When Networking and Security Collide

dezembro 1, 2024

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There’s a common theme we encounter here at TeleGeography Explains the Internet.

It goes like this: the enterprise WAN has undergone significant changes in the past several years to align the network with digital transformation, cloud adoption, rising bandwidths, and cost control. These changes—while making the network more resilient and affordable—can introduce new challenges in complexity and management.

Our guest today is Marcel Stadler, Product Manager of SD-WAN at Open Systems.

Marcel joins our semi-annual conversation on this landscape; he outlines how managed SD-WAN providers like Open Systems approach these issues with their enterprise customers. (Yes, we chat about SASE and integrating security into an SD-WAN because we know what the listeners want.)

Some highlights and the full episode below.

Greg: What does digital transformation mean for people listening to this show?

Any industry, regardless of what it is—if you go to a more digital framework for your business, it means more network and more things going over the network.

I found that too often even the folks in IT assume that the network is going to be there. So what we’ve seen in the last few years is network teams dealing with these digital transformations and coming up with ways to accommodate that.

I’m sure you’ve had this experience, Marcel—I found that too often even the folks in IT assume that the network is going to be there. So what we’ve seen in the last few years is network teams dealing with these digital transformations and coming up with ways to accommodate that. And that has led to what we’re really talking about: to the WAN transformation, to these significant changes in how enterprises set up, organize, and secure their WANs.

Everybody listening to this show is most likely fairly familiar with this story that you move to cloud services. SD-WAN facilitates an internet-first kind of underlay moving away from MPLS. And then, of course, integrating security, like you said, SSE into the SD-WAN or SASE in this kind of integrated service.

Since you have this background coming at it from a security standpoint, I wanted to start there and just look at how SASE is being integrated into this network transformation.

So Marcel, my first question for you is: what do you think enterprises need to consider when they’re attempting to create this secure digital slash network transformation?

Marcel: Yeah, thank you. I would say the first consideration, it’s not even technical. As a company, you need to decide or have buy-in from the whole company if you want to go down that road because it’s kind of an open-heart surgery.

It’s not like something that you do as a side project; it affects all departments of your business. So you need to align folks around it to get the buy-in, to get this done in the end.

It’s not like something that you do as a side project; it affects all departments of your business. So you need to align folks around it to get the buy-in, to get this done in the end.

That’s the most important point from my point of view.

Greg: Yeah. No, that’s a great point. There are always two aspects. There’s always the technological problem. There’s the human problem, right?

You still see cybersecurity teams that aren’t fully integrated into the network team. Who’s not necessarily fully integrated into what IT is doing, in general.

So you’re saying, first, get these priorities aligned across all of the people and decision-makers.

Marcel: Yeah, absolutely. And afterward, I think you already mentioned this on your show, SaaS is kind of the convergence of networking and security functionalities.

SaaS is kind of the convergence of networking and security functionalities.

You need to think: have you already done a network transformation or [are you] just doing a security transformation? Or you’re still at the beginning of a network and security transformation? Then you need to think: okay, where do I have resources? Do I have enough resources [for a] network and security transformation? Or is it easier to start with one or the other with the security transformation? Just replacing services like SWG and adding CASB functionalities, ZTNA functionalities and the like.

But now here comes the caveat, right? I mean, if you’re talking SaaS, it’s about conversions of networking and security. And there you wanna have not just various point solutions, because then we come into another challenge, managing all those point solutions. So you wanna have, let’s say, a single unified platform that can offer all those services to you. And then, in the end, it’s again, where do you wanna start?

Listen to the full episode below.