Everyone in IT and security seemed to be talking about the Internet of Things before it became a thing.
However, IoT’s seemingly overnight development and the way it rapidly boosted untrusted traffic on an organization’s network caught many by surprise.
Well, here’s another surprise for you: A growing number of companies are turning to Software Defined Networking (SDN) to implement traffic segmentation because it allows for granular software defined security.
We learned all about this at SecureWorld Atlanta where Steven Shalita was delivering the keynote on leveraging SDN for security. Shalita is the Vice President of Pluribus Networks, and he’s been in tech, including cloud and security, for more than 20 years.
Now he’s watching increasing deployment of the company’s technologies from a security end-use case perspective.
“SDN is, in and of itself, next generation networking,” he says.
"What makes it different than traditional networking is, it’s programmable. Everything about it can be defined using APIs, so not only can I integrate that into my security tools, so the network and security tools can work together for a change, but I also have the ability to control the functions the network is able to deliver.”
And those functions include an agile way of securing the network when a threat makes it past the perimeter.
“How do I keep it from proliferating, from moving laterally? How do I fundamentally reduce the attack surface within the network environment?” Shalita says SDN holds the answers to all these questions.
Watch video: SecureWorld interviews Steven Shalita on leveraging SDN in for greater cybersecurity.
Another thing we did not expect to hear: SDN can usually be implemented without disruption, and you can choose whether it is an overlay or if it should become the network for your organization.
Regardless, it sounds like Software Defined Networking will give security teams and network teams something they can agree on—more control over network traffic, more control over the broad range of devices that are being connected to the network, and greater network security.
