Optimising IT environments with unified networking

The rise of SaaS, cloud architectures and remote working fuelled by widespread network infrastructure modernisation, has driven many performance benefits, but it comes with cybersecurity risks. While organisations traditionally tackled these security challenges with point products and tools, this siloed approach lacks scalability and has proven disruptive to data management and network operations.

Organisations now face the challenge of maximising the value of their vast telemetry data while ensuring robust data protection across public and private environments. Following major GDPR penalties, like Amazon's £636m fine in 2021, businesses must implement data governance strategies that balance security with analytics-led decision-making to help them unlock the true value of the data at their disposal without compromising security.

Extending visibility in the cloud

Many organisations understand the importance of protecting important data, but as the complexity of technology stacks increases, effective data governance becomes more difficult. This is largely because data must be protected throughout its lifecycle, which is far more difficult as data becomes increasingly utilised and re-utilised for analytics, without an end-to-end strategy. 

Better visibility significantly streamlines incident response times. Opting for a network solution such as Software Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) helps drive quality and performance on relatively low-cost access circuits. However, despite its initial innovations for on-site working, SD-WAN produces security risks in a hybrid or remote working model due to its limited ability to provide visibility of cloud-native applications and security on remote devices. Cloud-first strategies require cloud-security architecture to fill in the gaps, so bringing solutions like Secure Service Edge (SSE) alongside SD-WAN to deliver a single-vendor Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework will massively increase visibility and deliver a tool kit of security solutions to the end user.

This visibility provides an efficient and secure channel to shield data throughout its lifecycle, ensuring that organisations can leverage insights from across their network. Single-vendor SASE is the catalyst for Zero Trust architecture, a framework that treats every user and device as potentially risky regardless of location or previous access. Unlike traditional security, zero-trust follows the principle of implicitly trusting nothing. This approach is vital as users increasingly work from remote places on remote devices.

Beyond the technology stack

IT operations go beyond just the technology. Siloed solutions provide a challenge to security because they are expensive to purchase and maintain and require more expertise to manage.  The inefficiency of managing disparate point solutions exacerbates an already strained situation, with skills shortages, license management and incompatibility all pressuring budgets that could be better allocated elsewhere.

Deploying solutions in a single stack, with a simple platform that centralises data in an easily accessible dashboard, optimises key processes like attack surface management, incident response and IT management. This approach saves time and helps alleviate talent shortages by streamlining operations and budget pressure by having concise commercial solutions. 

More efficient IT operations also make applying internal policies far easier both in terms of compliance and operations. For example, the organisations that operate internationally will have the largest IT estate and require the security architecture and policy to match. Leveraging single-stack networking streamlines the process of complying with data privacy and security standards like GDPR and the upcoming NIS 2 in the EU.

Building data-first resilient networks

Navigating technical change is challenging, particularly with the growing reliance on cloud environments. Organisations must cut through disparate tools and data sources to manage modern network operations effectively, addressing operational and security challenges that often exceed in-house capabilities. This is increasingly crucial as the cyber-attack surface continues to expand. Organisations need to leave the short-term thinking of point security solutions behind and consider deploying long-term IT solutions in a single stack. 

As the attack surface expands, visibility has become more important for effective network management. Organisations must move from siloed security and network tools towards a unified, single-stack networking approach. By consolidating systems within a SASE framework grounded in Zero Trust principles, organisations can significantly enhance security and optimise operations, putting themselves in a prime position to tackle any future challenges head-on.