Intelligent CXO Issue 16 | Page 15

TECH TRENDS
3 . Cybersecurity risks are everywhere
In the recent years the number of cyberattacks has increased significantly , leaving more damage than ever . Cybersecurity threats emerge from various sources including insecure network connections and a lack of compliance measures .
Most of us remember the SolarWinds attacks in December 2020 that spread from software updates , allowing attackers to access Microsoft 365 emails . More recently , the Log4j attack exploited a vulnerability in Log4j , a popular Java logging framework , that allowed attackers to execute arbitrary Java code on a server .
In 2019 , Gartner coined the term Secure Access Service Edge , or SASE , that combines SD-WAN capabilities with network security features hosted in the cloud . In the post-COVID era , more traffic is heading to the cloud than to the data centre , users are consuming more SaaS applications than data centre applications and more sensitive data is located outside the enterprise network . With this in mind , SD-WAN coupled with SSE ( Security Service Edge ) capabilities such as SWG ( Secure Web Gateway ), CASB ( Cloud Access Security Broker ) and ZTNA ( Zero Trust Network Access ) enable organisations to mitigate security risks related to the growing adoption of the cloud .
One capability that differentiates a basic SD-WAN solution from an advanced SD-WAN is the ability to connect to a wide range of cloud security vendors giving organisations the choice of best-of-breed SSE capabilities to build a robust SASE architecture based on their business requirements .
Advanced SD-WAN solutions natively integrate and can fully automate the orchestration to cloud security services to create a secure fortress against cyberattacks .
ORGANISATIONS CAN ALSO SEEK GREATER FLEXIBILITY BY IMPLEMENTING A NETWORK-AS- A-SERVICE MODEL WITH SD-WAN AS A FOUNDATIONAL BUILDING BLOCK .
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