How to Keep Your Network Safe in 2022
- January 26, 2022
Stay ahead of the hackers and keep your data secure with our simple networking tips.
Cybersecurity has never been more important. With many businesses now fully embracing flexible and remote work models, a lot of data is traversing the globe at any given time – in fact, the latest research shows that we’re globally sharing 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every single day. (To put that number into perspective, a quintillion has 18 zeros.)
With so much critical business info at risk at any given moment, it’s no wonder that cybercriminals invest as much as they do into finding new and creative ways to penetrate your data. And these cybercriminals are successful more often than you may realize – cybercrime cost our global economies more than US$6 trillion in 2021.
But in 2022, with a bit of preparation and the latest cybersecurity technology, you can safeguard your network architecture.
1. Avoid public connections
We’ve covered the security concerns of public internet connectivity on our blog for years, and for good reason – using a public connection is like placing your data in an unlocked safe before sending it to its destination. In 2022, protecting your data with private connectivity remains one of the most important steps you can take to improve your network security.
While no connectivity method is without its risks, private connectivity protects your data from exposure to the public internet by reducing the Autonomous System (AS) paths it needs to take – in other words, shortening the road it travels. With the right provider, like Megaport, you can also encrypt your network traffic end-to-end.
And if you choose an ISO/IEC 27001 certified provider—the international standard for information security management of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)—you’ll have peace of mind knowing your provider complies with stringent standards that protect your enterprise globally.
Megaport has earned the ISO/IEC 27001 certification, effectively locking your data safe with comprehensive security features.
2. Integrate your cloud stack
According to GartnerⓇ, “By 2025, 35% of companies that use multiple public cloud providers will use a single network stack, an increase of more than 10x from 2021.”1
Aside from giving you a hybrid cloud or multicloud architecture that’s more cost effective and easier to manage, integrating your cloud stack through a single private network provider also gives you a holistic overview of your cloud applications. This means you can identify potential risks as quickly as possible, and enclose your stack within the security and protection benefits offered by your provider. Plus, you can further protect from data breaches by easily applying consistent security measures across your entire network.
Megaport Cloud Router (MCR) is one way to more closely integrate your networking across multiple clouds. This virtual routing service gives your business instant private Layer 3 connectivity, allowing you to integrate and connect to the cloud and managed services you need without any hardware. By using Virtual Cross Connects, you can route data to and between providers and platforms without hair-pinning traffic to a data center or your on-premises environment. The result can be a simplified, streamlined, and integrated hybrid cloud and multicloud network stack.
3. Supercharge your SD-WAN with edge connectivity
When it comes to network security, time is critical – and the more operationally agile your enterprise is, the more quickly you can identify and respond to security threats.
SD-WAN offers more than a network for your enterprise; it offers an ecosystem. Reputable providers like Cisco, Fortinet, Versa, Aruba, and VMware offer excellent SD-WAN solutions that integrate and optimize your increasingly distributed WAN consisting of multicloud, cloud-native network security, branches, and applications.
Learn more about the benefits of SD-WAN in this blog post comparing SD-WAN and MPLS.
You can go a step further and extend the benefits of your SD-WAN from the data center to the edge by integrating a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) hosting service that allows you to extend your SD-WAN fabric closer to the end user. This will privatize your connection all the way to and from your branch and reduce your data’s internet hops, therefore reducing instances of your data being exposed to threats.
Megaport Virtual Edge (MVE), Megaport’s on-demand NFV service, supercharges your SD-WAN by routing mission-critical traffic via Megaport’s SDN and reducing internet hops. And when you use MVE with one of our integration partners, you’ll get a lot of other benefits, too:
- Unmatched global reach with 700+ Megaport enabled data centers, 100+ unique operators, 240+ Cloud interconnects, and 20+ MVE enabled metros
- Faster resource deployment to save time
- Increased connectivity and maximum edge diversity
- Access to a dedicated global team of software-defined networking experts
- Flexible range of connectivity options with unrestricted choices
- Simplified deployment, requirements, and costs
- Immediate provisioning access for fast modernization.
4. Don’t just protect your network – protect your applications
When cyberattacks occur, they not only put your sensitive data at risk, they can also leave you unable to access the applications vital to running your business.
The best way to mitigate this risk is to operate dedicated connections and reduce reliance on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as much as possible, like web application security provider RedShield did.
RedShield’s customers, in industries ranging from government to healthcare, rely on them to help keep their web applications safe in today’s cybersecurity landscape. RedShield’s proprietary “shielding” tools protect customers from security vulnerabilities, but these tools rely on highly available connectivity to provide constant protection.
RedShield was using ISPs for their connectivity, but they had a problem – if an ISP link RedShield used was targeted by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, congesting the link, the team was effectively blocked from the customer’s server, meaning they were also blocked from being able to manage risks and ensure dynamic web app content was working properly. They knew they needed to make a change.
By leveraging a dedicated link to application servers via Megaport, they were able to transform cybersecurity for both themselves and their customers. Once set up, they began offering the choice of either MegaIX or Virtual Cross Connects (VXCs) to bypass the internet via Megaport.
Through either method, RedShield can now leverage their dedicated connections to directly, securely, and consistently access and protect their customers’ servers.
By protecting your data with a private global network and extending this private connectivity across your cloud stack and to the edge, you can elevate your network security and protect your enterprise data almost anywhere it goes.
Ready to get started? You can deploy a global, high availability network in minutes with Megaport’s industry-leading Network as a Service (NaaS) platform – just point, click, and connect.
1Gartner®, Predicts 2022: Connecting the Digital Enterprise, By Andrew Lerner, John Watts, Joe Skorupa, Published 2 December 2021.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
