There’s no question: the network has changed, and it continues to evolve. With a growing remote and roaming workforce, increased adoption of direct internet access at branch offices, and the widespread use of cloud-based apps and services, we’ve expanded the edges of the network well beyond the data center. As a result, traditional data center-oriented security solutions are no longer providing the protection that users need to stay safe against cyberthreats.
New network, new security challenges
As security shifts to the cloud, the tried-and-true network perimeter-based model of cybersecurity just can’t keep up. Today’s cybersecurity professionals are contending with an entirely new type of network and an entirely new set of security needs. And to make matters worse, they’re short on time, energy, and resources.
Now more than ever, we need a new way to keep users, data, and devices safe from threats. But it can be tough to sort out which approach is best, as well as which technologies you need to reduce complexity, improve speed and agility, and secure your network.
Too much to do, not enough time or budget
Security operations and IT teams are trying to keep up with changing security needs by using a combination of different point solutions, but this fragmented approach to security only adds complexity. It’s nearly impossible to stay alert when facing a deluge of alerts from different security products.
To fill in the gaps, today’s teams are increasingly seeking an entirely new type of security solution — one that consolidates and converges a variety of individual components into one unified, cloud-delivered service.
By bringing previously disparate point solutions together, a service like this can deliver robust, flexible security from one simple, easy-to-manage source. And by delivering this security from the cloud, this solution is easy to deploy and can provide protection anywhere, on or off network.
It’s all about convergence
As security converges in the cloud, we get closer to achieving one simple goal: giving teams the ability to control and secure users, apps, devices, and data — anywhere and everywhere.
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE – pronounced “sassy”) offers an alternative to traditional data center-oriented security, with a new type of architecture that brings together networking and security services in one unified solution designed to deliver strong security from edge to edge — including the data center, remote offices, roaming users, and beyond.
By consolidating a variety of powerful point solutions in one service that can be deployed anywhere from the cloud, SASE can provide better protection and faster performance, while reducing the cost and work it takes to secure the network.
Read more about the SASE concept in our eBook: A Roadmap to SASE.
Start simple with DNS-layer security
Stronger network security doesn’t happen overnight. But getting started on your journey doesn’t have to be complicated.
Because DNS requests precede IP connection, DNS resolvers can stop threats before they reach your network or endpoints, blocking requests to malicious or unwanted destinations over any port or protocol. As a fundamental component of a SASE framework, DNS-layer security provides a single view of all internet activity across every location, while helping you prevent threats at the earliest point of contact.
Here’s the best part – DNS-layer security doesn’t take months, or even weeks, to deploy. 78% of our customers saw immediate value less than one week after deploying Cisco Umbrella (and in one case, a network administrator saw value in less than 1 hour.1)
See for yourself – get started with a 14-day free trial of Cisco Umbrella today.
1 Source: Kris Verdonck, Network Administrator, Dimension Data, TechValidate customer survey
