Industry Insights

Not every branch is a “Coffee Shop Network”

Work has evolved. Employees expect to connect from anywhere, accessing SaaS, cloud and corporate apps on any device. Gartner terms this coffee shop networking, a cloud-first architecture where “users split time between corporate offices and remote locations, accessing applications… via internet-based connectivity.” A key component to coffee shop networking is security enforcement, which should be uniform regardless of where the user is located.  

The coffee shop model can be suitable for specific scenarios such as small branch sites with a minimal number of users using direct-to-internet connections to Secure Service Edge (SSE) point-of-presence (PoPs). This architecture provides secure, flexible access to cloud and SaaS applications and is ideal when organizations need to quickly bring up connectivity or support users moving in and out of branches.

That said, most enterprises operate diverse branches with varying user densities, IoT, and BYOD devices. These conditions demand a full-featured SD-WAN architecture to ensure performance, visibility, and Zero Trust security across the WAN and LAN.

Below are five common scenarios where organizations may need more than what typical coffee shop networking offers.  

5 Reasons for Alternative Models to Coffee Shop Networking

1. Branch performance impacts user experience

While hybrid work is here to stay, more businesses are enforcing return to office policies. As a result, employees need low latency, minimal delay, and high uptime for their real-time collaboration tools and virtual meetings. Without SD-WAN features like QoS, WAN optimization, and network and application SLA-based routing, performance becomes unpredictable, impacting productivity and user experience.

2. IoT and unmanaged devices introduce vulnerabilities  

How do you protect devices you don’t know about? As more employees bring their own devices into branches, visibility across all endpoints becomes critical.

IoT devices like security cameras and smart TVs often go undiscovered on the network and often have unknown vulnerabilities. Unmanaged or BYOD devices may run outdated software and unsanctioned apps, making them easy targets for phishing, credential theft, and data leaks. Without proper segmentation, on-prem security, and Zero Trust policies, these devices amplify cyberattacks.

More importantly, coffee shop networking architecture relies on clients installed on the device to carry traffic to security gateways that enforce security policies. Yet, IoT devices that cannot support a client are rapidly growing at branch locations. Without clients, IOT devices in the branch are open to attack. Branches need perimeter firewalls to protect the clientless devices, a key feature lacking in the coffee shop networking architecture.

3. Corporate branches need seamless, scalable security

Today’s branches operate like campuses, hosting an ecosystem of local apps and services such as FTP servers, VoIP, APIs, and IoT devices. Securing this large proliferation of devices and applications can create VPN bottlenecks in coffee shop model deployments, resulting in poor performance. In addition, without granular micro segmentation, a single compromised device or application can allow threats like ransomware to spread east–west, compromising other sites.

4. IT and security teams need unified visibility

As Gartner notes, most SASE adoptions have been dual-vendor pairings of SD-WAN and SSE. This means IT, security, and cloud teams are often siloed, grappling with disconnected tools for network and security. This fragmented approach creates operational silos and slows time to resolution. Without a unified platform to correlate events and view performance end to end, teams struggle to pinpoint root causes of performance or security issues, leading to inefficiency, longer outages, and more unhappy users.

5. AI introduces new networking and security considerations

AI-driven applications are reshaping data and compute strategies at the branch. Organizations increasingly use on-premises AI workloads distributed across sites instead of consolidating at a centralized datacenter.

Distributed AI workloads require high-throughput, low-latency connectivity and real-time responsiveness, something best-effort internet can’t deliver. Even more critically, it requires AI-powered security to monitor, analyze, and protect these massive volumes of sensitive data. Intelligent traffic steering and AI-powered security are critical to protect and optimize these data-intensive environments.

What organizations need to consider to build resilient branches

Coffee shop networking offers a simplified, secure architecture, but some enterprises may outgrow it quickly. Here are three considerations for building resilient branches.

1. Make performance non-negotiable

Treat branches like the mini campuses they are. Ensure high-quality experience experiences at branches, especially for real-time collaboration, AI workloads, and mission-critical applications through:

• Secure SD-WAN across all WAN links – intelligently steer traffic across MPLS, LTE/5G, broadband, and satellite for optimal connectivity.
• WAN optimization – accelerate data transfers with Forward Error Correction (FEC), compression, packet duplication, TCP optimization, and caching to maximize network efficiency.
• Application-aware performance assurance – monitor and forward applications with accurate detection using deep packet inspection (DPI), SLA based decision making, intelligent path selection, for load balancing and failover.
• Traffic prioritization with QoS – ensure critical applications get the bandwidth needed with traffic prioritization, policing and queuing.

See how Versa monitors network and application performance.  

2. Deliver seamless, scalable security with Zero Trust everywhere

Enable scalable, consistent security across users, devices, and branches through:

• Zero Trust everywhere – enforce risk-based inspection across WAN, LAN, and cloud, applying ZTNA principles to every connection and branch-hosted service.
• Integrated on-prem security – enforce NGFW, URL filtering, IPS, and Zero Trust policies.
• Micro-segmentation to protect all devices – automatically discover, fingerprint, and apply appropriate policies to IoT, OT, and BYOD devices to reduce lateral movement and enforce least-privilege access.
  See how Versa
• Consistent security at all edges – apply unified policies and inspection across local and cloud edges.

See Versa’s integrated security monitoring.

3. Ensure end-to-end visibility

Get a complete view across users, devices, and applications to maintain performance and security through:

• Unified management console – centralize SD-WAN, LAN, and security management to eliminate blind spots and streamline operations.

See Versa’s end-to-end visibility.

• Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) – track performance across LAN, WAN, and cloud in real time, spotting anomalies and resolving performance issues proactively.

See Versa DEM.

Branch modernization with Versa

Versa enables flexible branch modernization, from simple coffee shop setups to complex deployments. Our Secure SD-WAN and Secure SD-LAN architecture delivers reliable connectivity across all WAN links, enforces Zero Trust at the edge, micro-segments IoT devices, and provides end-to-end visibility.

Discover how Versa Networks helps enterprises go beyond the limitations of coffee shop networking with unified Secure SD-WAN, SSE, and Zero Trust architectures. Explore Versa’s approach to coffee shop networking and branch modernization.