Soft2Secure

Cloud Security Trends in 2019

In this post, I am going to talk about VPNs, SDNs, and other trends in the field of IT security that (according to experts in the industry) will be on the rise this year.

The popularity of Software-Defined Networks (SDN) is growing

According to Statista, in the next several years, traffic volumes passing through the data centers of SDN-systems will more than double from the current 3.1 zettabytes to 7.4 zettabytes. The most demanded tasks here include reducing the time needed to allocate additional virtual resources and simplifying the work with security policies.

For example, Fujitsu has implemented SDN technology in hundreds of its data centers around the world. This allowed the organization to define common rules for all networks. Data center administrators do not need to configure each network device separately; they simply set general packet processing rules and SDN implements these rules automatically.

At the same time, experts expect that the growing popularity of SDN will lead to an increase in demand for white box routers. These are devices from OEMs manufacturers that are sold without any pre-installed software or operating system. This approach enables you to develop your own network management software.

White box solutions are already used by large IT giants, such as Google and Facebook. These systems can be beneficial to small and mid-size businesses too, as such devices may reduce the cost of IT infrastructure. For example, at Innova, white box switches helped reduce hardware costs by more than twenty times.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) systems become more accessible

With the help of VPNs, companies implement a secure geographically distributed information system. In 2019, automation services for deploying VPN infrastructure in the cloud will gain popularity.

Manufacturers of data center equipment also plan to help automate VPN setups. According to Juniper’s CTO, automation of all cloud solutions will be one of the company’s main priorities in 2019.

Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) systems protect hybrid cloud

VPNs in data centers will complement SDP systems. Such systems carry out identification of a device before allowing it to connect to the network. At the same time, access is opened only at the application level, and an unknown host will not see information about the network itself.

In 2019, SDP technologies are expected to grow in popularity to protect hybrid cloud infrastructure. In particular, SDP will be one of the priorities of Cisco, a company that could become a leader in this market.

According to the Rightscale 2018 State of the Cloud Report, 81 percent of organizations surveyed use a multi-cloud strategy. At the same time, 69 percent of them intend to implement tools that will automatically check the compliance of the cloud system with the organization’s security principles. Software-defined perimeters can be used for this.

SDP technology is already used by state and financial structures. In the US, a SDP system has been implemented by a government organization that provides IT services to federal agencies. Twenty thousand of its employees are connected to the internal systems remotely. With the help of the SDP service, the access rights for each user are controlled separately. Another example is the British real estate company Aster Group. SDP helps to connect its staff and third-party partners to the IT infrastructure.

Firewalls become more powerful

In 2018, Gartner reported on the state of the firewall market. In it, the Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) development companies took the lead. In 2019, this concept is expected to continue to gain popularity.

The firewalls of the new generation can now include deep packet inspection (DPI), intrusion detection systems (IDS), and antivirus services. Some NGFW developers go further and add firewall integration capabilities with third-party services. For example, Fortinet’s NGFW is built into the Symantec Web Security Service platform.

The trend towards integrating several different services to protect the infrastructure will continue. Gartner states that in two years, 80% of the defense solutions for the cloud will be simultaneously equipped with a network firewall, a Web Application Firewall (WAF), and Secure Web Gateway (SWG) systems.

vADCs become more popular

Market analysts expect that this year the demand for vADCs will continue to grow. Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) are physical devices installed between the firewall and application servers. ADCs are an important part of data center security. They act as a firewall, protect against DDoS attacks, and collect application performance data.

In plenty of data centers, physical controllers are being increasingly replaced with virtual devices (vADCs). They provide the flexibility to manage virtual machines and containers. For example, a vADC can be run for just a few seconds. It’s not so easy to do this with a physical device.

When Cisco conducted a survey among 50 executives of large IT companies, 35% of respondents said that they are attracted to vADC because of the ability to better orchestrate security services. For example, when Handle Financial implemented vADC, the new system allowed the monitoring of network threats in real time. 5/5 (1)