SD-WAN - Former Golden Child of Remote Networking

SD-WAN - Former Golden Child of Remote Networking

“Life moves pretty fast” – Ferris Bueller?

It feels like just yesterday when Software Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) was the hottest networking technology topic. The benefits of adopting SD-WAN were clear – more bandwidth, more flexibility, more control and for the CFO – less OpEx expended!!? More importantly, SD-WAN provided a tool for the network engineer to apply to a growing estate of public Cloud and SaaS delivered applications.? New applications delivered to the branch without the need to provision or upgrade private circuits (a time consuming and frustrating experience).? Transport became just about any medium available – business grade Internet lines, cable Internet, LTE, DSL and even MPLS.? Configuring the network for a new application was simplified.? Just add a new policy and “ta-da”, the application was available with both priority bandwidth and telemetry.? Additionally, in 2019, Gartner addressed SD-WAN’s area of need – merging security into the WAN in the form of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).? SD-WAN would provide the highway and a series of cloud delivered security services would ensure the safety of employees working in the branch office.? Enterprise IT now had a bridge across the chasm. The future looked bright. Unfortunately, an unforeseen event disrupted the journey to SASE….

Black Swans Happen

In March 2020, a black swan event hit the world. While there were a number of impacts to enterprise IT, at the top of the list was the WAN. Instead of branches of 20, 50 or 500 or more workers, now with workers at home, the concept of a “branch of one” was born.? Several CIO commented that their WANs increased 10X overnight. To address this need, a large majority of enterprise IT fell back to remote VPNs as the method to connect these valuable workers to the IT estate. In a matter of weeks, the world doubled down on their legacy remote access VPNs.? Adoption of SD-WAN slowed and the focus for networking turned to the question of how to best enable this new pattern of remote work.??

In the meantime, the concept of SASE gained traction in the minds of IT leaders and those in the networking and security sectors.? Due to the demands of 2020, the focus moved away from SD-WAN as the main source of transport.? While placing a small SD-WAN device at each of these “branches of one” was an option, from a cost and manageability standpoint, it was not feasible.? Instead, the industry turned to client software and cloud gateways. Additionally, the pandemic also sparked a change in WAN traffic patterns.? The focus, according to Gartner, is now the Internet connected branch.? They see this trend doubling from 15% to 30% by 2023.? How businesses and the industry are thinking about the future of the branch and the future of work, has changed.??

There Is No Spoon

The future of the branch office is honestly, there is no branch office.? The future is about the how and where.? A typical day in the post-pandemic world is this.? The worker will start their day on a mobile device at their home, will switch to a tablet or laptop, may work from home, may work from a coffee shop, may also drive into the office for an event and then return to the home or grab a beverage with their friend (and check the mobile device again).? The key item, work going forward will not be about a fixed location.? The branch office as it existed in 2019 will no longer be. Work will be mobile going forward. And if work is mobile, does this really mean we should focus on fixed solutions of the past?? The requirements of the future are solutions which follow the worker. They must be Internet forward.? The future is about remote access platforms which will securely deliver the application (and only the application) no matter where the worker is located.

Meet SSE

Meet the Secure Service Edge (SSE).? Based on the needs of the post-pandemic world, SSE is the future that SASE promised.? In just over 21 months, the way the world works has changed.? It is now about delivering secured applications anywhere, to any device, at any time.? SSE takes the core of SASE (Remote Access Gateway, Secure Web Gateway, Cloud Service Access Broker, Zero Trust Network Access) and moves the industry forward based on today’s requirements.? Transport is agnostic.? Delivery can be over the Internet, wifi, MPLS, 5G or a simple cable modem.? Agent software (agentless is also an option) will be always on.? A service broker will provide transport termination, security as well as telemetry.? In the end, what this means is SD-WAN will be just one of the many transport options.? It will act as an on-ramp to the SSE service platform.? It will not be the primary means for connecting to the enterprise estate going forward.? Just one of the abstracted paths the SSE delivered service will travel on top of.? Life moves pretty fast, right??

If you are interested in hearing more about Secure Service Edge (SSE), reach out to us at Axis Security.? We are building the SSE cloud with your needs in mind.? Our solution is built from the ground up to transform the modern workforce.? The Axis SSE cloud will allow you to work from anywhere, anytime on any device, securely.? Once you hear about our offerings, the best way to start your journey is by replacing your legacy remote access solution.? Learn more here - https://www.axissecurity.com/vpntakeout/