ESG Report: Network Security Without the Complexity

The problems with securing modern corporate networks are everywhere to see, and companies often aren’t sure how to solve them. That’s where Perimeter 81 comes in. We are purpose-built to meet today’s networking problems, but don’t just take our word for it. A recent technical validation of our platform by analyst and research firm, ESG confirms that Perimeter 81 should be on “your short list for evaluating security solutions.”

The Broken Hub-and-Spoke Approach

The traditional corporate perimeter is no longer a “fixed point” in cyberspace that can be reasonably defended. The advent of cloud resources, Software-as-a-Service applications, and remote work have completely decimated the notion of defending a single perimeter. On top of that, ransomware and other malicious threats are constantly bombarding our email, text messages, chats, and more. All of these threats are looking for that one critical error that exposes the entire company to threat actors. 

To deal with today’s security problems many companies deploy “multiple hardware and software-based products, as well as multiple monitoring tools, for maintaining an acceptable level of network security,” ESG says.

But now they have two problems: an endless stream of network security threats plus the added complexity that comes with managing multiple tools to address those threats. This inevitably leads to security gaps, inefficiencies, added capital expenditures, and added labor costs to maintain all those new tools. It’s a never ending battle that leads to  many businesses falling into what we call the cyber complexity trap.

Easy Networking

Perimeter 81 addresses networking and network security needs for businesses of all sizes, without the hassles of added expense and maintenance. Our solution has one simple goal: to create a business network out of the public Internet. This is an especially important consideration for newer companies that haven’t yet gone down the road of legacy costs such as MPLS lines and SD-Wan boxes. Yet even companies with traditional legacy tools are finding these solutions are no longer relevant, especially when fast Internet connectivity is abundant. 

Perimeter 81’s Triple Play

In addition to creating these new Internet-based networks, we secure them with advanced solutions such as Zero Trust Network Access, Secure Web Gateway, and Firewall-as-a-Service. 

Together these tools connect and secure on-premises data centers, cloud resources, and SaaS applications into a single, secure network delivered over the Internet. 

We also do this without using any secret protocols that are closed to scrutiny. Just like most traditional VPNs, we use well known protocols such as IPSec and Wireguard. The difference is that the cloud isn’t limited to corporate gateways in a handful of locations. Instead, we bring the gateways to where your users are with over 50 points-of-presence around the globe from Philadelphia to the Philippines.

These tools and our approach to them result in numerous advantages for our customers. First, we simplify operational complexity. “With the Perimeter 81 platform, organizations can configure, deploy, and manage a network security architecture via a single web-based console,” ESG said in its report. 

ESG goes on to explain that traditional network security architecture adds unnecessary complexity, because you have to deploy and configure multiple security products. Then you have to learn each system’s management system, and finally understand how to use the security monitoring tools in order to detect potential threats and attacks. 

The Perimeter 81 platform, by comparison, enables “organizations to architect, deploy, and monitor a network security infrastructure from a single interface via its menu-driven workflows.”

We also reduce time to deployment by making it easy for IT teams to deploy the Perimeter 81 agent to a corporate fleet of devices. Alternatively, IT managers can have their users download the agent manually and sign-in. Either way, the agent is automatically configured with all policies set by the IT teams for web use and application access.

Because the Perimeter 81 platform is “set once, set everywhere” it frees up more time for security teams to actually monitor and take action to protect the network. “Any time spent on deploying, updating, and scaling a network security architecture leaves the organization vulnerable. Deployment time must be minimized. ESG validated that the Perimeter 81 platform can dramatically reduce the time for organizations to deploy their network security resources,” ESG said.

We also work hard to increase visibility with the single-pane-of-glass approach, which ESG said makes it possible to “flag unusual network activity that may be related to suspicious behavior.”

Cloud-Based, Converged Networking and Security

The old hub-and-spoke approach to networking and network security no longer addresses the needs of businesses and users. 

“With the lack of a fixed network perimeter, backhauling traffic to a corporate data center for security purposes is impractical and expensive. Now that the attack surface is fluid and dynamic…Security gaps emerge while overall visibility is incomplete, leading to increased vulnerability,” ESG said. 

The fact is today employees need high performance networks with seamless connections, while IT teams need high levels of visibility and control over company devices, private employee data, and company resources. 

Our high performance networking capabilities along with comprehensive security meet the needs of today’s companies. We also dramatically reduce the time to deployment, simplify network and operational complexity for IT and security teams, and establish end-to-end visibility to more easily identify and mitigate potential threats.

Want to read more? Download ESG’s full technical validation of Perimeter 81.