Getting trustworthy culture right

Reliable networking is more than just a technological challenge. It’s a cultural issue that permeates across functional departments, all the way to the C-level

- PRADEEP KATHAIL

It wasn’t that long ago that most enterprise resources resided in heavily-protected on-premises data centers surrounded by vigilant layers of security. Trust was placed in securing the computing environment itself – the physically isolated data center that only trained and vetted personnel could physically access and the network that strictly controlled connections from enterprise endpoints.

Now all the physical and virtual security layers built into data centers that we relied upon for years have changed. Data “centers” are wherever the data and applications are located – in public clouds, SaaS providers, branch sites, and edge compute and storage. Every employee uses mobile devices, some of which are personally owned, for accessing and manipulating corporate resources. Virtualized workloads move among cloud or IaaS providers to improve responsiveness to a workforce in constant motion. Branch sites quickly need new direct internet connections to work with cloud applications. Global black swan events cause enormous shifts as whole populations rapidly move to work remotely. The attack surface has grown exponentially, literally overnight.