SD-WAN requirements expand beyond traditional hybrid WAN connectivity to
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enable application delivery where and when the end user needs it. He says SD-WAN requirements include seamless connectivity from users to private cloud, IaaS and
SaaS platforms based on defined business policies, with proactive traffic steering and prioritization.
Reliability and quality of experience: While this may seem like a no-brainer,
as many cloud applications are business- critical, Doyle says that SD-WAN platforms must provide high reliability and user quality of experience, like low latency,
with appropriate security and compliance policies.
Security and visibility: When planning a WAN for multi-cloud activity, Doyle notes that improved security and contextual awareness in the platform and through partners are essential to offset the inherent dangers of internet, cloud and IoT vulnerabilities. He adds that SD-WAN platforms need visibility into traffic sources and destinations to whitelist and quarantine traffic flows. SD-WAN technology must offer enforcement choices to IT and security administrators through the data center or
at the edge. Security, he says should also include micro segmentation capabilities,
i.e., the ability to isolate certain traffic flows, applications, and network segments. Right-Sizing Access Capacity
Prior to the pandemic, enterprises typically sized their remote access capacity to a
max of 10 percent of their workers, and in most cases, the concentrators connected
to an on-prem environment. Depending upon the vertical, a subset of employees
would have remote access, and potentially only to a subset of their applications.
Some verticals, including finance, business process outsourcing, healthcare, and government, would highly restrict any form of remote access. The more forward-leaning enterprises had begun transitioning to a cloud-centric remote access architecture and branch handoffs to cloud security gateways.
Today, enterprises are sizing their remote access capability to 50 percent or more of their employee base, while ensuring that additional applications are made available securely and deliver a great user experience. To give a personal example, city planners in my hometown, my brokers and my doctors have all embraced remote connectivity. The use of a cloud-first approach for remote access has become the norm versus the exception, and the percentage of traffic remaining in the cloud has grown by leaps and bounds. Very quickly, IT has learned how to flexibly reallocate bandwidth between branches and remote workers, while the security perimeter has expanded. This is one reason why security is now the leading topic in any WAN transformation discussion. In essence, the traditional branch has been replaced by the virtual office, or branch of one, and the internet has replaced the LAN.
To put this together and offer some
sage advice, seriously spend some time
to investigate the benefits of moving to a cloud-first network architecture. One that’s based on the network consumption model, overcomes the lack of agility, complexity, and hardware costs of the DIY model. From there, select a managed service that can eliminate the complexity and lack of agility if delivered via a telco or MSP that then must work with a technology vendor. n
October/November 2020
CHRIS WERPY continued from page 3
All other network resources remain out of the user’s reach, unless he or she attempts to connect to one of them, in which case the process of authentication and verification is repeated. As a result, over-privileged access and third-party risks are greatly reduced.
Another benefit of SDP versus VPN and other traditional security methods is its cloud readiness. In fact, SPD was engineered to operate natively in cloud networks. The model can be applied across all heterogenous environments, which provides consistency and simplifies network protection. A cloud native approach is especially desirable
since most networks currently have a cloud component. Simply put, SDP is scalable, dynamic and automatable – all attributes that complement a cloud-centric strategy.
SPD extends Zero Trust security
to IoT devices and speeds up security implementation. According to Gartner, SDP “is s easier and less costly to deploy than firewalls, VPN concentrators and other bolt-in technologies.”
New Opportunity
As the modern workplace continues
to evolve, large numbers of users who previously worked in offices will remain in remote environments. The complexity and depth of applications required to not only keep the lights on but to strategically grow an organization is seemingly never ending.
A prime example is UCaaS and the ability to increase collaboration among workers.
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