4 Ways SD-WAN Can Improve Enterprise Network Security

Back in the day, all business owners have to worry about when it comes to security are burglaries and other forms of physical theft. But as many previous events have shown—from the Bangladesh Central Bank heist to the recent WannaCry ransomware attack—installing security cameras aren’t enough. There’s now a need for heightened network security to protect your company’s digital assets, especially your clients’ personal information.

That’s where SD-WAN steps in. SD-WAN or software-defined wide area network, is a way to connect geographically-separated enterprise networks such as data centers and remote branches. While this kind of network is often seen as a way to save on costs, compared to maintaining a traditional network setup, it also gives your network’s security a boost. After all, it builds on network functions virtualization (NFV) to offer the same—or even better—security as hardware-based devices.

Here’s how shifting to this kind of network can help protect your business in this age of hackers and data breaches:

1. Encryption
   One of the most basic advantages of using an SD-WAN network is increased encryption. There’s always a risk of an attack when transferring large amounts of data across networks. With encryption, stolen data won’t be easily used or abused, as they’ll just appear as gibberish. Only those with the right decryption methods can make use of this data.
2. Network Segmentation
   Instead of having just one network encompassing your entire company, SD-WAN allows you to divide them into segments. That way, if one segment is attacked, the impact is controlled; if it is malware, it won’t spread to other parts of the network.

   For example, you can have a separate segment for guest users and general browsing, then employ a different segment for real-time applications. This adds another layer of security against those who may be planning to launch an attack from inside the network. It can also help prevent rogue employees from accessing restricted data.

3. Quick Attack Detection
   With segmentation implemented, SD-WANs make detecting an attack easier. After all, segmentation paves the way for increased visibility into a network, enabling you to check the amounts and types of traffic going through the network. Hence, it’s easy to set an alarm for any anomalies in traffic—which can be a sign of an ongoing attack.
4. Added Security for Direct Internet Access
   In the past, the use of split tunnels was widely discussed—but these tunnels themselves weren’t actively monitored. Today, not only more people need these tunnels due to the use of cloud services; there’s also a need to secure these better. Again, that’s where SD-WAN enters the scene. Not only does this kind of network allow better direct internet access, but also offer more security measures for these connections.

These are just some of the ways implementing an SD-WAN setup helps keep your office network secure. As you can see, this kind of network offers better connectivity with more security. Couple that with lowered costs, and it’s definitely a must-have for your business.