5 Reasons Why Secure Connectivity As a Service Is a Game-Changer for Businesses
Accelerate productivity and support a diverse, distributed workforce with security and networking solutions that simplify operations. Learn how a single platform cuts costs, increases flexibility, and provides visibility in a multi-cloud world.
Table of Contents
Scalability
Connectivity as a service is a network management strategy that offloads network hardware to a third party for scalability, speed, and reliability. Instead of relying on traditional routers and switches, NaaS leverages virtual hardware like storage units to store information, firewalls for security, and switches to route network traffic. Organizations can easily access these services through a self-service portal and integrated marketplace.
A zero-trust approach transforms connectivity. This model routes user data directly to the resource they need – whether it’s an internet destination, a cloud-based app, or a private, datacenter-hosted application. This eliminates the hair-pinning when a traffic-chaining approach is used and helps minimize performance bottlenecks for users even though they’re working remotely or traveling between locations.
In addition, this type of infrastructure allows companies to deploy a global network of points of presence (PoPs) with a full security stack. This reduces complexity, costs, and latency. Administrators can manage headquarters, remote offices, and cloud services from a single, central platform. They can also secure WAN connectivity with Edge gateways and reroute traffic to improve performance.
Reliability
We often take business internet for granted until something goes wrong, causing major disruptions to workflow and productivity. This is why the reliability of network services is so crucial for businesses.
Connectivity-as-a-Service allows you to outsource the management of your business’ network. It can help you manage risks more effectively and reduce costs by putting a single third party in charge of the network. However, it’s essential to understand what you’re letting go of when choosing this option. Secure connectivity services (SCS) allow you to get the best of both worlds – with reliable connectivity and managed security that protects your network. These services offer any-to-any connectivity while ensuring you remain in control – without connecting users directly to your corporate network or exposing IT infrastructure to the Internet.
Flexibility
When most businesses configured their network architecture, the Internet was not considered a trusted location to conduct business. They created their proprietary Internet incarnations and integrated their facilities with leased connections to support wide area networks (WANs). Each office needed firewall creation, DDoS security protocols, and load-balancing equipment. When businesses move to connectivity as a Service, they get a solution that addresses all aspects of the network and allows employees, customers, vendors, and other stakeholders access on any device at any time in any location. This fully managed service eliminates the need for major hardware investments and can be funded from operational expenditure instead of capital.
Control
Network security is a business requirement for all industries. But it takes a significant amount of time and resources for teams to build secure connections between their systems. And if those connections are not fully configured correctly, it can open up the entire network to malicious actors who will exploit any weaknesses. Zero trust network access solutions (ZTNA) unify web, cloud service, and private application access into a single SaaS solution. They also utilize inspection to enforce the least privileged access rights based on the user’s role and environment. This minimizes the scope of any potential data breaches and reduces the likelihood of lateral movement within the network by bad actors.
The ZTNA approach can also reduce the meantime for IT teams’ remediation of network issues. That’s because a DEM platform allows them to quickly monitor hop-by-hop performance to pinpoint any issue impacting users. This improves the quality of user experience and helps IT teams save on hardware reactiveness costs. This is especially important for smaller businesses needing more money to buy and maintain their networking equipment and software.
Security
When it comes to a business, security is a top concern because of the potential loss of revenue and trust in customers should there be a prolonged disruption. Fortunately, a reliable network protects your business from cyber threats and data breaches. Historically, companies could think of their system as a fortress that needed to be secured from the inside out; however, with remote users and SaaS apps, all systems now have access to company information via the cloud. This requires admins to think about security differently and create procedures that enable more effortless data flow but with greater authentication redundancy. SASE platforms use a zero-trust model to deliver secure connectivity with the enterprise without connecting remote workers directly to corporate networks or exposing applications and IT infrastructure to the Internet. This enables businesses to quickly connect hybrid work for employees, accelerate the migration of apps to the cloud, and support M&A integration while maintaining the necessary security. Furthermore, SASE ensures security through a single console by automating change control and patch management, coordinating outage windows, and delivering consistent policies. SASE also optimizes connections to cloud applications and services to ensure low latency so users enjoy a high-quality experience.