Digital businesses today are taking customer and employee engagement to the next level by delivering global access to applications and services. These services and applications provide a consistent experience, regardless of device or location. Users and applications distributed across the globe pose a serious threat to network security.
This is where a new model of networking and security comes in—one that matches the requirements of digital enterprises. But before we get started, let’s first cover the challenges that enterprises are facing.
- Multiple vendors for network and security services: Enterprises often have to rely on multiple service providers. Having different teams for different tasks complicates processes and increases the time needed for implementation and coordinating with vendors on various activities. What’s more, both teams have to be on the same page for configuration—which is challenging to implement—to ensure security is compliant with networking requirements.
- Security of the cloud-based applications: With digital transformation in full swing, companies are leveraging corporate data centers or the cloud to run their applications. Various office locations of different sizes operate on multiple connection types such as purely internet, MPLS, hybrid, etc. Each of these has specific security requirements based on how and where the data is being accessed.
- All traffic transferred to HQ via centralized security stack: Enterprises often have little to no control over their network policies. This typically means that all the traffic from branches and guest sites is transferred to the HQ causing significant delays in application delivery and increasing traffic between sites. This can also lead to disruptions and business discontinuity, harming the organization’s reputation.
- Capacity of security stack: Cybersecurity is a massive investment with significant consequences for the tiniest mistakes. Building the perfect security stack requires you to balance residual risks with the total cost of ownership of the cybersecurity stack with minimal downtime. However, in today’s security landscape, each additional layer provides exponentially diminishing returns in terms of reducing risk in an already overwhelmed and expensive stack.
- Increased digitalization and cloud adoption are bringing new requirements in terms of capacity to the security stack between corporate and internet networks. Due to increased video streaming, application connections (e.g. M365, SAP-Hana, sf.com) are creating additional and long-lasting concurrent sessions that negatively affect the performance of the security stack.
- Adjusting to the new normal of SD-WAN from Telekom offers a wide range of services that address each security challenge faced by today's enterprises:
- Significant cost-savings with efficient project management and fewer unsynchronized deliveries.
- Security-by-design as security concerns are addressed at the level of network architecture design.
- Cutting-edge management capabilities enabled by DT experts and a centralized dashboard that provides comprehensive security and network visibility.
- Robust security policies without any overlapping areas or gaps that address specific customer needs. These policies are updated to all applications simultaneously while DT experts ensure up-to-the-minute patches.
- Unparalleled flexibility as security features are either separate appliances or virtual functions added to the existing appliance, allowing enterprises to modify security features according to individual branch requirements without additional CAPEX or box deliveries.
- Digital transformation efforts within the organization help increase traffic out of local networks and into the new network. SD-WAN makes it easier to manage this traffic while building a fully secure infrastructure, which increases both the effectiveness and capabilities of security. Key areas that are impacted include:
- Traffic for each application level is addressed separately with adequate policies.
- Workers have the same security level as they have in the office, regardless of their location.
- Internet traffic generated by end users (web, cloud-based apps like M365, sf.com, and more) can be offloaded from the LAN network at the branch level without significant investment into infrastructure.
- It’s easier to add break-out points to local branches that generate backhaul traffic as you can adjust router security based on current requirements.
- Local branch internet break-outs decrease the load on the HQ network and save capacity on central security stack infrastructure.
- Rapid increase in the number of remote workers doesn’t necessitate an immediate upgrade of the central VPN concentrator as the platform always directs traffic to the closest branch with an internet break-out point so all traffic is inspected with the same policy as in the office.
- SD-WAN network segmentation allows you to benefit from the Zero-trust concept where the administrator can apply security features between different departments or segments of the network and significantly limit risk exposure even if one of the networks is compromised.
- Adding local break-out points with security features offloads central infrastructure for VPN concentrators and reduces the size of the central security stack.
- Reducing the complexity in delivering security features in local internet break-out points (previously, two different platforms often had to be managed due to capacity/functionality differences between HQ and branches)
Keep your enterprise network security infrastructure ahead with Telekom SD-WAN
Telekom SD-WAN combines extensive security, advanced networking, full-featured SD-WAN, genuine multitenancy, and sophisticated analytics via the cloud, on-premises, or a blended combination of both to meet all the requirements of enterprises big and small. Our secure SD-WAN is available through our on-premises platform hosted in Telekom data centers, allowing us to provide our global clients with incredibly secure and reliable networks. Our key services address your challenges to ensure that you meet your organizational goals. Here are some of the reasons that our customers chose us:
- Cybersecurity embedded into network solutions from a highly trusted network and security player.
- Managed by experienced technical experts with in-depth knowledge of best practices worked out with previous customers.
- Ease of further enhancing security by adding SASE (based on the same vendor) or connecting SD-WAN security logs to a Security Operations Center (managed by DT) to improve the detection and speed of incident response.
Do you have any questions or want to explore more? Reach out to our team!