// PREDICTIVE INTELLIGENCE //
“
THE PANDEMIC
HAS BEEN A WAKE-UP-CALL FOR SMES WHO
HAVE BEEN
THRUST INTO AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE THEY ’ VE
BEEN FORCED TO OPERATE
DESPITE NOT HAVING THE PROPER
INFRASTRUCTURE TO DO SO .
Why is it time for an industry shake-up ?
The pandemic has been a wake-up-call for SMEs who have been thrust into an environment where they ’ ve been forced to operate despite not having the proper infrastructure to do so . Some have been successful and maintained Business Continuity having planned digital initiatives that were in motion before the pandemic , which they ’ ve then been able to execute against .
However , many businesses did not set up a digital initiative and have struggled to maintain Business Continuity as a result . I expect we will see a ‘ pandemic effect ’ where the remote access environment we ’ re currently working and living in will continue for the next few years . The SMEs that do not have a digital initiative and did not prepare ahead of this year must start making a change to their network infrastructure , otherwise they will have a difficult time surviving in this continued environment .
SMEs which did not prepare should take examples of effective IT strategies from other businesses that have succeeded and continue to do well in this climate . Solutions such as secure software-defined networking in a wide area network ( SD-WAN ) and Secure Access Service Edge ( SASE ) have helped create an environment that has allowed businesses to thrive because these solutions secure not only the corporate applications used by employees , but the devices that are being used as well , which ultimately protects the company . All businesses should look for a solution that does this in order to prepare for the future and not put up with an inefficient infrastructure that is not secure .
How has user behaviour been a catalyst for the convergence of WAN and SDN ?
Prior to the pandemic , we were already seeing a rise in companies , including SMEs , shifting their data to the cloud . The cloud is a great solution for SMEs because they can consume it as a software-as-a-service ( SaaS ) model meaning they can subscribe to it , tailor the number of users and utilise it from anywhere . However , when applications that reside in the cloud have to go through security measures , they often have to move from the cloud to wherever the security services are in order to check they are safe to use . This causes latency , performance issues and can lead to a potential security threat .
However , by converging wide area networking ( WAN ) and software defined networking ( SDN ) and making it secure ( secure SD-WAN ), then the security services are already in the cloud where apps are sourced and running . This means the security measures are run more efficiently and the issues experienced by SMEs who do not have secure SD-WAN do not occur .
As part of the SASE offering , if an SME already has secure SD-WAN in place , then implementing further SASE solutions becomes easier . Because SASE is a cost-effective model , SMEs don ’ t have to buy numerous security services to cater to their data centres or branch offices . Instead , all of these services can be delivered in the cloud and it therefore becomes more cost effective to deploy to multiple locations .
What are the benefits of an integrated cloud and network security approach ?
SASE is the integration of wide area networking ( WAN ) and security solutions such as Zero Trust and firewall-as-a-service ( FWaaS ) into a single service that can be delivered entirely through
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