The Four Pillars of Modern Networking
Whatever sector you operate in and whatever your long-term business goals, your network is the foundation of your future success. With the distributed workforce now firmly established and customer interactions taking place over an evolving range of channels, business is now truly interconnected, with seamless, secure dataflows its lifeblood.
But this new era of networking comes with new challenges that must be given careful consideration. Legacy corporate networks are increasingly showing their limitations, and so a new approach to connectivity is required, built on four pillars:
Security
The ongoing convergence of networking and security functions shows no signs of slowing down, as organisations look for new ways to maintain a robust, unified security posture, while simultaneously ensuring the application of corporate security policies at the edge does not become an unnecessary drain on IT teams' time and resources.
Indeed, Gartner has already predicted that 60% of organisations will have formalised strategies to bring networking and security together by the close of 2025[1].
Cloud Optimisation
Cloud transformation remains a key part of many organisations' long-term digital transformation plans, with sophisticated Multicloud environments representing the latest step in this journey. Networks must evolve with this in mind, offering seamless access to Cloud platforms for branches, remote users and third parties. This means solutions like zero-trust access, MFA, and software-defined perimeters must be intelligently integrated with the wider network infrastructure, allowing organisations to enjoy the full scalability and flexibility of the Cloud without compromising security and compliance.
Global Access
Effortless communication and collaboration between teams and true omnichannel customer service depends on optimising the performance and availability of critical platforms, anytime, anywhere. Access to strategically located Points of Presence (PoPs) around the world will ensure employees enjoy consistently seamless, high-quality access to the Cloud platforms they depend on.
Remote Access
It's not just branch offices that depend on secure access to the Cloud. With staff now connecting to corporate networks from home, from the office, and on the move, networks must be inherently dynamic, ensuring access is highly available and highly secure, wherever they are connecting from and whatever device they are using to do so.
How SASE is laying the foundations for tomorrow's corporate networks
Building on the previous successes of the software-defined networking model, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is increasingly establishing itself as the solution of choice for organisations ready to futureproof their infrastructure and ensure their networks will continue to evolve as their goals and requirements do. As defined by Gartner, a true SASE solution – the kind offered by Exponential-e in partnership with Cato Networks – incorporates:
- Converged Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) and security as a single, unified software stack, with everything visible through a single pane of glass
- A Cloud-native architecture that delivers the elasticity, adaptability, self-healing, and self-maintenance capabilities that modern business demand
- An intelligently designed global network of POPs, distributed to minimise latency and optimise performance at the edge
- Fully centralised support for all network edges, including data centres, branch offices, Cloud platforms, and remote users.
In other words, a single answer to the numerous challenges involved in establishing the four pillars of a truly modern, futureproof network and security infrastructure.
Wherever you are in your network and security journey, don't hesitate to contact our team if you are keen to take the next step and implement your own ideal SASE solution.
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