Security is an essential consideration for any SD-WAN solution. While not every SD-WAN solution provides the same level of security, most of them include IPsec VPN capabilities and stateful firewalls as a minimum. As the number of enterprise networks grows, so does the potential attack surface. Many software-defined networking solutions offer 128-bit AES encryption and IPsec-based VPN capabilities to combat this. Additionally, many software-defined networking solutions support application-specific traffic segmentation to separate traffic by application.
Secure SD-WAN
With Secure SD-WAN, your business can benefit from a network that improves your existing WAN infrastructure’s performance, agility, and security. By incorporating built-in protection, you can reduce operating costs and simplify management. Additionally, you can run a single security and networking stack in the same appliance, reducing complexity and costs. Know more about what is SD-WAN.
As enterprise organizations move to the cloud, the importance of secure connections cannot be underestimated. However, downtime can be precarious due to security breaches, lost contacts, or bad network support. Next-Generation Connect’s software-defined networking solutions can help you maximize your WAN’s security, performance, and reliability and reduce your risk of downtime. In addition, the software-defined network service can prioritize traffic according to business needs and application requirements.
Unlike traditional WANs, Secure SD-WAN uses a Cloud-native software platform to provide comprehensive security and network management. It has integrated features, including next-generation firewalls, unified threat management, and malware protection. In addition, it includes URL and content filtering, DDoS protection, and dynamic VPN.
Benefits of SD-WAN
SD-WAN enables you to improve the security of your network by allowing you to manage the bandwidth more efficiently and prioritize the most critical traffic. It steers video and voice traffic through the most reliable connections while using local internet for less-important traffic. In addition, SD-WAN allows you to combine various types of network connections, including mobile networks and private circuits. This helps you reduce hardware and personnel costs while increasing security and reliability.
Traditionally, businesses had to rely on legacy branch office routers to provide network services to remote offices. SD-WAN helps companies overcome these challenges by giving them greater control over the WAN and application service policies. This ensures that applications perform optimally. In addition, it allows you to monitor the network’s performance in real-time, which allows you to tailor the network experience to the specific needs of the applications.
Because all network connections are potentially vulnerable to hackers, SD-WAN can improve security and performance. Moreover, virtualized consoles provide centralized management and visibility of all connections. By breaking down the traditional centralized security inspection model, SD-WAN can increase the security of your business. For example, many organizations backhaul traffic through a centralized ‘pipe’ to the data center, but this approach requires the use of centralized firewalls.
Security Features of SD-WAN
SD-WAN offers an array of security features, such as next-generation firewalls. These virtualized firewalls are an improvement over traditional hardware-based firewalls, and they can perform various functions within the network. These include application awareness, intrusion detection, web content filtering, and malware detection. In addition, they can be based in the cloud or on-premises.
Security features can be configured to protect your network and sensitive information, depending on your needs. For example, some SD-WAN solutions offer 128-bit AES encryption, while others provide stateful firewalls and IPsec-based VPN capabilities. These features help ensure the integrity and confidentiality of your data and help to maintain ongoing compliance with security policies. In addition, SD-WAN can segment traffic based on application.
One of the most notable features of SD-WAN is its ability to implement network segmentation across the WAN. This feature allows administrators to restrict access to specific systems or applications. This can be particularly useful in protecting corporate data or for compliance purposes. By controlling access, it’s possible to limit an attack to a small area. Traditionally, this has been a complicated process, but with SD-WAN, innate network segmentation capabilities enable administrators to enforce security policies across multiple sites.
Implementation Considerations
Implementing SD-WAN is a great way to increase network performance but introduces new security concerns. This is because SD-WAN is not a single perimeter and has a much larger attack surface. In addition, since the network is made up of multiple offices and endpoints, security needs are increasingly complex.
With SD-WAN, businesses no longer have to maintain separate networks for different departments. Instead, they can rely on a single network provider to support their entire network, and it will take less time and money to maintain a single network. However, it is essential to note that SD-WAN appliances are designed for connecting locations and are not ideal for delivering SaaS applications or cloud data centers. Furthermore, mobile users rarely are satisfied with the performance of these appliances.
Implementing SD-WAN is not easy. The in-house IT staff are already stretched thin with other duties, and hiring and training a dedicated SD-WAN team isn’t easy. Further, SD-WAN implementation can require the development of tools, which can be costly. SD-WAN implementation can also create network downtime, so it is vital to plan accordingly to ensure it doesn’t disrupt business operations.