Should CxOs care about the security service edge (SSE)? Amidst digital transformation and the evolution of networks, John Spiegel, director of strategy, Axis Security, discusses the need for paying attention to network and security needs.
In the past, the CxO could turn a blind eye to networking and security. Since the dawn of IT, networking has been about the “default route data center.” That’s where the processing of data happened. As long as the network traffic ended up in the data center, there was no problem. If there was a hiccup, the network wizards who enjoy talking in a strange language and worship sheet metal boxes called routers and switches handled it.
If there was an outage the wizards didn’t resolve in time, the CxO might call them to account. The other time the CxO would get involved was during a telecom contract discussion. As telecom spend is a top IT budget item, anytime the IT department could show savings, it was greatly appreciated.
Times have changed. The advent of cloud services such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS places stress on the traditional network systems designed for “default route data centers.” Instead of delivering traffic to a single location, the network must now deliver to all points on the globe. Tossing in the new remote workforce, networking is now incredibly complex.
Additionally, workforce productivity is now directly tied to how an enterprise’s network performs. If the remote access network performs poorly, so does the workforce, which is highly dependent upon it. Also, security is now a greater concern. If a company of 10K employees had only 20 branch locations, security could be implemented through mechanisms like firewalls and similar classic perimeter tools. The hybrid workforce, together with cloud-delivered applications, flips the script. The traditional approach no longer works.
Now… Digital Transformation?
As the globe faces increasing economic headwinds, companies know they must adjust. The international consulting firm Deloitte did a study on digital transformation. The results are interesting. Companies, on average, spend about the same. Outcomes, though, differ.
The companies with CxOs who get tech, who understand how to leverage IT, and who know that it’s OK to try new things succeeded. Small bets. Iterative approaches won the day. What this means is the CxO, to be successful, must be tech-savvy. The CxO who ignores tech, who is not savvy, is a risk to themselves and their company. It is essential for leadership to be tech-literate to have success in this century. It cannot be ignored.
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Enter SSE
Networking responded slowly to the modern challenge presented by cloud and digital transformation. Applications now reside on every corner of the digital map. Networking had to move beyond “route default data center.” Enter the Security Service Edge or SSE. The concept is new on the scene. What it does is address the needs of the modern workforce and the challenges with delivering applications that live in both the Cloud and traditional on-prem data centers.
SSE acts as director guiding, securing, and inspecting traffic between employees, 3rd parties, and IT services (for example, Salesforce or an on-prem ERP system – SAP). SSE brokers these connections and stitches them together while also running a series of continual security checks to verify the employee or 3rd party can safely access the service. SSE is cloud-delivered. The key is the network and security services are pushed to the “edge of the network” to maintain performance while also providing security.
SSE platforms are a modern alternative to traditional network security technologies. These legacy approaches grew out of the 1990s and presented the network or security architects with a dilemma. Do I solve for performance (speed of the application) or security? 9 out of 10 times, it was performance as employee productivity mattered more to the success of the business. This dilemma must be solved with the rise of cyber security events like ransomware and similar threats. That is what SSE does.
At the base is a concept called zero trust. The idea is to remove the employee and or 3rd party from the traditional network and deliver only the applications the worker requires to perform their job. Least privilege is core to the solution. Access to only services needed to do the work. No more, no less. What this does is greatly reduce the risk to the organization.
Cyber attacks such as ransomware require the ability to hop from system to system to be successful (the technical term is lateral movement). Removing this ability greatly reduces the avenues for threats like these to find their target. Instead, the bad actor is presented with a virtual hall of mirrors. Even better, SSE solutions, since they are software-based, can provide telemetry on odd or strange activities within a network. Greater visibility means the attacker can be observed and caught before the damage is done. Additionally, SSE platforms provide services to address data loss, cloud security as well as Internet browsing protections.
In a recent survey by Cybersecurity Insiders, results showed that 65% of businesses plan to adopt SSE in the next 24 months, with 27% wanting to adopt SSE as quickly as within the next six months and another 16% in six to twelve months. It was clear from the results that SSE is seen as a strategic purchase as part of a larger zero-trust initiative.
Why the CxO Can Gain the Edge
Why should a CxO care about the security service edge (SSE)?
SSE delivers network and security in an elegant way solving another challenge for CxOs – vendor bloat. In the past, the wizards of networking and security would fill out their technology portfolios with a plethora of vendors. Several for networking, several for security, and several more to manage all these systems. The result? High complexity, high costs, and headaches for CxOs who opted to ask and attempt to understand this technology space. Throw in digital transformation, cloud, and remote work, the CxO will quickly run out of the room with a migraine headache!
The Winning Ticket!
SSE solves these challenges. Rather than selecting a group of networking and security tools that do not march together, SSE provides a singular, consolidated platform. This helps the CxO to align around operational simplicity as well as reduce critical business as usual (BAU) costs.
SSE also unlocks tools such as digital experience monitoring to understand how frontline applications are performing in real-world conditions and DLP to protect critical data. The result is simple to understand networking and security, lower cost, greater workforce productivity, and reduced risk – a CxO’s dream.
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