Elements of this story were contributed by MK Fisher, Partner Enablement Manager, CyberSolv, Augie Staab, Product Business Management Manager, and Sarah Leitner, Partner Enablement Manager, CyberSolv, respectively.
How Are You Managing Today’s Threat Landscape?
The modern threat landscape is vast, diverse and has become increasingly dangerous as hackers constantly introduce new malware variants or find more network vulnerabilities to exploit. A single cyberattack can deliver a serious setback to any company’s plans and operations, forcing it to spend money, time and effort on remediation — all valuable resources that otherwise would be allocated to fulfilling more strategic goals.
The threat landscape is evolving from existing threats into new threats and modifications — all to intensify the potential for damage. In 2022, the share of breaches caused by ransomware grew 41% over the prior year and took 49 days longer than average to identify and contain (IBM).
Cyberattacks will remain a top risk for your customers for the foreseeable future. Businesses need effective cybersecurity solutions and services, and increasingly, they turn to partners to implement and manage those security solutions.
As we take the opportunity during Cybersecurity Awareness Month to reflect on security solutions for the channel, it’s imperative to maintain control of cyberthreats to mitigate the risks your customers may face. The comprehensive cybersecurity platforms and tools available to TD SYNNEX partners will help set you apart from the competition and allow you to deliver strategic, guided solutions to your end-user customers.
Security Has No Perimeters With Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture
Fragmented, siloed security systems can present challenges for security teams, reducing the effectiveness and speed with which they can respond to incidents.
Gartner coined the term Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) to describe a strategy in which organizations implement “distributed security tools by centralizing data and control plane to achieve more effective collaboration between tools.” The goal of CSMA is to enhance detection and reduce response time, moving away from fragmented solutions that create barriers to a comprehensive security posture. CSMA is intended to provide a “scalable, interoperable, and composable framework for various security controls and solutions to interoperate more effectively.”
When adopting cybersecurity mesh, consider the benefits of implementing this approach. Fortinet describes three factors:
- Ease of Implementation: CSMA can make “design, deployment, and maintenance simple and efficient.”
- Practicality: Traditional security practices can become complicated with the rise of cloud-native applications and disseminated data. CSMA can help control data and applications outside the network perimeter.
- Agility: CSMA allows for a more seamless approach to security. Response time and scalability become more agile.
The Future of Secure Network Connectivity
Today’s organizations are embracing employees working in a variety of environments, both inside and outside the office walls. With this expanded adoption of remote and hybrid working, IT leaders are tasked with creating long-term plans to build more secure and connected networks.
It’s more important than ever for IT infrastructure and services to run efficiently without sacrificing security, especially as many leaders turn to secure access service edge (SASE) offerings and zero-trust strategies to protect increasingly distributed environments.
Networking and security have always gone hand in hand, and they are becoming increasingly intertwined with the rise of SASE.
In the SASE framework, the goal is to maintain the best network agility without sacrificing security. So, technologies ideal for SASE frameworks also bring together these networking and security elements, like VPN and SD-WAN, with cloud-native cybersecurity defenses such as:
- Firewalls
- Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
- Secure web gateways.
Examples like these combined solutions create more secure networks that work across cloud environments and different types of networking infrastructure. In fact, SASE/SSE architecture is so effective that, according to Gartner, 80% of enterprises will have adopted this framework to unify web, cloud services and private application access by 2025, up from just 40% in 2021.
Diving deeper into the components of secure network connectivity, having a zero-trust strategy in place — beyond just a sole VPN — will also be imperative for security success.
Gartner predicts that by 2025, 60% of organizations will embrace zero trust as a starting point for cybersecurity, a security strategy that requires identity authentication throughout the network, rather than just at the initial login. That means organizations should look to invest in solutions that offer identity management, threat intelligence, network security, endpoint security, and app security to meet these demands. Luckily, solutions offered in the zero-trust space are only growing, and they’re predicted to create a market worth nearly $60 billion USD by 2027 (Statista).
Most importantly, the future of secure connectivity relies on the principle that security is a shared responsibility throughout an organization, and it is vital for all individuals to take part. As the way we work continues to evolve, connectivity needs and cybersecurity threats will continue to evolve as well. Partners who can offer their customers integrated solutions that address modern needs like secure connectivity for a variety of networks stand to benefit.
