What we know is that hybrid work is here to stay. What we’re still learning is how that shift affects enterprise IT departments. The anywhere workforce is increasingly empowered to use whatever clouds, devices, and apps they need. But IT departments are stuck with a patchwork of tools and point solutions that don’t provide visibility, seamless management, or strong security. This ultimately leads to security threats, compliance violations, and poor user experience.
“Businesses that deploy VMware Cloud Web Security will be able to rethink IT operations and align them with hybrid work trends.”
The cloud is more popular and more distributed. Enterprises are shifting to cloud-based and SaaS applications which are location-independent and ideal for hybrid work. They are also embracing a distributed cloud model, where workloads and applications cross public and private clouds and extend to the network edge.
Remote access is changing. VPNs are no longer the only way for the anywhere workforce to access their apps. The report notes that “Businesses will look to augment connectivity with software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) and secure access service edge (SASE) solutions to connect and secure remote workers.”
Shadow IT is expanding because cloud and SaaS resources are easy to procure without IT’s help (or interference, depending on your point of view). When IT doesn’t control a resource, it’s difficult for them to provide security around it.
The perimeter has changed, although it hasn’t “eroded” as many believe. It still exists, but in a different form based on identity, location, and other factors in a zero-trust model.
SD-WAN spend is accelerating as more people work from anywhere. Source: ZK Research 2021 SD-WAN Forecast
The essential problem is one of visibility for enterprise IT. They can’t protect what they can’t see, and they can’t manage what they can’t control. IT departments need some operational enhancements to help them help remote workers, including:
One dashboard with end-to-end management to configure, control and monitor security and network services
Pervasive security applied consistently across every user profile, no matter where the user is located or what their role is – and applied at the same time as optimized bandwidth consumption and network performance
Cloud-delivered services that are available globally, wherever the workforce is, for an easy on-ramp to their cloud of choice
Automation for operational efficiency, faster response to security threats, better network reliability, faster troubleshooting, and more
SASE and VMware Cloud Web Security protect employees, apps and data wherever they are
“The integration of network and security is what differentiates VMware Cloud Web Security from many of the cloud security vendors that cannot optimize bandwidth consumption and network performance at the same time.”
VMware Cloud Web Security™ protects users and infrastructure from a changing threat landscape. The solution is a cloud-hosted service of VMware SASE™ that provides visibility, control, and compliance when users, working from anywhere, access web-based applications.
Using a global network of SASE points of presence (PoPs) from VMware and its partners around the world, VMware Cloud Web Security offers consistent security enforcement that’s close to the user and optimally placed between users and their applications.
VMware Cloud Web Security protects hybrid workers from cloud threats. Source: VMware and ZK Research, 2022
VMware Cloud Web Security helps IT teams meet the challenges they see every day, including:
An agile security posture that scales easily to support new apps and defend against new threats, and closes the gaps left by traditional tools.
Seamless and secure access for the anywhere workforce with consistent policies based on identity, context, policy, and app destination no matter where the user is. IT no longer has to manage multiple policy sets in multiple locations.
Simplified operations through a single management pane, the VMware SD-WAN Orchestrator, to configure security and networking policies. IT can deploy security policies consistently across the network without any mismatch in policy implementation. Network and security teams get a common view of network state and security posture, so they can focus on addressing business needs instead of interpreting data from multiple management solutions.
Operational costs go down because IT needs fewer on-premises security appliances and less time to manage them.
