Versa Networks
August 15, 2018
The 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) compiled by Verizon is loaded with cloak and dagger cyber events conducted by both known and unknown bad actors and mechanisms. Verizon identified 53,000-plus incidents and 2,200 breaches in only 12 months, suggesting an information parallel universe in which an uneven playing field exists whereby the bad guys and rouge bots consistently probe from the outside. Here are some of the key findings in terms of actual breaches: 73 percent were perpetrated by external forces 50 percent were carried out by organized crime groups 48 percent were due to hacking; 30 percent from…
Versa Networks
August 6, 2018
Once again, recently we heard about an enterprise that succumbed to a major security breach. Shipping giant COSCO lost email and IP phone connectivity throughout their entire US network. And without finding the cause, the company shut down networks within other regions. This example, along with countless others, solidifies the point that distributed networks and security are inherently symbiotic. COSCO says the incident was a network breakdown that led to the ransomware infection. While some are arguing it was the network, others say it was a Malware security breach. The COSCO event was not only a network breakdown, it was…
Versa Networks
July 31, 2018
According to 451 Research, there are several key factors behind the recent emergence of autonomous vehicles (AVs): a combination of increasing computing capabilities (Moore’s law), accessibility of data, meaningful and actionable insights through analytics of this data, and the advent of AI, machine learning and artificial neural networks. Expertise and technology in these fields have historically been outside the core competencies of traditional automotive players (OEMs, suppliers). This vacuum has attracted the likes of new and old IT hardware and software providers to find a role in the future connected car and AV. 451 says that the largest impending innovators will come from…
Versa Networks
July 24, 2018
Typically, WAN solution vendors talk about performance in terms of speeds and feeds. But, I like to think about performance as it relates to all aspects of connectivity. This includes speed, control, visibility, reliability, ease of deployment and monitoring, and of course security. I think about it in these terms because each of these areas are controllable by the right holistic SD-WAN architecture. Unfortunately, the accumulation of multiple disparate routing and switching devices, including firewalls, intrusion detection and threat mitigation, makes it difficult to obtain network visibility and correlate real-time events that can degrade or disrupt performance. With Secure SD-WAN,…
Versa Networks
July 18, 2018
Ubiquitous cloud access has become more business-critical than ever and monitoring, managing and trouble-shooting have increased in complexity. SD-WAN allows organizations to seamlessly bring together diverse circuits like MPLS, DIA Internet, broadband Internet, WiFi, satellite and any other network transport with an IP address. We can already see some of the ways in which AI can optimize WANs to improve business outcomes. For example, ubiquitous networking has become a critical layer in the network landscape to ensure reliable, cost-effective and highly scalable connectivity. The challenge is in managing the ubiquitous WAN’s real-time decision making, based on network conditions, locations and…
Versa Networks
July 6, 2018
Networking and security IT infrastructures have evolved to a level of complexity unmanageable by operators and enterprises using a conventional approach. The ongoing reliance upon legacy network hardware and disjointed WAN architectures inhibit the operational agility required by global organizations looking to digitize business services with secure, multi-cloud connectivity. The intersection of network reliability and application performance requires a more flexible, versatile network architecture with security and cloud integration at the forefront; thus, optimal WAN-path selection alone is no longer good enough in a multi-threaded threat environment. Large-scale enterprises with far-flung remote locations and highly distributed data centers are facing…
Versa Networks
June 28, 2018
One of the biggest sporting extravaganza of the world is currently on in Russia. The 2018 FIFA World Cup, which commenced on the 14th of June 2018, will see 32 teams compete across 64 games and four adrenaline and emotionally packed weeks in Russia. Let’s begin with some eye-opening statistics. According to a number of sources, the 2014 World Cup was watched by 3.2 billion people worldwide, making it the largest ever in FIFA history. In total, 280 million people watched matches online or through a mobile device. Experts expect that the viewership numbers in 2018 will see an increase…
Versa Networks
March 20, 2018
“Security by design is a mandatory prerequisite to securing the IoT macrocosm, the Dyn attack was just a practice run.” – James Scott, Sr. Fellow, Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology. Remember the 21st of October 2016? A series of carefully mastered DDoS attacks paralyzed internet services on the East Coast, affecting the businesses of market giants like Amazon, Netflix, PayPal, Starbucks, Verizon, Visa – the actual list is longer, and pretty impressive. The US Department of Homeland Security launched an investigation and it revealed that the extremely sophisticated attack was a botnet that spread through a large number of Internet…
Versa Networks
March 2, 2018
Many still consider SD-WAN as an emerging technology in the enterprise IT space. However, SD-WAN has started to gain traction among IT leaders. Organizations world-wide that are gearing up or are mid-way through a ‘digital transformation’ drive need to take a more software-defined approach to their infrastructure. IT teams in these organizations are increasingly relying on automation to help them with the routine tasks to make IT more efficient. Analyst firm IDC believes that SD-WAN market will reach USD 8 billion by 2020, a CAGR of 70% per year growth over the next four years. While some believe that the…
Versa Networks
December 15, 2017
An Excuse for a Blog Recently, Versa Networks participated in the AWS integration testing performed by the ESG Group that culminated in their recently published buyer’s guide for SD-WAN solutions in AWS. The timing of this test was perfect as it coincides with increased customer interest in both hybrid and multi-cloud solutions. The timing was perfect for another reason: Versa has been adding quite a bit of innovation around native integration with various public cloud environments, but these tend to make sense to folks employed by “born-in-the-cloud” employers, where Python and JSON, not BGP and OSPF are the main job…