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=> '', 'excerpt' => 'In this guide to IT Managed Services and Network Managed Service, we’ll describe the concept of Managed Service, including why it exists, how the various process outcomes work, and how to use these services to improve the core and context activities within your business. ', 'status' => '1', 'mime_type' => null, 'comment_status' => '1', 'comment_count' => '0', 'promote' => false, 'path' => '/insights/guides/it-managed-services-network-managed-service', 'terms' => '', 'sticky' => false, 'lft' => '11', 'rght' => '12', 'visibility_roles' => '', 'type' => 'guides', 'publish_start' => null, 'publish_end' => null, 'updated' => '2021-05-26 09:52:29', 'updated_by' => '1', 'created' => '2021-05-25 09:13:35', 'created_by' => '1', 'author_id' => '0', 'is_leadership_team' => '0', 'plain_text_content' => ' IT Managed Services & Network Managed Service Guide | Forfusion ExpertiseServicesInsightsCase StudiesContactSearch Expertise CollaborationIntelligent WorkspaceEnterprise NetworkingData Centre & CloudSecure WorkplaceServices Consulting ServicesTechnical ServicesProject ServicesManaged ServicesInsights GuidesWhite PapersCase StudiesContactSearch HomeInsightsGuidesThe Definitive Guide to IT Managed Services and Network Managed Service Guide The Definitive Guide to IT Managed Services and Network Managed Service Read time 37 mins The Definitive Guide to IT Managed Services and Network Managed Service Contents Contents 01 Section 1: What is a Managed Service? 02 Section 2: What is an IT Managed Service? 03 Section 3: What is Outsourcing? 04 Section 4: Cloud-Based Managed Services 05 Section 5: Top Qualities of Managed Service Providers 06 Section 6: Selecting a Managed Service Provider 07 Section 7: What is in a Managed Service? Book Consultation Simply enter your details below and we’ll contact you to arrange your free 30 minute consultation. Full Name*Email Address*Company*Job Title*I would like to recieve the latest news and insights from Forfusion.Book now In this guide to IT Managed Services and Network Managed Service, we’ll describe the concept of Managed Service, including why it exists, how the various process outcomes work, and how to use these services to improve the core and context activities within your business. In this guide: Section 1: What is a Managed Service? Section 2: What is an IT Managed Service? Section 3: What is Outsourcing? Section 4: Cloud-Based Managed Services Section 5: Top Qualities of Managed Service Providers Section 6: Selecting a Managed Service Provider Section 7: What is in a Managed Service? Section 1: What is a Managed Service? In this section, we\'ll provide a core definition for Managed Service, give a high-level overview of the concept of Managed Service and describe the reason why companies use Managed Services. Definition of Managed Service Managed services relate to outsourcing the responsibility for supporting, and anticipating the need for, a range of processes and functions to improve operations and reduce internal costs. A typical Managed Service leverages economy of scale with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) who has the skill, expertise and cost base of providing an essential business service cheaper than a customer organisation can perform where it is not a core activity of their business. A Brief History of Managed Services Managed Services typically associate with technology outsourcing and out-tasking. Additional Managed Service offers have developed for key areas such as catering, waste recycling, materials handling, vending machines and point-of-sale (POS) equipment. We will focus on the areas of IT and Network Managed Services as the crucial areas within this article. Fully Managed Services Fully Managed Services cover everything from alerts to problem remediation. They assess your existing IT environment and management requirements to help you decide what services and service levels you need. It will include an audit of infrastructure and an assessment through Consulting and Professional Services. The overall design will be reviewed for business relevance and to mitigate costs for further expansion or repurposing assets congruent to business needs changes. It will then map into the service requirements for how to maintain and manage this posture. The transition into a Fully Managed Service will be that the provider will perform these tasks for the contracting organisation and be subject to key performance indicators to measure the performance and demonstrate value for money. Section 2: What is an IT Managed Service? In this section, we’ll provide a definition for IT Managed Service and describe some of the technical areas that Managed IT Services can cover. It’s good to understand that the various services and providers are available. It\'s also important to remember, not all providers provide all services and cover you from end to end. One MSP may include all the services as described below, while another might only offer a sub-set of these services or potentially specialise in just one. Regardless, if your business wants to utilise an MSP, it’s good to know what infrastructure is available. Managed Networks and Infrastructure With this type of service, a Service Provider (SP) or Managed Service Provider (MSP) generally takes on the entirety of network tasks. It includes establishing a Local Area Network (LAN), Wireless, Wide Area Network (WAN), Collaboration and various interconnections for your business. They may also manage backup and storage options. Managed Security Service It is an overarching statement of service for remote security infrastructure. It encompasses backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solutions through user and application segmentation, Firewall policy management and anti-malware options, keeping them updated in real-time. Managed Support Services Managed support services are common in managed services providers. It usually covers myriad services concerning IT help, from troubleshooting to dealing with advanced issues. It may also involve dealing with additional 3rd party suppliers of hardware, software and cloud infrastructure. Managed Print Services With this managed service, a Managed IT Services Provider will remotely assist with data and file infrastructure. It’s often best for organisations with complex file management needs. Managed Cloud Infrastructure Managed cloud infrastructure is one of the more complex services regarding cloud infrastructure management, handling compute power, storage, network, and IT in general. Some providers may also offer virtualisation services for applications, software, operating systems, or virtual devices. Managed Software as a Service (SaaS) Providers typically offer a software platform that can be consumed as used and is subscription-based for businesses. A few examples include Office 365, Microsoft Teams, WebEx Teams, Salesforce.com, universal communication software, and anti-virus software. Managed Mobile Service An MSP that offers managed mobile connectivity will implement wireless connections. This service is helpful for businesses that don’t have the capital to invest in setting up their own. Additionally, organisations can utilise this service for internal networks. These solutions typically include Mobile Device Management (MDM). Managed Communication and Managed Collaboration Services They range from unified communications infrastructures such as video conferencing, instant messaging, presence, VoIP (voice over internet protocol), data, voice recording and contact centre. An MSP, in specific scenarios, can operate as a third-party call centre and/ or service desk. Data Analytics Companies interested in monitoring services specific to data management and its consumption may require data analytics. The service encompasses business intelligence to target particular trends, creating roadmaps for increased business performance. The managed service market is diverse. There is flexibility in how a customer chooses to approach the management of technologies internally or use a specialist organisation to provide domain-specific services. It is excellent for businesses because it means customers can find coverage for every aspect of their IT. Customers can use a Managed Service Provider to cover their needs without needing the staff or capital to build them independently. Customers can find specific or tailored solutions appropriate for small, medium, or enterprise-level businesses (especially with flexible service-level agreement plans). There are alternative methods to consume and pay for the Managed Services too. These can be full-term upfront, annual billing, true forward, monthly and pay as used. The Benefits of Managed IT Support Beyond specialised, domain-specific services, it is also possible to implement support via staff-based services. IT support is an especially critical area, as problems of varying severity occur every day. However, it may not be possible to address all of them with your current staff model, or existing solutions lack long-term stability and/ or consistency. This is where Managed IT Support Services are relevant. As the types of managed services, we previously mentioned, the implementation of IT support services are through a third-party provider. However, the difference is that this type of outsourcing is at the staff level. For example, Patching and cabling changes require a person to be on site physically. The benefits of Managed IT Support, when you outsource to a managed IT services provider; it releases time and resources within your company. This outsourcing of non-core business activity allows the company to focus on growing its core business. The internal IT team has more time and is free to work on the projects that deliver results and contribute to the success of your business, instead of spending their time troubleshooting or answering staff queries. MSPs also provide robust security and firewalls, so you can relax and focus on your business\' core competencies, knowing that your IT infrastructure is protected from malicious threats. One main benefit of managed IT support services is filling employment gaps. However, there are many more advantages beyond the scope of employment. For one, an MSP has a wide range of experience and knowledge from career specialists and IT experts. This broad range of expertise means they can deploy solutions and strategies which can elevate performance across the board. Managed IT support also has the benefit of cost savings when structured correctly. Because a company does not need to hire and maintain their staff, businesses can avoid additional costs when new technology deploys. Additionally, by proactively addressing IT problems, which can cause downtime or performance issues, a company can ensure that it works as efficiently as possible. Expertise from the MSP is readily available. Using managed IT services gives customers access to a whole pool of talent that would otherwise be unavailable. Most MSPs have numerous employees who specialise in different areas of IT; except for the largest of global businesses, it would be virtually impossible, and not cost-effective, to hire such a varied range of skills in-house. Using an MSP, customers benefit from the experts they have working for them, leading to another critical impact on the customer\'s business, reducing recruitment costs. Utilising the expertise from the MSP team means customers can defer having to hire as many people in-house, which saves time and money on recruitment, training and HR-related administration. It does not replace an in-house IT team. Many businesses adopt a hybrid approach to IT, combining an in-house team with a managed services provider. By taking this approach, your in-house team are free to work on high-impact projects, while the MSP can keep critical infrastructure optimised in the background. Financial planning and budgeting is another reason why IT outsourcing is cost-effective. It is because it allows customers to budget for the year ahead accurately. By paying a monthly fee, there are little or no unplanned costs that could disrupt the IT budget\'s accuracy. The known impact with this cost accurately calculated is that customers have the flexibility to invest in other areas of their business. Defined within the scope of the Managed service, the MSP will update software as soon as the updates become available, which saves customers time from researching and implementing themselves. The software will always be the most pertinent version, and customers will not have to pay for repeated updates. The further hidden aspect to this, for many companies, is where there is a mix of different manufacturer\'s devices interoperating as part of the solution. The cost of the time for general staff to research the interdependencies, decide upon which versions are compatible, potentially verifying with numerous vendors can be very time-consuming. It has a magnified impact when a software patch is a result of a highlighted security vulnerability. Managed Services covering Security, Networking and Cloud architectures will have the experience and knowledge from undertaking these tasks as part of their day-to-day business. It is a strong reason for utilising experts who undertake this type of work as their core business. Using a managed IT service means customers can reduce the amount of IT infrastructure you have on-site by using provider data centres and servers through the Cloud instead. It can save customers office space as well as money on energy bills, hardware and equipment. It is a very current concern with the rise in flexible working due to what we have experienced with Covid-19. Section 3: What is Outsourcing? In this section, we\'ll provide a core definition for outsourcing, give a high-level overview of the concept of outsourcing, and describe why companies use outsourcing. Definition of Outsourcing Outsourcing is where a company hires a third party to perform tasks, handle operations or provide services. The hired company, also known as the service provider or a third party, arranges its employees and/ or systems to perform the tasks or services either on-site at the hiring company\'s facilities or external locations. Companies today can outsource numerous tasks or services; they often outsource information technology services, including programming and application development and technical support. It is common to outsource customer service and call service functions. Companies can outsource other types of work, including manufacturing processes, human resources tasks and financial functions such as bookkeeping and payroll processing. Companies can outsource entire divisions, such as their whole IT department or just parts of a particular department. Outsourcing business functions is sometimes known as contracting out or business process outsourcing. Outsourcing can involve using a sizeable third-party provider, such as Verizon managed IT services or logistics supply chain services. Still, it can also include hiring independent contractors, temporary office workers and freelancers. Reasons for Outsourcing Companies often outsource to minimise or consolidate costs, drive further efficiencies, and improve pace. Businesses that outsource depend on third-party providers to performing expert tasks for their benefit. Fundamentally, the external party focuses on that particular task; hence it can likely do it better, more economically and faster than the hiring company. With such compelling benefits, companies often decide to outsource supporting functions within their businesses to free up resources for company-specific core competencies, so they can yield significant competitive advantages in their chosen markets. Some companies, however, outsource for different reasons. Some have recruitment challenges, with little access to full-time employees with the specialised skills and experience needed to perform specific jobs. Companies sometimes opt to outsource to avoid meeting regulatory requirements or commitments to other third parties. Increasingly, firms are looking to outsourcing providers to provide innovation and creativity. Section 4: Cloud-Based Managed Services Beyond traditional MSP models, cloud-based services are growing in use as well. That is because the adoption of cloud models for tech businesses is increasing and need accompanying support. Cloud managed services fit the model of crucial IT support but do so following a cloud model. Cloud-based managed services offer remote assistance with IT troubleshooting, application performance, network building, cybersecurity, responsive support, and data monitoring. Companies can augment their staff and infrastructure in areas lacking while also providing a proactive approach to their framework. For example, data monitoring handled by a cloud-managed service can help monitor the use of company bandwidth. Or security monitoring keeps a business network safe by searching for unusual activity and malware intrusions. The cloud is only getting more significant and more ubiquitous, and therefore so are cloud-based managed services. Section 5: Top Qualities of Managed Service Providers If your organisation is interested in investing in a managed provider, it is essential to establish what you need. Understanding what makes a third-party provider a trusted source is critical. No one wants to adopt a long-term plan for essential elements of their business operations and not achieve the desired business objectives. Here are some characteristics of top-performing managed providers: Responsive - A quality MSP will provide critical support well within a 24-hour framework. The faster, the better. Service Level Agreement Pricing - Every business has different resources and needs. That’s why a trustworthy provider will often offer flexible pricing models. Security - An MSP handling any kind of information must have robust security measures and responses to combat data loss. Backup Recovery Options - Downtime is always a possibility. If you experience downtime, you need to know your information is safe in times of crisis. Various Service Options - Many reliable MSPs will cover a range of services, meaning you can meet multiple needs all in one place. Accessibility - You should have access to your information from any secure point, whether the office or a mobile device. Section 6: Selecting a Managed Service Provider The guidance for selecting a Managed IT Service Provider is to understand where the demarcation is for what the customer still wants to retain direct control over and where the assistance is required. This needs to be clearly articulated to avoid any misunderstanding, scope creep or expectation gap between the contracting parties. Have a clear understanding of what the objective is for the Managed Service. Is this to provide consequential savings? Is it a deferral of cost to recognise the additional savings to be made through having a fixed-term contract without any surprises? The customer will not need to invest in new service management software, platforms or reporting tools. No training, development or recruitment. Also, Managed Services provide measurable value in terms of: Control - Contractual defined SLAs, monthly reporting, KPIs that can be defined by agreement. Business focus - The customer in house team can be focussed on delivering tangible business goals. Security - Utilising an expert company to provide a holistic approach across the various Security domains; it can provide highly secure identity-based services, prevent intrusion across multiple Security attack vectors. Flexibility - To provide scale and agility. Cost predictability - Costs that will increase or decrease in line with the customer growth. Risk management - Security, systems, changes to requirement – all these options can be included to augment the value through delivering against the business requirements. The value of an effective MSP is also through knowledge savings. Once in a relationship and thorough knowledge of the customer infrastructure, they can assist customers with other IT challenges. An effective MSP can help a company transform and scale its IT platform and has IT experts to assist in projects or new technology. Think of it as an extension of the in-house IT team. Return on Investment (ROI) is a key critical success factor. The simple view is that to have a successful relationship with an MSP, the cost of using the service must be less than the cost of delivering this service, to the same standard, utilising internal resources. However, ROI is not straightforward to calculate as the business environment is constantly evolving. The current state savings should facilitate the change to a managed services provider, but it is the desired state that delivers the significant financial benefit. The strength of managed services is really in the management of variation or change, or risk. They bring predictable costs that can flexibly change to meet a customer’s changing requirements, aligned to focusing the customer team on the core business goals. Selecting the right provider. Customers are entirely reliant on their IT infrastructure for operations; the choice of managed services partner is critical. Pick the wrong provider, and this may have an impact on short-, and long-term plans for business growth. What characteristics should a customer be looking for in an ideal MSP? A due diligence checklist could contain, from a technical view: Services offered - Does the MSP actually support the technology, function and features you need? Experience - A glossy brochure is one thing, but proof through case studies demonstrates that the MSP can fulfil their promises. Ask to speak directly to one of their existing customers as a reference. Pedigree - How long has the prospective MSP been in business? What is their heritage? How long have they been in the cloud/managed services game? Cultural fit - Ensure that your service provider shares your vision SLAs - Does the MSP share your priorities? Can they respond to issues and provide resolutions in the timeframes you specify? Technologies - If your business hopes to take advantage of the latest technologies, you need a partner who has experience – and uses them in-house. Cost - Does the contract quote fit your budget? Future proofing - Make sure your MSP can cater for your future transformational requirements and their view of innovation through automation matches your own aspirations. Finally, consider how much it will cost to transfer operations to the Managed Service and then consider the possible ongoing savings. It will provide the opportunity to analyse the net savings. An anticipated outcome of this will be that it is more productive to utilise existing staff familiar with the business to work on projects that impact business profitability. A common issue when attempting to retain the support and management internally is that the company hire Contractors for projects to assist on projects to deliver to new business goals. Section 7: What is in a Managed Service? In this section we will discuss the characteristics of the Managed Service. All MSPs and Managed IT Service Providers will look to satisfy a customer’s basic needs of being able to resolve Incidents and complete basic Moves, Adds, Changes and Deletions (MACDs). Hardware that is found to be faulty or broken will be replaced within the scope of the service. This may be undertaken through Advanced Replacement, where a new part is sent before the faulty is returned. The other option is that the parts may be covered by a Vendor Warranty and to be cost optimised, the faulty part is returned prior to being fixed or a replacement shipped to the customer. Understanding whose responsibility the physical work of undertaking the replacement is key to agreement whilst negotiating the Service Contract and will be defined in the scope and demarcations. A key point here is that using the MSP’s staff or subcontractor to perform onsite work will likely incur more cost than simply receiving the parts and being guided by the MSP’s experts. The most common structure of a modern Network Managed Service will contain: Monitoring MSPs will deploy active and passive monitoring tools. Passive tools will receive information and provide an indication of whether a particular service element, normally a piece of hardware, is working and receiving data, or not. This is commonly referred to as up/down monitoring. Active tools are becoming more prevalent as both the hardware and now the applications that traverse the network are able to be monitored. Having this constant view of the network and the interconnected status’ of elements allows the MSP to be proactive and notice a service degradation before the failure occurs. Service Management Practices The MSP will frequently use the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework as a basis for operating processes. The latest version of ITIL is v4 and the emphasis for this over the previous versions is to assist Managed IT Service Providers to build their own processes based on the documented practices. Previously the emphasis was detailed on how the specific processes should work. The deployment of earlier ITIL was not flexible enough to interact with DevOps, Lean and Agile. The main aim of the core principles is to focus the MSP on achieving the outcomes required by customer whilst delivering value. The commonly understood practices described cover: Service Request Management - This process is used for treating repeatable and simple tasks, for example onboarding a new user. Monitoring and Event Management - This is the process to ensure that the customer environment can be monitored from the MSPs tools and when there is a status change to an asset, this is notified to the Management tools and can also trigger a ticket in the MSPs ticketing system. Incident Management - This is the process for restoring service once a failure has occurred. Problem Management - This process describes the method for undertaking an investigation to establish the root cause for a major incident or where there is a recurring failure leading to the same incident occurring multiple times. Change Enablement - This structure provides guidance on setting up the Change Management Process, whether this is just for the MACDs or more complex system and solution upgrades. Service Level Management - This is the process for setting up a structure of being able to categorise Incidents, Problems and Changes with a corresponding Priority and Impact. These will have differing priorities for resolution depending on the severity of the impact to the customer’s solution. Availability Management - This practice underpins the ability to offer SLAs. the aim to define, analyse, plan, measure and improve all aspects of the availability of IT services. The outcome is to ensure that all IT infrastructure, processes, tools, roles are appropriate for the agreed availability targets. Capacity and performance management - The purpose of the capacity and performance management practice is to ensure that services achieve agreed and expected performance, satisfying current and future demand in a cost-effective way. IT Asset Management - This practice joins the financial, inventory, contractual and risk management responsibilities to manage the overall lifecycle of these assets including tactical and strategic decision making. IT Asset Management is an investment that provides substantial and measurable benefits for short, medium, and long-term needs and goals. These may be Hardware or Software Assets. There is a total of 34 ITIL v4 practices split between General, Service and Technical management practices. The most pertinent for Managed Services have been mentioned here. Service Reporting is a key part of IT Managed Services as the MSP needs to be able to demonstrate their operational control of the solution that has been outsourced to them for service. This then leads to trends being identified and where there are repeated or systemic issues, continual service improvements can be highlighted between the MSP and the customer. Furthermore, the MSP must provide activity reports to show how they have been performing against agreed SLAs (see below). Customers should also request regular reports that help you calculate the value of the service received. Suggestions include: Ticket Reporting - Calls logged, tickets closed and on-hold. SLA Reporting - Performance against SLAs - response and fix times. Performance Monitoring Report - Performance of the managed infrastructure. Application Performance - Specific details on how application performance has trended through the reporting period. Proactive or Vendor driven activities - Other activities completed (software updated, security fixes applied etc). Capacity Reporting - Capacity utilisation to provide early warning of resource issues that will require additional funding or upgrades. MSP will submit strategic recommendations on a regular basis. These recommendations may highlight where the solution requires updating beyond the current deployed capability. This can be classed as Lifecycle Solutions and can be simplistic tracking or they can utilise a methodology. Lifecycle Services Lifecycle Services are the methodologies and practices that support the evolution of networks to business systems and ensure your customer the most return from their IT investments. An example of a vendor Lifecycle Services phased approach is the one shown below from Cisco (the Cisco Network Lifecycle Phases): Prepare - Develop a business case for a technology investment. Plan - Assess readiness to support proposed solution. Design - Create a detailed design to address business and technical requirements. Implement - Deploy new technology. Operate - Maintain network health through day-to-day operations. Optimise - Achieve operational excellence through ongoing improvements. These services are very pertinent when you want to build a trusted relationship which can be a great benefit when non-standard requests need to be serviced. When the relationship is very transactional and constrained by a very tightly constrained Contract, this is more time consuming and may require specific scoping, quoting, pricing and delivery terms. Having a long-term relationship with an MSP as a Partner to your business helps to build the operational flexibility and agility. Customer Experience Management Customer experience management (CEM or CXM) refers to the customer\'s overall experience and dealings with the supplier. CXM includes numerous facets where customers and suppliers interact. It could for example focus on proof of concepts (POCs), and following deployment consider service features like ease of use, dependability and reliability. There must be a shared view on how parties responsible for delivery focus their efforts to mould the customer experience. More detail on the topic of CEM or CXM can be found in our related article: What is Customer Experience Management? SLAs An MSP will generally offer a standard service level; a four-hour window to fix general support issues for instance. But these SLAs are open to negotiation according to your operating requirements and strategic importance of the system in question. The specifics of the SLA will vary between organisations. It is not uncommon to have a 15-minute response to incoming calls for support, and a 4-hour fix time for instance. Obviously, the quicker you require response/resolution, the more expensive the contract becomes – especially if you want on-site support included. Before approaching an MSP you should seriously consider the service you are handing over to your MSP, its importance to your operations, and the maximum time you can tolerate an outage for. You are then prepared to negotiate the specific terms of your SLAs. Other things to discuss when negotiating your contract include your contract period (1, 2, or 3 years), a termination clause, penalties for poor performance and service credits for failing to comply with SLAs. Service Delivery Management To provide a person to manage the Service relationship between the MSP and the customer, a Service Delivery Manager (SDM) is engaged. This is a service management professional who is ITIL qualified, has an understanding of the ITIL based practices and processes used by the MSP and can lead the governance meetings. Historical information is used to build the Service Reports. The SDM provides the explanations for the actions that have happened and also the SLA and KPI performance. The SDM will also be a point of escalation during service outages and other activities relating to the service. The SDM will be the route for consolidating all of the operational feedback. Where there are trends within the types of incidents, they may initiate the problem management process. From the resulting investigation of the root cause, continual service improvement (CSI) actions and recommendations will be made. It is important to understand that some of these may be configuration changes or software updates. Some issues may be lifecycle and supportability related which could require Consulting work, redesign of the solution and a purchase decision by the customer. 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', 'layout' => '', 'url' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), 'User' => array( 'password' => '*****', 'id' => '1', 'role_id' => '1', 'username' => 'PaulPrecept', 'name' => 'PaulPrecept', 'first_name' => '', 'last_name' => '', 'email' => 'paul@precept.co.uk', 'website' => null, 'activation_key' => 'a98cd5ca68162fc76db9b9d0b1291775', 'image' => null, 'bio' => null, 'status' => '1', 'updated' => '2018-05-04 09:17:41', 'updated_by' => null, 'created' => '2016-10-12 16:25:43', 'timezone' => '0', 'created_by' => null ), 'AuthorNode' => array( 'id' => null, 'parent_id' => null, 'user_id' => null, 'title' => null, 'slug' => null, 'body' => null, 'excerpt' => null, 'status' => null, 'mime_type' => null, 'comment_status' => null, 'comment_count' => null, 'promote' => null, 'path' => null, 'terms' => null, 'sticky' => null, 'lft' => null, 'rght' => null, 'visibility_roles' => null, 'type' => null, 'publish_start' => null, 'publish_end' => null, 'updated' => null, 'updated_by' => null, 'created' => null, 'created_by' => null, 'author_id' => null, 'is_leadership_team' => null, 'plain_text_content' => null, 'layout' => null, 'AuthorNode' => array([maximum depth reached]) ), 'Meta' => array(), 'CmsFormSection' => array( (int) 0 => array( [maximum depth reached] ), (int) 1 => array( [maximum depth reached] ), (int) 2 => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), 'Taxonomy' => array(), 'CustomFields' => array() ), (int) 1 => array( 'Node' => array( 'id' => '229', 'parent_id' => null, 'user_id' => '1', 'title' => 'The Definitive Guide to Secure Remote Working', 'slug' => 'secure-remote-working', 'body' => '', 'excerpt' => 'In this guide to Secure Remote Working, we’ll present information to help you gain a better understanding of the concept, how this is interpreted by market leading vendors, and ways it can serve as an enabler for your workforce.', 'status' => '1', 'mime_type' => null, 'comment_status' => '1', 'comment_count' => '0', 'promote' => false, 'path' => '/insights/guides/secure-remote-working', 'terms' => '', 'sticky' => false, 'lft' => '9', 'rght' => '10', 'visibility_roles' => '', 'type' => 'guides', 'publish_start' => null, 'publish_end' => null, 'updated' => '2021-01-22 10:14:55', 'updated_by' => '1', 'created' => '2020-12-09 14:48:48', 'created_by' => '1', 'author_id' => '0', 'is_leadership_team' => '0', 'plain_text_content' => ' The Definitive Guide to Secure Remote Working | Forfusion ExpertiseServicesInsightsCase StudiesContactSearch Expertise CollaborationIntelligent WorkspaceEnterprise NetworkingData Centre & CloudSecure WorkplaceServices Consulting ServicesTechnical ServicesProject ServicesManaged ServicesInsights GuidesWhite PapersCase StudiesContactSearch HomeInsightsGuidesThe Definitive Guide to Secure Remote Working Guide The Definitive Guide to Secure Remote Working Read time 16 mins The Definitive Guide to Secure Remote Working Contents Contents 01 Section 1: What is Secure Remote Working? What defines a Secure Remote Working solution? What comprises a Secure Remote Working solution? 02 Section 2: Why is Secure Remote Working important? The increasing demand for flexible working The business benefits of flexible working 03 Section 3: How do you achieve Secure Remote Working? Typical Secure Remote Worker criteria Secure internet access Secure access to company and customer data Secure access to communication tools Secure access to collaboration and conferencing tools Secure access to work applications Ease of use 04 Section 4: Example Secure Remote Working use cases Market leading vendor solutions Cisco Secure Remote Worker Secure cloud collaboration with Cisco Webex Microsoft Secure Remote Work Secure cloud productivity with Microsoft 365 and Teams Citrix Secure Remote Access 05 Section 5: Example multivendor Secure Remote Working use case Business Email Address* I would like to recieve the latest news and insights from Forfusion. Send guide Book Consultation Simply enter your details below and we’ll contact you to arrange your free 30 minute consultation. Full Name*Email Address*Company*Job Title*I would like to recieve the latest news and insights from Forfusion.Book now In this guide to Secure Remote Working, we’ll present information to help you gain a better understanding of the concept, how this is interpreted by market leading vendors, and ways it can serve as an enabler for your workforce. Contents: Section 1: What is Secure Remote Working? Section 2: Why is Secure Remote Working important? Section 3: How do you achieve Secure Remote Working? Section 4: Example Secure Remote Working use cases Section 5: Example multivendor Secure Remote Working use case What is Secure Remote Working? There is no unified definition of a Secure Remote Working solution; it comprises the parts required to provide the digital workspace that a business needs to function in today’s geographically and globally dispersed workplace. Different technology vendors will focus on the tools and products that form their specific portfolio, muddying the water when trying to ascertain what tools to deploy for your business. This article explores Secure Remote Working as a concept, and where feasible it avoids vendor-specific language and terminology. What defines a Secure Remote Working solution? Secure Remote Working provides a safe and protected environment where your staff can access important company and customer data, corporate communications and application tools. Typically, this also means utilising a secure workstation, all from outside the traditional office workspace. A Secure Remote Working solution provides all these functions, protecting your business, employees, and customers from data breaches, malware, ransomware, phishing, whaling, and snooping. A right Secure Remote Working solution should seamlessly provide these functions, acting as a near-invisible protective blanket. It helps employees work remotely with sensitive company data without trying to circumvent security policies and procedures. It also provides a secure and safe remote working environment, no matter where the employee accesses their work tools. What comprises a Secure Remote Working solution? Secure Remote Working is a combination of multiple technologies and procedures comprising: Virtual Private Network (VPN) – Facilitates secure access to on-premises applications and services. VPNs also provide secure internet access for employees on public wireless or third-party corporate networks. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – This helps protect your critical applications and data, by providing an additional authentication method, typically referred to as Two Factor Authentication (2FA), something you know (your password) and something you have (a token, certificate, or passcode). MFA goes further than 2FA, as it also includes security assurance and posturing for the connecting device, determining whether it meets the corporate security policy. MFA helps identify the person accessing the resource is who they say they are. Secure DNS and DNS Filtering – This helps protect employees outside of the corporate network by protecting against Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks and defining a policy of work safe websites and web categories. Anti-Malware Protection (AMP) – The majority of attacks happen from trusted endpoints and devices, typically by utilising software designed to provide remote control or access to a computer. It is known as malware, and it can leak sensitive data, or lock data behind criminal controlled encryption resulting in ransom situations. AMP protects the employee by acting as a protection layer to stop these applications, installing themselves regardless of the vector used to spread it. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) – DLP is a strategy for ensuring that end-users do not send sensitive or critical information outside the corporate network. The term also describes software products that help an administrator control what data end users can transfer, and to whom the data is shared. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) – This provides a secure, and simple to manage corporate workstation as a virtual connection no matter what device your employees use. Critical applications and customer data accessed via secure connections to centralised VDI server farms significantly reduce the footprint to network intrusion and help protect important customer and corporate data. Single Sign-On (SSO) – Providing users with a single authentication point to access all of their corporate provided tools. When teamed with MFA, SSO allows employees to obtain an authentication and authorisation token to access all of their work tools, reducing password fatigue. Cloud Productivity and Collaboration Suites – It is important not to focus only on securing the digital workspace, but also to supply employees with tools that make it easier for them to operate as dispersed teams. Cloud collaboration and productivity tools give easier access to systems employees need to do their jobs, whilst helping the business by reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and providing greater flexibility in access no matter where the employee is. The shift towards a cloud-oriented digital workspace will likely see you selecting multiple components from the list above. However, it\'s important to note that your business may not need all of these tools, or that you may need a more specific solution for providing secure access to your on-premise digital infrastructure. See our guide for an alternative view on Zero Trust Security and how this can help provide secure access to on-premise infrastructure. Why is Secure Remote Working important? With the rise of flexible home and remote working, the requirement to provide remote access to business tools and data has increased. Remote working has been on the rise across specific industry sectors for some time, however, the recent global pandemic has driven home the requirement for remote working across nearly all business sectors. The increasing demand for flexible working Employees are now even demanding remote working as part of their working life. In a recent survey conducted by Dimensional Research only 9% of respondents perceive that they will be returning to a solely office-based role, with 58% of those surveyed expecting to work from home more than eight days each month. A recent study by YouGov revealed that 63% of employees would live more remotely from their work if home working were an option. This blending of the office and home environments requires businesses to adapt their remote working practices. The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has accelerated this shift. Office-based employees have seen that they can be successful in a home environment, and with this, there is a reluctance to revert to the previous pre-COVID work environment. It is a legal requirement within the United Kingdom for an employer to provide employees with the ability to request flexible working. In fact, flexible working was important to 87% of the UK workforce in EY\'s pre-COVID survey. More employees are looking for a flexible working environment and base their decision to work for businesses according to their flexible working policies. From a YouGov poll, 30% of remote workers reported that working from home can be lonely. It is vital to address the remote aspect of working outside the traditional office environment. Good collaboration tools will bridge the gap between team members, allowing for promoting the bond between the company culture and its employees. In the October 2020 report conducted by Dimensional Research into The Rise of the Hybrid Workplace, 98% of respondents reported frustration with video meetings when working from home, with the same amount of respondents believing that meetings will involve participants joining from home. The approach needed to be taken by businesses to address the disparate investment in on-premise solutions and create models that can successfully cope with a distributed workforce. The business benefits of flexible working In these post-COVID times, it is evident that all businesses that can provide a flexible working environment should do so, having a plan for remote working helps protect the company from disruptions to service. In the October 2020 Survey by Dimensional Research, 77% of larger organisations seek to increase the levels of flexible working that they offer. Still, businesses with flexible working arrangements for their employees also typically have higher employee retention than the increased job satisfaction of a more stable work and life balance. Providing remote working ability can also reduce the capital expenditure needed on traditional office spaces, allowing for lower headcounts in offices, reducing expenditure on real estate. In the research conducted by Dimensional Research, 53% of larger organisations plan to downsize their office locations and increase the offerings for flexible or remote working. Even in companies of 250 – 1000 staff (the average company size in the UK), 34% of respondents expect to reduce office size, with 55% expecting an increase in flexible working practices. For those looking to retain office working, employees are looking for a safer working environment with 95% of respondents to the Dimensional Research survey saying they feel uncomfortable returning to an office environment. Businesses will require better sanitisation, reduced desk sharing, and better communication and collaboration tools. With all the benefits, it also essential to realise the complications of remote working. Traditionally employees would access their corporate tools from the safety of the inside of the corporate network. It is essential to find a way to extend security to the home, and other work environments such as coffee shops, park, or hotels. Or, indeed, any areas where the traditional control over the internet provided to the employee is not controlled by the corporate security team. Failing to do so can expose the business to data breaches, either unintentionally or maliciously, which in the current global privacy environment can severely erode and damage the trust between companies and their customers, and impacting revenue from sales or costly fines. It is far easier and cheaper to address the issues up front than to rectify them later. How do you achieve Secure Remote Working? Achieving a Secure Remote Working environment can seem like a daunting task. Still, it\'s essential to step back and look at the tools and data your employees need to do their jobs successfully and then understand how to securely provide these resources so that it doesn\'t matter where or how the employee accesses these tools. Typical Secure Remote Worker criteria Let us look at the criteria that define a successful Secure Remote Working solution: Secure access to the internet Secure access to company and customer data Secure access to communication tools Secure access to collaboration and conferencing tools Secure access to work applications Ease of use. Breaking down the solution to component parts helps identify how existing tools can integrate into a complete solution. Any selected technologies must work alongside any current work practices and technology in use by your organisation. Secure internet access With the rise of flexible and home working, employees will be looking to access their work environment, whilst blending this with their personal life and commitments. Securing employee internet access reduces the vector by which malware and ransomware can enter the corporate environment. Secure DNS and DNS filtering can protect employees from dangerous websites and enforce corporate guidelines for access to risky categories (gambling, file sharing, etc…). VPNs can secure access to corporate tools or secure internet access in situations where network security is not guaranteed. AMP can help reduce the vector of unintentional infection of workstations. Secure access to company and customer data Securing access to data can involve deploying a VPN to access an on-premise resource or implementing SSO and MFA for cloud resources. Utilising a Data Loss Prevention application can help track when sensitive data is removed from a secure workspace. Secure access to communication tools Company communication tools can include email, instant messaging, and voice and video calling. These tools ensure communication between employees and customers happens securely. Utilising MFA can help ensure that no untrusted third-party can access these tools, and SSO can help with easing logons between applications, reducing employee password fatigue. Secure access to collaboration and conferencing tools Collaboration tools include voice and video conferencing, as well as document and application collaboration. Like communication tools use of SSO and MFA are applicable here, but it\'s essential to make sure that these conversations are encrypted, especially where they pass over the public internet. Secure access to work applications Work applications can include anything your employees use to do their job, whether these are office word processors, file storage, databases, or applications. Utilising MFA and SSO can help ensure that only those who need access to these applications can access them. It extends further to the employee\'s environment to access these tools, where AMP, VDI, and DNS filtering provide a secure and safe workspace. Ease of use The most important category when deploying Secure Remote Working components is that they are seamless to the employee. Use of SSO and MFA helps employees authenticate once to access all their corporate work tools while maintaining a high level of security assurance for the business. Good DNS filtering applications will allow employees to query access to resources and allow the IT Security and Compliance team to tailor access policies easily. Use of VDI and DLP callow for employees to safely utilise their own devices whilst maintaining a secure environment for corporate and customer data. No matter the approach, it is vital that solution is easy to use, it should not be a burden to the end-users to adopt the platform and components. Failure to encourage user adoption can result in employees trying to circumvent the solution, undermining its effectiveness. Example Secure Remote Working use cases Now we have an idea of what comprises Secure Remote Working and how it can benefit the business and its employees, but what is out there to help you achieve this environment? Market leading vendor solutions There are many ways to approach Secure Remote Working, with different vendors offering components to address the requirements. At Forfusion, we work three major vendors of remote working solutions: Cisco Citrix Microsoft Each vendor can provide whole or part of the solution, depending on your needs. At Forfusion, we are well versed in the capabilities and use cases for each vendor. Cisco Secure Remote Worker Cisco Secure Remote Worker is a security solution for companies and organisations who are looking for a simple, scalable, and integrated solution that delivers the strength and breadth of Cisco\'s platform approach to protecting your workforce everywhere. The solution comprises: Cisco Secure Access by Duo – a user-centric zero-trust security platform with two-factor authentication to protect access to sensitive data for all users, devices, and applications. Traditional security relies on location-based trust. A zero-trust model enforces adaptive controls and continuously verifies trust. Using a zero-trust platform such as Cisco Secure Access by Duo, you can help prevent unauthorised access, data breaches, and reduce the risk of attacks. For more information on Zero Trust Security, see our guide. Cisco Umbrella – offers flexible, cloud-delivered security when and how you need it. It combines multiple security functions into one solution, so you can extend protection to devices, remote users, and distributed locations anywhere. Umbrella is the easiest way to protect your users everywhere in minutes effectively. Cisco Secure Endpoint – provides global threat intelligence, advanced sandboxing, and real-time malware blocking to prevent breaches. Still, because you can\'t rely on prevention alone, AMP also continuously analyses file activity across your extended network, so you can quickly detect, contain, and remove advanced malware. Cisco AnyConnect – empowers remote workers with frictionless, secure access to the enterprise network from any device, at any time, in any location while protecting the organisation. AnyConnect provides secure VPN access for remote workers. Cisco Secure Mailbox – integrated cloud-hosted mailbox defence addresses gaps in email security through complete inbound, outbound and internal messages visibility to detect and block advanced email threats through superior threat intelligence. Cisco also offers a series of additional component tools that can leverage a secure remote working environment with the Webex suite of collaboration applications. Webex includes calling, messaging, and meeting functionality with native support for the Cisco Secure Remote Working solution components. Secure cloud collaboration with Cisco Webex Cisco Webex is a comprehensive collaboration suite comprising conferencing, voice and video calling, team collaboration and customer services tools, all available from the secure Cisco Webex cloud. Webex is designed from the ground up to provide a secure and scalable collaboration solution, whilst keeping management and monitoring easy. Webex comprises of: Webex Meetings – Webex Meetings is the world\'s most popular video conferencing service for the enterprise, offering highly secure integrated audio, video, and content sharing from the Cisco Webex cloud. Cognitive Collaboration features such as Webex Assistant and People Insights bring artificial intelligence to automate meeting tasks. Webex Teams – Whether on the go, at a desk, or together in a meeting room, Webex Teams helps speed up projects, build better relationships, and solve business challenges. It has got all the team collaboration tools you need to keep work moving forward and connects with the other tools you use to simplify life. Webex Calling – Webex Calling gives you a phone service in the cloud to make and receive calls on any device, anywhere—all without the overhead and hassle of managing it. Webex Contact Center – Cisco Webex Contact Center brings your business the innovation, flexibility, and agility of a cloud contact centre solution, with the security and global scalability you have come to expect from Cisco. Webex Control Hub – Cisco Webex Control Hub offers a holistic view of all your Cisco Webex services. Manage your services and users, provision devices, view detailed analytics and reporting and configure security and compliance policies. All of this can help keep data safe and meet regulatory needs. Cisco is the only cloud collaboration provider that also produces its hardware for use with these services. From Cisco IP Phones and Headsets, to Webex Room and Board Series videoconferencing endpoints, and Cisco Unified Border Elements to provide access to the PSTN or on-premise telephony platforms. Microsoft Secure Remote Work Microsoft Secure Remote Work offers a suite of products that address the challenges faced by today\'s remote workforce. The solution helps customers identify and tick-off the components that comprise a secure remote working environment; these include: Azure Active Directory - Establishing identity management in the cloud is your first step. Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) lets you manage authentication across devices, cloud apps, and on-premises apps. With single sign-on, your employees can access resources from any device while working remotely. Azure AD Application Proxy - Your business-critical apps may not be setup for access from outside the corporate network. Use Azure AD Application Proxy, a lightweight agent, to enable access to your on-premises apps without opening up broad access to your network. Combine it with existing Azure AD authentication and Azure Active Directory Conditional Access policies to keep users and data secure. Microsoft Authenticator - Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is the single best thing you can do to improve remote work security. If you cannot distribute hardware security devices, use biometrics or mobile device authentication apps like Microsoft Authenticator as the second factor. Microsoft Intune - Microsoft Intune lets you manage both company-owned and employee-owned devices from the cloud. It allows you to manage across devices (laptop, tablet, and mobile device) and operating systems (iOS, Windows, and Android). Set up your Intune subscription, add users and groups of users, assign licenses, deploy and protect apps, and set up device enrolment. Azure AD Conditional Access - Azure AD Conditional Access is the Microsoft identity security policy hub. Create Conditional Access policies according to the user, device, application, and risk. Enforce controls that allow a device trying to access a specific resource only if it\'s compliant. Office 365Advanced Threat Protection - Phishing is a primary point of entry for attackers, and recent world events have provided them with a new opportunity to trick users into clicking on lures. For security against malicious emails, Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection lets you set up anti-phishing protection to help protect your employees from increasingly sophisticated attacks. Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection - The Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection integrated suite of pre-and post-breach protection capabilities helps your security team protect your environment and scale and operate efficiently while being remote. Take advantage of Threat and Vulnerability Management, attack surface reduction, and auto investigation and remediation today. These features require relatively low effort to leverage and can significantly impact the drive to better security and improve efficiencies. Microsoft Cloud App Security - Remote workers often need access to various business-critical cloud apps to do their jobs. Use Microsoft Cloud App Security to monitor session risk, gain visibility into usage, and enforce app and file usage policies in real-time. Maintain productivity by educating and guiding workers to access the cloud resources they need through more secure methods. Microsoft Secure Score - Once you\'ve deployed your security infrastructure, ensure you\'re taking full advantage of its capabilities with an optimised configuration. Identify potential posture improvements and develop and implement a plan to get the most security out of your Microsoft 365 and Azure workloads with Microsoft Secure Score. Microsoft also offers the Microsoft 365 suite of collaboration tools to secure communication and collaboration for a dispersed national or global workforce, all with easy integration with Microsoft Cloud Security components. Secure cloud productivity with Microsoft 365 and Teams Microsoft 365 provides a wealth of tools to help teams communicate and collaborate more effectively, all securely hosted within Microsoft Azure. Office 365 provides a customisable suite of tools comprising: Office 365 – Office 365 provides web or desktop access to the suite of Microsoft Office tools. Employees can stay up to date on any device with the latest versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and more. Microsoft Exchange – With Exchange, your employees can access email and calendar across all of their devices with Microsoft Outlook. Exchange provides easy access to email to communicate with co-workers and customers. SharePoint – SharePoint empowers teamwork with dynamic and productive team sites for every project team, department, and division. Share files, data, news, and resources and customise your site to streamline your team\'s work. OneDrive – Access the information you need securely and safely across all of your devices or directly from the cloud. OneDrive provides each employee with their dedicated storage area to safely host, share, and collaborate on company and customer data. Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams is your hub for teamwork, which brings together everything a team needs: chat and threaded conversations, meetings & video conferencing, calling, content collaboration with the power of Microsoft 365 applications, and the ability to create and integrate apps and workflows on which your business relies. The value proposition of the Microsoft Cloud Security ecosystem increased significantly with the utilisation of Microsoft 365. Every application integrates tightly to provide a seamless solution for Secure Remote Working. Citrix Secure Remote Access Citrix Secure Remote Access is a comprehensive private virtual network solution that delivers all apps on any device. It allows for the tightening of security with access point for apps and resources. The solution comprises: Citrix Gateway – Citrix Gateway consolidates remote access infrastructure to provide single sign-on across all applications whether in a data centre, in a cloud, or if the apps deliver as SaaS apps. It allows people to access any app, from any device, through a single URL. Citrix ShareFile - ShareFile is a secure, enterprise data sync and sharing service with flexible storage options that allows IT to mobilise all business data. ShareFile enables mobile productivity with read-write access to data, workflows and collaboration and will enable users to securely share files with anyone and sync files across all their devices. Citrix Analytics for Security - With the advantage of work from anywhere, anytime, any device on any network, sensitive corporate data is exposed more than when users only worked from an isolated corporate office. Malicious users have a large attack surface to target. IT teams must deliver a great user experience without compromising security. Citrix Analytics for Security can help bridge that gap with a focus on user security. Citrix Endpoint Manager - Citrix Endpoint Management is a solution for managing endpoints, offering mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) capabilities. With Endpoint Management, you manage device and app policies and deliver apps to users. Your business information stays protected with strict security for identity, devices, apps, data, and networks. Example multivendor Secure Remote Working use case Finding a solution from a single vendor to complete the whole of your Secure Remote Working solution is relatively uncommon. A typical organisation will utilise components from multiple vendors; these applications must co-exist with each other. One example is where Cisco networking and hyperconverged infrastructure supports Citrix on-premises VDI workloads and provides onRamp services to Citrix Workspace, Cisco Webex Contact Centre and Microsoft Office 365 (inc. 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', 'status' => '1', 'mime_type' => null, 'comment_status' => '1', 'comment_count' => '0', 'promote' => false, 'path' => '/insights/guides/the-definitive-guide-to-software-defined-networking', 'terms' => '', 'sticky' => false, 'lft' => '7', 'rght' => '8', 'visibility_roles' => '', 'type' => 'guides', 'publish_start' => null, 'publish_end' => null, 'updated' => '2021-02-24 10:19:35', 'updated_by' => '1', 'created' => '2020-09-22 10:28:29', 'created_by' => '1', 'author_id' => '0', 'is_leadership_team' => '0', 'plain_text_content' => ' The Definitive Guide to Software Defined Networking - Forfusion ExpertiseServicesInsightsCase StudiesContactSearch Expertise CollaborationIntelligent WorkspaceEnterprise NetworkingData Centre & CloudSecure WorkplaceServices Consulting ServicesTechnical ServicesProject ServicesManaged ServicesInsights GuidesWhite PapersCase StudiesContactSearch HomeInsightsGuidesThe Definitive Guide to Software Defined Networking Guide The Definitive Guide to Software Defined Networking Read time 22 mins The Definitive Guide to Software Defined Networking Contents Contents 01 Section 1: What is Software Defined Networking (SDN)? Definition of SDN A brief history of SDN The limits of traditional networking SDN architecture The motivation for SDN Current SDN solutions 02 Section 2: What does Software Defined Networking (SDN) actually mean? Types of Software Defined Networks SDN or IBN which one? Network or Fabric? Automation and orchestration Data Centre SDN Data Centre SDN Benefits Alternative Data Centre SDN technologies WAN SDN or SD-WAN SD-WAN benefits LAN SDN LAN SDN benefits 03 Section 3: Software Defined Networking (SDN) now and in the future In this guide to Software Defined Networking (SDN), we’ll describe the concept of SDN, including why it has been developed, how the various technologies work together and the new ways in which it can be used to improve the deployment and operation of your network. Contents: Section 1: What is Software Defined Networking (SDN)? Section 2: What does Software Defined Networking (SDN) actually mean? Section 3: Software Defined Networking (SDN) Now and in the Future Section 1: What is Software Defined Networking (SDN)? In this section, we’ll try to define SDN, provide background information so that the reason why it was created can be understood, give a high-level overview of how SDN works and describe current examples of SDN technologies. Definition of SDN There’s no firm definition of Software Defined Networking in the strictest sense. However, it’s a collection of ideas and technologies intended to make the configuration and operation of the network more efficient, easier to manage, and to allow for more innovation either within or on top of the network. A brief history of SDN In order to understand the benefits of SDN, why it’s been developed and why it‘s created such interest, we need to understand the history of it – as well as the recent history of networking in general. SDN arrived in early 2011, as a result of the collaboration between Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley, with the release of the OpenFlow protocol. The research team were looking for ways that would enable the networking industry to match the rapid advancements in cloud computing, social media and virtualisation. These technologies have one thing in common: dependence on a scalable, easily managed and reliable network. The limits of traditional networking While networking has evolved at pace, compared to these other technologies it was falling behind. Networking was based on technologies dating back many decades and, as a result, it was starting to deter the progress of systems that sat on top of it – such as the need to manage each device individually. For instance, making a change across the network - such as introducing a new service - required manual configuration on every single networking device, making it a highly laborious process. Single centralised management systems, on the other hand, typically manage other systems that sit on top of the network, such as virtualised workloads or applications. Along with the issue of decentralised management is the proliferation of network-attached devices. For instance, in the case of the Internet of Things (IoT), networks can become overran with devices that wouldn’t typically have been attached. These include a diverse array of devices from environmental sensors and security cameras, through to industrial control systems and autonomous vehicles. Another example of this proliferation is the idea of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), where users bring their own devices into work and expect to be able to use these on a potentially sensitive and secured network – sometimes even without the IT department’s consent or awareness. Again, BYOD needs to be carefully regulated. Many network administrators must now do more with less and this is resulting in networks that are becoming increasingly complex and difficult to manage. The research teams worked with major companies in the industry, such as Google, Facebook. Microsoft, etc. and formed the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) to continue the work into SDN and OpenFlow. SDN architecture An SDN network can typically be split into 3 layers: the application layer, the control layer, and the infrastructure layer. The application layer sits on top of the SDN network and is used to interact with it, providing services such as monitoring, automated fault resolution and advanced reporting. The control layer is where the network is configured. This configuration is then pushed out to the infrastructure layer where the actual networking equipment exists. At the heart of OpenFlow - and any other SDN network - is the controller. This controller takes the functionality of each individual network component, the switches, routers, etc., which are then used to decide where to send traffic, before centralising it into a single place. Traditional networks, by design, exhibit what is known as ‘per hop’ behaviour. This means that - as traffic is received into each of these devices - it alone decides where to send it, based on the information it’s received from the rest of the network. The motivation for SDN This ‘per hop’ behaviour was very much the intention of the original design of the internet, and networking as a whole. Having been initially designed by the US Department of Defence as a means to provide a command and control system that could survive a nuclear strike, the system design is unsurprisingly resilient when outages occur. This is mainly due to the lack of a centralised control system. Unfortunately, the management of this ‘per hop’ behaviour does not scale well. Logging onto individual devices and making changes may work when you only have a small number of devices to manage. But even in medium-sized organisations, the number of networking devices will often be in the hundreds. When scaling up to central government, large corporate and especially hyper-scale cloud providers such as Google, AWS or Microsoft, the number of devices go from hundreds to thousands. Managing each of these devices at this scale is extremely difficult. Many network engineers and network operators will employ scripting and management systems, but these devices don’t take well to being managed in this way, making automation very difficult, unreliable and expensive. The centralised OpenFlow controller contains the entire network configuration and controls the forwarding decisions of each networking device. So, the main benefit of SDN is the removal of the need to manage each individual switch, router, firewall or access point. If it’s necessary to introduce a new service, for instance, the new configuration only needs to be completed on the centralised controller, which will then direct the network as per the centralised configuration. This centralised configuration categorises as a policy. The state of the network then feeds back to the centralised controller and uses this information, along with its configuration, to direct traffic flow through the network. This is often referred to as the ‘control plane’ within networking. The configuration of the OpenFlow controller or the networking devices is the ‘management plane’. This is the GUI command line that users interact with, or the automated management systems such as the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The actual network traffic flow, the data forwarded on the network is referred to as the ‘data plane’. It would exist on the networking devices only, meaning that the traffic doesn’t touch the centralised controller. Instead, its only aware of this traffic so that it can make the appropriate forwarding decisions. So, within traditional networks, the management, control and data plane all exist within each individual network device. SDN originally intended to remove the management and data plane in the centralised controller, however, this does bring its own issues that we’ll discuss below. Current SDN solutions Unfortunately for OpenFlow, while considered a revolutionary networking technology that kickstarted the SDN concept, its centralised nature and lack of implementation by the dominant vendors has meant deployments of this technology are limited. There’s concerns around the survivability of the network when the control plane is separated from the data plane, where traffic is forwarded. Suppose you have a central data centre that hosts the centralised controllers and this DC becomes isolated from the network, due to a failure on the wide area network for example. No traffic can be forwarded as the networking devices don’t know what to do with it. Essentially, the loss of the centralised controller in OpenFlow results in the network losing its centralised brain and the network will stop forwarding traffic. Traditional networks are like lots of smaller brains that talk to each other, meaning they can be easily designed with no single points of failure. Since OpenFlow, the major networking vendors - such as Cisco and Juniper - have been developing their own SDN technologies. Many of these take the original idea of a hyper-scalable network with a centralised management, but move the control plane back to the individual devices. This allows the benefits of both worlds. The centralised management model means that changes to the network can take place at scale, but the loss of a centralised controller doesn’t mean that the network stops dead. The diagram below provides an example of how SDN is deployed today, using widely adopted and popular Cisco SDN solutions, to provide a complete SDN network: This diagram shows how SDN can be used across the WAN to securely link various sites, bring users and data centres together, and provide secure, scalable access into public cloud services. Connectivity, routing and security over the WAN for each remote site is managed via the SD-WAN controllers, with the entire data centre and office/campus network being similarly managed and monitored via their own centralised controllers. Section 2: What does Software Defined Networking (SDN) actually mean? Software defined networking is the process of building an entire network using only policies from a centralised management system. In the past, we configured each one of the devices in the network independently of each other. This process was costly and time-consuming. But with software defined networking, we can now quickly describe a design of a network that will support multiple functions, without the need to configure each one of the devices individually. Within SDN, the network itself functions as a single entity, rather than an array of different components with their own independent functions, configurations and logic. SDN moves the management plane from individual network devices to a centralised controller or controllers. The underlying network equipment still contains the data plane, which physically forwards the traffic down the wires, and often the control plane, where traffic forwarding decisions happen. Configuration contained within the management plane directs the control plane, making configuration on the centralised controllers, which pushes down to the network equipment. This enables the network equipment to control the data plane and forward the network traffic. The control plane often exists on the network equipment, so that if communication to the centralised controller is lost, the network equipment can continue to make forwarding decisions based on the latest version of the network configuration from the controller. Types of Software Defined Networks SDN can be divided into several subcategories: Data Centre SDN WAN SDN or SD-WAN LAN (Campus) SDN Each solution is specifically designed to meet the needs of each deployment type. SD-WAN is designed to run at scale and allow for flexible WAN deployments over any type of connection. Data Centre SDN is designed to be scalable and flexible to incorporate the needs of different applications hosted in a data centre. LAN or Campus SDN is designed to accommodate lots of different end users and their attached devices. SDN or IBN which one? As the technology has matured, the term SDN – which describes the process of programmatically creating a network and its interactions – has given way to the term Intent Based Networking (IBN). IBN better describes the process of using a software controller to create a policy that sends configuration to the network devices – regardless of whether these devices are implemented in hardware or software. While SDN and IBN are effectively the same thing, you can expect to see the term IBN being used in favour of SDN in the future. For the time being though, SDN will continue to be the preferred term. Network or Fabric? The term ‘fabric’ comes from Storage Area Networking (SAN) and specifically refers to a storage networking technology known as a Fibre Channel (FC). SANs are used in data centres to allow the storage of large amounts of data, via disks that can be shared by servers over the SAN. Rather than describing a SAN as a network it was described as fabric. All of the parts of an FC SAN interact and are controlled as a single entity. This term has been borrowed for SDN / IBN, as much as it is with an FC SAN. An FC SAN would have been more commonly seen in a data centre describing an ethernet network, as a fabric originated there first. In reality, both the term fabric and network are interchangeable – and both are correct. Automation and orchestration One of the immediate network benefits of SDN is the ability to create an overarching policy-based ‘plan’ for how the designer wants the network to interact both with the applications it carries and with other networks. In effect, this is programmatically using software to orchestrate the configuration of each device in the fabric. Therefore, the SDN controller is a fabric orchestration engine, used to automate the deployment of networking configuration. The rise of infrastructure as code has thrown up an interesting quandary. Seeing as we can automate the deployment of not just the network, but also the applications, supporting compute and its storage, is it better to program everything using the software controllers for each one? Or use a top-level orchestration engine that can program the controllers themselves, negating the need to interact directly with the software controllers? It seems a more straightforward proposition to use a top-level orchestration engine that interacts with the network, compute, storage, applications and various cloud services. This way, a policy only needs to be defined once. The top-level orchestration engine interprets the policy intent and creates the specific code to pass to each of the lower level software controllers, which are orchestration engines themselves. The most accurate term for this process is Intent Based Infrastructure (IBI), which encompasses the process of defining the entire infrastructure and its interaction, as opposed to defining each part individually. The diagram below shows how orchestration can work by using a centralised orchestration engine to drive configuration throughout the entire network infrastructure, passing instructions down from the central orchestration engine to the various controllers for the different SDN types. This orchestration uses SDN technologies developed over the past few years, but are based on pre-existing technologies used elsewhere in the industry to configure virtual and physical devices or applications en masse: Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) - an extremely common technology used within software development - are used to push instructions from the orchestration engine to the various centralised controllers. In turn, these controllers interpret, translate and push this configuration down to the networking and server equipment. The controllers use industry standard methods, such as Representational State Transfer (REST), where World Wide Web standards are used to send and receive information or instructions to send these commands. This is a reliable method with many tools and functions already available. Data Centre SDN Data centre specific SDN architectures feature software-defined overlays or controllers abstract from the underlying network hardware. It manifests in a policy/management plane for specifically designed hardware or is implemented as a Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), where network devices run as virtualised workloads on a hypervisor offering intent-or policy-based management of the network as a whole. It results in a data centre network that is better aligned with the needs of application workloads through automated (thereby faster, reliable and more efficient) provisioning, programmatic network management, pervasive application-oriented visibility and - where needed - direct integration with cloud orchestration platforms. Two different examples of data centre SDN are Cisco’s ACI - which uses software to control the deployment of dedicated hardware - and VMware’s NSX-V / NSX-T, where the forwarding and deployment functionality is implemented purely in software. It’s worth noting that, with VMware NSX, switching hardware will usually be required to form the underlay network. Most data centre SDN technologies will utilise VXLAN at the data plane, as is the case for both NSX and ACI. The differences are usually in how the control plane and management plane functions. VXLAN works by encapsulating the packets sent by the servers, as a network ‘overlay’ and sending them over an ‘underlay network’. The network underlay is typically the SDN infrastructure, so either the physical switches, servers, or both. The main benefit of this is that discreet networks can contain the traffic - for security or multi-tenancy purposes - while allowing these networks to easily span multiple data centres for DR and load balancing purposes. VXLAN also allows for the easy insertion of additional network services - such as traffic inspection, application or server load balancing - without the network and administrative complexities generally associated with these technologies. The diagram below shows a typical Cisco ACI deployment: Two data centres are linked together for resiliency. Because the VXLAN allows servers to migrate seamlessly from one data centre to another, they can be linked by any method with appropriate capacity and latency. The diagram shows that applications – as well as network services such as firewalling and load balancing - can be decoupled from the physical network, allowing the datacentre to be quickly reconfigured to match changes in applications with no interruption to service. How the network behaves is driven by the policy defined on the central controllers and the same policy can be uniform across both data centres, ensuring that - should a failover need to occur - the centralised policy makes sure the configuration between the two DCs is consistent. Data Centre SDN benefits Data centre SDN is primarily beneficial due to its ability to programmatically define how the VXLAN overlays control within the fabric itself. A VXLAN fabric can be configured manually within the switching platforms, but this configuration is complex and quite a bit more involved than traditional data centre networking. Rather than the network blindly transporting the application traffic like in a switched Ethernet network, the data centre SDN technologies are designed around the application itself. This means that how the various parts of an application interact - along with the users who consume them - can be defined at a policy level. All of the common data centre SDN technologies are able to implement the zero-trust security model in their fabric. Again, this function could be implemented manually, but it would be challenging to manage. The zero-trust model assumes that no access to the application is trusted. As such, users must authenticate themselves whenever they access any resources. This authentication is usually automated and doesn’t involve any user interaction other than the initial centralised user directory login. Combining this with the ability to deploy and manage a fabric using just policies, means that the time it takes to stand up and manage a complex multitenancy fabric in the data centre reduces vastly. Alternative data centre SDN technologies Although many of the leading hardware and software vendors have their solutions for data centre SDN, it’s worth noting that these aren’t always a good fit for an organisation due to size or other constraints. It’s possible to use open source orchestration solutions such as Ansible, Puppet, Chef, OpenStack etc. to configure and deploy overlays on a hypervisor - such as KVM or VMware - that will grant most of the functionality available in vendor-specific products. The disadvantage of deploying an open source data centre SDN solution would be a lack of vendor support. If the end-user were to encounter issues, such as software bugs or misconfiguration, they’d either need to resolve these issues themselves or pay for a 3 rd party to do so. Also, each deployment could be bespoke to each organisation, with little in the way of standardisation; bespoke solutions often result in issues around scalability, stability and are difficult to manage. WAN SDN or SD-WAN The driving ideas behind the development of SDN are myriad. It promises to reduce the complexity of statically defined networks, make automating network functions much easier and allow for the simpler provisioning and management of networked resources - everywhere from the data centre to the campus or wide area network. It also provides the technological framework for micro-segmentation. Micro-segmentation has developed as a notable use case for SDN. As SDN platforms are extended to support multi-cloud environments, they’ll be used to mitigate the inherent complexity of establishing and maintaining network and security policies across businesses. SDN’s role in the move toward private cloud and hybrid cloud adoption seems a natural next step. For example, Cisco\'s ACI Anywhere package would have policies configured through Cisco\'s SDN Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) using native APIs offered by a public-cloud provider to orchestrate changes within both the private and public cloud environments. The software-defined wide area network ( SD-WAN ) is a natural application of SDN that extends the technology over a WAN. While the SDN architecture is typically the underpinning in a data centre or campus, SD-WAN takes it a step further. At its most basic level, SD-WAN lets an organisation aggregate a variety of network connection types into their WAN, including MPLS, 4/5G LTE and DSL - or any network capable of carrying IP - any internet, or other type of WAN connection. While one site could be on MPLS, one on a 5G and another on a broadband connection, the SD-WAN creates an overlay on top of these various connection types to carry traffic between sites as if all these sites existed on the same WAN. SD-WAN has a centralised controller that can deploy new sites, prioritise traffic and set security policies for the entire network, removing the need to configure complex routing protocols and topologies. This centralised management software can configure to enable the SD-WAN to react to network conditions in real-time. The SD-WAN can choose the best way to route voice or video traffic over low-latency, high-cost, low-bandwidth links (such as MPLS), with bulky traffic forwarding via cheaper local internet breakouts. Similar policies are applied to cloud traffic - such as Office 365, Salesforce or other cloud based SAAS solutions - where it’s broken out of the local internet connection, rather than being routed via a central office or data centre. A common misconception with SDN for WAN is that it’s a replacement for MPLS networks. While SD-WAN can be used to replace MPLS, this might not be ideal depending on real-time traffic needs or user expectation of voice or video call quality. SD-WAN can choose a better path if, for example, you have two separate internet connections via two different providers. However, each path will still be subject to packet loss or latency that may happen on the internet. Traffic cannot be prioritised on the internet in the same way as on MPLS or other private WAN solutions. Suppose high quality calls are the expectation, using MPLS and internet circuits as an underlay for the SD-WAN solution. In that case, savings can yield through the reduction in the number or capacity of MPLS connectivity. Or, if an organisation can accept occasional video call or other real-time application quality issues, then two internet connections per site might be suitable. One other consideration with circuit types and SD-WAN is that there are options around what is called ‘content delivery networks’. Large cloud-scale providers such as Google and Apple use these networks. They provide a means to circumnavigate points on the internet that are normally contended, such as international or intercontinental links. Use of an SD-WAN solution with access to a content delivery network could remove the need to employ an international - and expensive - private MPLS network. It will also mitigate many of the service quality issues that would be present if just using the internet as the SD-WAN underlay. SD-WAN is an enterprise WAN access technology and does not intend to replace core network functions. Any software defined network that has an underlay/overlay relationship with the network that carries them and relies upon the underlay for transport should be considered during any design process. Typically, WAN SDN will utilise IPsec at the data plane, with the overlays carried by IPsec tunnels much in the same way policy-based IPsec or DMPVN is implemented. SD-WAN\'s driving principle is to simplify the way big companies turn up new links to branch offices, better manage the utilisation of those links – for data, voice or video – and potentially save money in the process. The diagram below shows a typical Cisco SD-WAN deployment, where remote sites, data centres and public cloud services connected into a single SD-WAN overlay are controlled via policy on centralised cloud-based controllers: SD-WAN lets networks route traffic based on centrally managed roles and rules - no matter what the entry and exit points of the traffic are - with full security. For example, if a user in a branch office is working in Office365, SD-WAN can route their traffic directly to the closest cloud data centre for that app, improving network responsiveness for the user and lowering bandwidth costs for the business. SD-WAN benefits The benefits of deploying WAN SDN technology have slightly different drivers when compared to data centre SDN. An SD-WAN solution is deployed primarily as a WAN access technology and, in some ways, is the next logical evolutionary from policy-based IPsec or DMVPN based WAN deployments. SD-WAN allows for the simplified deployment of new network equipment at remote offices or branches, via the zero-touch deployment model. Traditionally, when migrating a WAN, specialist technicians or engineers would be required to attend each remote site to install the new WAN equipment and plug in the new providers’ lines, etc. SD-WAN allows for a device to be provisioned by the vendor. So, when the new device is posted out to the site and plugged in, it pulls its configuration from a central location, removing the need to have expensive, highly trained networking staff travel around the world installing equipment. As SD-WAN can utilise any underlay technology that can forward IP, it can send traffic over multiple different networking mediums. This forwarding defines as a policy that looks at the actual link itself: what is the Round Trip Delay (RTD) characteristic? What is the total link load, is there a better link to carry this traffic? The immediate benefit of this is to latency sensitive traffic such as voice, which would traditionally require businesses to deploy MPLS to the branch a single access technology. SD-WAN does not negate the need to have the high quality of the MPLS link. However, as it isn’t the default access method for all traffic, the MPLS provision can be reduced. It’s one of many access technologies that WAN SDN can utilise, depending on the application requirements. As WAN SDN is an overlay technology, it’s entirely and logically separate from the underlay networks that carry it. As previously discussed, the data plane of SD-WAN - in most cases IPsec - can by carried by any network capable of carrying IP, which means that the SD-WAN is entirely independent of the various service provider that deploy the underlay. This is a potential benefit when migrating to a new service provider, as this can be done with minimal disruption. LAN SDN LAN SDN fabrics provide the basic infrastructure for building virtual networks based on policy-based segmentation. Fabric Overlay provides services such as host mobility and enhanced security, which are added to normal switching and routing capabilities. Typically, LAN SDN implementations will have more in common with data centre SDN than it does with SD-WAN, as most of the concepts that are valid for data centre SDN implement in the same way in LAN SDN. One of the key features of LAN SDN is the inclusion of wired and wireless access, homogenised into a single seamless access policy. This means that a user’s experience will be the same, regardless of whether they access the network via a wired or wireless connection. The user’s access is now based on their identity, rather than where or how they are accessing the network. The diagram below shows a typical Cisco SD-LAN (referred to as Software Defined Access or SDA) deployment: The diagram single large campus, such as a shopping centre, hospital, or office, has a fabric deployed, where - regardless of connection type, either wired or wireless - a consistent end user experience is obtained based on the user’s identity, rather than location. Network overlays are used to further enforce security policy, and again all configuration and monitoring is completed on the centralised controllers. At the data plane, LAN SDN utilises VXLAN in much the same way data centre SDN does, with the differences being in the control plane. It’s common to see protocols such as Location ID Separation Protocol (LISP) designed to function with VXLAN at the data plane. LAN SDN benefits LAN SDN has much more in common with data centre SDN than it does with SD-WAN SDN. Because of this inherent similarity, the drivers for LAN SDN are in some cases the same as data centre SDN. The campus LAN is the point at which most of the end users interact and consume applications. These, in turn, are delivered by the network infrastructure. Due to this, the campus LAN is the most visible part of the network infrastructure and, by extension, is the part that needs to be deployed and controlled in a standard fashion. LAN SDN allows a campus fabric to be deployed automatically based upon a pre-defined policy. This has the advantage of reducing the overall time to deploy a campus network – because all of the user access and security polices can be created prior to deploying the campus fabric. LAN SDN technologies, such as Cisco Software Defined Access (SDA), also allow for virtual networks, similar to tenants in Cisco ACI or other SDN DC solutions. These virtual networks are isolated from each other, so that disparate or high security networks can be easily isolated from each other, while still sharing the same hardware. This massively reduces the costs of hosting sensitive networks, such as security or industrial control systems. Traditionally, such networks would either have to be on physically separate hardware - massively increasing costs for hardware and supporting infrastructure - or be separated via complex and difficult to manage traditional security controls that could easily result in vulnerable systems being inadvertently exposed to external risks. From an end user perspective, access is identical whether the ingress traffic enters the network via a wired or wireless medium. So, unlike a traditional LAN, management and security policies are not dependent on the access medium or user location. This, in turn, improves security and end user experience. As with data centre SDN, application visibility is a primary feature within LAN SDN, whereby the same application controls and zero trust model can apply to the campus fabric. Cisco’s SDA product also employs advanced troubleshooting capabilities, using the additional telemetry data provided to the centralised management controller to offer automated and advanced troubleshooting methods. Lastly, as LAN SDN utilises VXLAN at the data plane, you can have all of the advantages of a layer 2 switched network. Spanning VLANs and layer 2 adjacencies across large campus networks, but with none of the disadvantages such as spanning tree issues or the blocking of resilient links. This combines with all the advantages of a layer 3 routed network, such as fast convergence, reliability, predicable behaviour, broadcast control and ECMP (equal cost multipathing). Section 3: Software Defined Networking (SDN) now and in the future SDN is more of an evolution of how a network is deployed and managed. It has changed from a cutting-edge new protocol developed in academia to the more mature and nuanced product set we see today. SDN primarily grants the ability to deploy and manage a network without the need to configure each device individually. This provides the modern network administrator with the means to efficiently and effectively manage the proliferation of network connectivity required by modern organisations. Also, it is the case that the specific business requirements drive how this technology deploys. SDN can be used to replace an existing network solution, however, its true power lies in the way it abstracts the complexity of modern networks. Previously, a new service or application could require months of planning, designing and multiple changes. Today, the same new service could only need a single, simple policy change. As all of the SDN technologies utilise overlays, it can be a simple task to replace existing network deployments with their SDN counterparts and run an existing logical infrastructure inside an overlay. This would allow your business to continue to maintain service whilst building a platform to migrate to. This effectively means that the SDN deployment can act as an intermediate step towards true SDN. As stated earlier, the term SDN will likely be replaced with Intent Based Networking (IBN) as SDN technologies come into more common use. Orchestration is the key to infrastructure as code. As the technology evolves further, it may become more efficient to use a single point of orchestration to define the various policies for the network, compute, storage, hypervisor, application and cloud provision, as opposed to creating the same policies on each one in turn. Book your free one-to-one Get answers to your most critical Software Defined Networking questions Compare SDN to traditional networks to discover whether it\'s right for your business with our Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert, Adrian Skinner. 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', 'layout' => '', 'url' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), 'User' => array( 'password' => '*****', 'id' => '1', 'role_id' => '1', 'username' => 'PaulPrecept', 'name' => 'PaulPrecept', 'first_name' => '', 'last_name' => '', 'email' => 'paul@precept.co.uk', 'website' => null, 'activation_key' => 'a98cd5ca68162fc76db9b9d0b1291775', 'image' => null, 'bio' => null, 'status' => '1', 'updated' => '2018-05-04 09:17:41', 'updated_by' => null, 'created' => '2016-10-12 16:25:43', 'timezone' => '0', 'created_by' => null ), 'AuthorNode' => array( 'id' => null, 'parent_id' => null, 'user_id' => null, 'title' => null, 'slug' => null, 'body' => null, 'excerpt' => null, 'status' => null, 'mime_type' => null, 'comment_status' => null, 'comment_count' => null, 'promote' => null, 'path' => null, 'terms' => null, 'sticky' => null, 'lft' => null, 'rght' => null, 'visibility_roles' => null, 'type' => null, 'publish_start' => null, 'publish_end' => null, 'updated' => null, 'updated_by' => null, 'created' => null, 'created_by' => null, 'author_id' => null, 'is_leadership_team' => null, 'plain_text_content' => null, 'layout' => null, 'AuthorNode' => array([maximum depth reached]) ), 'Meta' => array(), 'CmsFormSection' => array( (int) 0 => array( [maximum depth reached] ), (int) 1 => array( [maximum depth reached] ), (int) 2 => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), 'Taxonomy' => array(), 'CustomFields' => array() ), (int) 3 => array( 'Node' => array( 'id' => '219', 'parent_id' => null, 'user_id' => '1', 'title' => 'The Definitive Guide to Wireless Networking (Wi-Fi)', 'slug' => 'wireless-networking-guide', 'body' => '', 'excerpt' => 'In this guide, you’ll discover what a Wi-Fi or Wireless Network actually is, how a Wi-Fi Wireless Network works, what the three types of Wi-Fi Wireless Network are - and much more. ', 'status' => '1', 'mime_type' => null, 'comment_status' => '1', 'comment_count' => '0', 'promote' => false, 'path' => '/insights/guides/wireless-networking-guide', 'terms' => '', 'sticky' => false, 'lft' => '5', 'rght' => '6', 'visibility_roles' => '', 'type' => 'guides', 'publish_start' => null, 'publish_end' => null, 'updated' => '2020-10-02 10:28:49', 'updated_by' => '16', 'created' => '2020-09-21 10:53:22', 'created_by' => '1', 'author_id' => '0', 'is_leadership_team' => '0', 'plain_text_content' => ' The Definitive Guide to Wireless Networking (Wi-Fi) | Forfusion ExpertiseServicesInsightsCase StudiesContactSearch Expertise CollaborationIntelligent WorkspaceEnterprise NetworkingData Centre & CloudSecure WorkplaceServices Consulting ServicesTechnical ServicesProject ServicesManaged ServicesInsights GuidesWhite PapersCase StudiesContactSearch HomeInsightsGuidesThe Definitive Guide to Wireless Networking (Wi-Fi) Guide The Definitive Guide to Wireless Networking (Wi-Fi) Read time 21 mins The Definitive Guide to Wireless Networking (Wi-Fi) Email Guide Contents Contents 01 Section 1: What is a Wi-Fi or Wireless Network? 02 Section 2: How do Wi-Fi Wireless Networks Work? Joining a wireless network Passing data Roaming 03 Section 3: What are the three types of Wi-Fi Wireless Network? Centralised Deployment Converged Deployment Cloud-Based Deployment 04 Section 4: A Brief History of Wi-Fi 05 Section 5: Wi-Fi Recent Trends and Enhancements Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) OFDMA BSS colouring 06 Section 6: Should the 2.4GHz band be disabled? 07 Section 7: Is Wi-Fi secure? WPA3 Personal WPA3 Enterprise WPA3 Open Authentication 08 Section 8: What is the future of Wi-Fi? 09 Section 9: What is the Cisco Enterprise Wireless Network Solution? Cisco RF ASICs IoT gateway support Intelligent Capture Cisco DNA Assurance with Active Sensor Flexible Radio Assignment Cisco CleanAir technology 10 Section 10: What is Wireless SD Access? Mission-critical network Mission-critical networks require advanced capabilities Business insights Frictionless roaming Cisco DNA Center Cisco DNA Assurance 11 Section 11: Will 5G make Wi-Fi redundant? Data Networks Telecommunications Networks 12 Section 12: What is RF Design and Wi-Fi Analysis? RF Design Wi-Fi Analysis Poor Wireless Network Performance 13 Section 13: Wireless Network Assessment Network Components Assessment Components Further Analysis Components Assessment Deliverables Get your guide Simply enter your email address and we’ll send your guide directly to your mailbox. Business Email Address* I would like to recieve the latest news and insights from Forfusion. Send guide Book Consultation Simply enter your details below and we’ll contact you to arrange your free 30 minute consultation. Full Name* Email Address* Company* Job Title* I would like to recieve the latest news and insights from Forfusion. Book free consultation * All Fields Are Required In this guide, you’ll discover what a Wi-Fi or Wireless Network actually is, how a Wi-Fi Wireless Network works, what the three types of Wi-Fi Wireless Network are - and much more. Contents Section 1: What is a Wi-Fi or Wireless Network? Section 2: How do Wi-Fi Wireless Networks Work? Section 3: What are the three types of Wi-Fi Wireless Network? Section 4: A Brief History of Wi-Fi Section 5: Wi-Fi Recent Trends and Enhancements Section 6: Should the 2.4GHz band be disabled? Section 7: Is Wi-Fi secure? Section 8: What is the future of Wi-Fi? Section 9: What is the Cisco Enterprise Wireless Network Solution? Section 10: What is Wireless SD Access? Section 11: Will 5G make Wi-Fi redundant? Section 12: What is RF Design and Wi-Fi Analysis? Section 13: Wireless Network Assessment Section 1: What is a Wi-Fi or wireless network? A wireless network is essentially the same as a wired data network. However, the link between networked devices is – as the name suggests - wireless. As the devices aren’t tethered by a cable, they have the ability to be mobile. The wireless devices can also roam to different parts of the network, making connections to new devices along the way. For Wi-Fi, the wireless connection is usually only linked to the user device. The users wireless device joins the network via an access point, which provides a bridge between the wired and wireless parts of the network. Wireless networks can also link access points, such as in a wireless mesh network and mobile phone networks. There are also point-to-point links, which are great for connecting neighbouring buildings and forming long-range links, like those used to connect mobile phone cell towers. Section 2: How do Wi-Fi wireless networks work? The most basic Wi-Fi network is made up of a single wireless Access Point (AP) and is connected to some wireless client devices. This is known as a Basic Service Set (BSS). An AP is likely to be configured with more than one service set, each with its own identifying name know as a Service Set Identifier (SSID). Joining a wireless network The AP will periodically send out beacons, which provide basic details of each SSID. When a wireless client wants to join a BSS, it can either scan all available channels, listening for these beacons or send out a probe request. The probe request will detail the capabilities of the client device and, sometimes, which particular SSID it would like to join. This request is received by the AP, which sends a probe response to the client providing details of the SSID. If the two are compatible, the client will attempt to authenticate to the SSID. This is only an 802.11 authentication. Proper client authentication involving user credentials will happen later. Once the client is authenticated, it will send an association request. Again, if the details are compatible, the AP will respond with an association response and data transfer can begin. This is basic association of the client with the access point. If specific network access is required, further authentication will take place. This will be in the form of a Wi-Fi password, user credentials or client machine authentication. Passing data When there’s a meeting, several people will often have something to say at the same time. If more than one person talks at the same time, usually neither can be understood. The same is true with wireless networks. Wi-Fi uses a technique known as CSMA collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). This technique defines a process that ensures only one wireless device can talk at a time. When a device wishes to transmit, it first listens for any other transmitting device. If a transmission is detected it will back off for a random amount of time before trying again. If a transmission isn’t detected, the device will reserve the air space by telling all other devices to be quite for a set amount of time, before transmitting its data. Roaming Often several APs will exist within the same network. This type of network is known as an Extended Service Set (ESS). These APs will likely have the same SSIDs configured and as a result, clients will be able to roam from one AP to another, whist staying connected to the same SSID. As the client moves between BSS’s, a re-association process takes place. This should be transparent to the user - they shouldn’t be able to notice when a roam happens. There have been several recent advances to improve this process. They involve sharing information between APs and clients, so that a client knows which AP to roam to, and the AP knows the client details, so it can authenticate quickly and seamlessly. Section 3: What are the three types of Wi-Fi wireless network? When creating a wireless network, you can choose between three types of deployment: centralised deployment, converged deployment and cloud-based deployment. Each of these suits different types of applications. Forfusion is here to provide guidance on which will best fit your business needs. Centralised deployment Centralised deployments are the most common type of wireless network system. They’re traditionally used in campuses where buildings and networks are in close proximity. This deployment consolidates the wireless network, facilitating advanced wireless functionality and making upgrades easier. Controllers are based on-premises and are installed in a centralised location. Converged deployment For small campuses or branch offices, converged deployments offer consistency in wireless and wired connections. This deployment converges wired and wireless on one network device—an access switch—and performs the dual role of both switch and wireless controller. Cloud-based deployment This system uses the cloud to manage network devices deployed on-premises at different locations. The solution requires Cisco Meraki cloud-managed devices, which provide full visibility of the network through their dashboards. Section 4: A brief history of Wi-Fi In September 2020, the IEEE celebrated 30 years since the start of the 802.11 project. This was essentially the conception of Wi-Fi. Over the following years, the standards developed, making Wi-Fi the most popular wireless technology used for data transmission. The first Wi-Fi standard from the IEEE was 802.11-1997. This standard used a relatively basic form of modulation known as Frequency Hop Spread Spectrum (FHSS). In FHSS, the transmitter and receiver will hop between frequencies to reduce the chances of eavesdropping the conversation. Bluetooth technology currently uses FHSS. This is why - although Bluetooth uses the same 2.4GHz spectrum as Wi-Fi - interference between the two is generally minimal. The next development for Wi-Fi was 802.11b, which used Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DHSS) as a way of spreading the signal using a code. The signal effectively gets lost amongst the noise in the spectrum, so that only the intended receiver who has the code can reconstruct the signal. This technique added security against eavesdropping, while making the signal resistant to interference. 802.11a brought Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), which improved on the previous coding techniques. Since then, the modulation techniques have continuously improved, essentially allowing more and more data to cram into the available bandwidth. Each generation has brought better performance. Compare the 2Mbps available with 802.11-1997 to the 9.6Gbps available with 802.11ax. 802.11ax is also known as Wi-Fi 6. This renaming was brought in by the IEEE to make the 802.11 standards more accessible. 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac and 802.11ax don’t have any logical sequence and it’s therefore not immediately apparent which supersedes which. These standards have been renamed in this order as Wi-Fi 1 to Wi-Fi 6, making the marketing of each new standard much more accessible. Section 5: Wi-Fi recent trends and enhancements Each generation of Wi-Fi has developed from the last. Reliability and security have been big drivers for change, but the main headlines have always been the big jumps in performance. Data rates have continuously increased in line with the insatiable demands of ever more data-hungry applications. Each iteration brings more complex modulation techniques, more radios and the ability to use more of the available spectrum - all with the goal of greater data rates. However, the most recent generation of Wi-Fi 6 has gone in a slightly different direction. Instead of going all out for more performance, the focus has been more on efficiency. Previous generations have allowed more and more channels to bond, in order to increase bandwidth. Wi-Fi 6, however, goes the other way. It allows the slicing of a single channel, reducing bandwidth but serving multiple clients on the same channel at the same time. This technology is known as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). Think of it like car sharing. Bonding channels is like pooling all resources for that ultimate performance, a bit like using all your budget to buy a Ferrari. This is great for boasting high performance stats, but how often do you need all that performance? Even when you do want to go for a blast, there are all the other slow cars you have to contend with. Efficient use of resources makes more sense in the real world, hence why most of us have a sensible hatchback. Going one step further and car-sharing in that sensible hatchback is what OFDMA in Wi-Fi 6 brings to the table. See the OFDMA section for further details on how this works. Another example in this analogy is voice traffic and Quality of Service (QoS). Voice traffic is like a push bike. It doesn’t have high performance but does require consistency. Stopping and starting on a bike makes it really hard work. This type of traffic is very different from the motorised type, which can cope with regular stops and starts. The solution here is bike lanes. They use the same infrastructure as the rest of the traffic, but use a narrow lane that allows the bikes to keep a consistently moderate pace with minimal effect from other traffic. In this way, QoS enables voice traffic to pass through the network with less imposition. QoS is particularly important when implementing Voice over WLANs, due to the traffic being so affected by latency and jitter. Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) Wi-Fi 6 brings with it the following enhancements: Higher capacity – features such as OFDMA, MU-MIMO and BSS colouring bring greater efficiency and higher capacity, serving up to four times more clients than under previous standards. Improved power efficiency – target wake time (TWT) allows clients to sleep when not in use and therefore consumes less power. Reduced data latency – packet scheduling optimises traffic flows. Greater IoT coverage – enhancements to the 2.4GHz band. Increased speed – throughput, particularly in congested wireless environments. Improved security - WPA3 certified. OFDMA One of the most significant challenges with wireless networks is that only one device can transmit on a channel at any one time. Each device must listen and wait for the channel to be clear before transmitting. When clear, the device reserves the channel for a set amount of time to allow the data to be transmitted. Often, the overhead involved with this process takes significantly longer than the transmission of the actual data payload. This is because the management and control messages need to be sent at a low data rate to allow for backwards compatibility with legacy standards. OFDMA aims to improve the efficiency of this process by segregating the data payload so that multiple clients can use the same reserved time slot at the same time. OFDMA achieves this by segregating the base 20MHz channel into smaller 2MHz segments. This means that the data portion of the packet can be split between several clients and therefore serve multiple clients at the same time. This data segmentation works in both the uplink and downlink direction, controlled by the AP. The following graphic provides an excellent analogy similar to the car sharing analogy discussed earlier. Highlighted here is that the management overhead, represented by the truck’s cab, is amortized between the clients. With standard OFDM, used in previous standards, each client has a separate management overhead, adding delay to the network. OFDMA combines this overhead for multiple clients, in turn reducing the channel reservation time. This improves efficiency, increases capacity, as well as reducing latency and jitter. BSS colouring As discussed earlier, a challenge with wireless networks is that only one device can transmit on a channel at any one time. So, when a wireless device wants to transmit and they listen for a clear channel, how clear does the channel need to be? What level of signal represents a busy channel? This is known as the Signal Detect (SD) level and it is very low at only 4dB above the noise floor (4dB SNR). Compare this to the 25dB level that is typical for the edge of an access point signal cell. In free space loss, the 25dB level will typically be around 20 meters from the access point. But, due to the exponential decrease in signal strength, the 4dB level can be as much as 250 meters away. Also used is the Energy Detect (ED) level. This refers to non-Wi-Fi signals and can be much higher at 20dB above the SD level. The problem here is that there are only so many channels, so they often need to be re-used in the same RF environment. If an access point won’t transmit if it can hear another Wi-Fi device at only 4dB above the noise floor, this can cause significant problems. This and other limitations of Wi-Fi is why it’s essential to get the RF environment configured as efficiently as possible. See our Wireless Network Assessment section for more details. Basic Service Set (BSS) colouring provides a solution for this in that access point - and its associated clients in a BSS - will tag their RF traffic with a colour. BSS is essentially an access point and its associated clients. If a wireless device is waiting to transmit and it detects a signal on the same channel, normally it would back off and wait for the channel to clear. However, with BSS colouring, the transmitting device can see that the signal is from a separate BSS and can use the ED (24dB) level rather than the SD (4dB) level to decide whether to transmit at the same time or not. This makes the spectrum much more efficient for re-use. Section 6: Should the 2.4GHz band be disabled? OFDMA and BSS colouring are excellent enhancements for the 2.4GHz band. Due to its exclusion from Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), it was thought that there would be no use for the 2.4GHz band. However, with the recent developments in Wi-Fi 6, the band is very much back in use again. This is great news, as the 2.4GHz has many advantages such as greater signal propagation - unaffected by weather radar and DFS events – and is perfect for inexpensive devices such as IoT. Section 7: Is Wi-Fi secure? Wi-Fi security also made significant advancement in Wi-Fi 6 with the introduction of WPA3. WPA3 provides enhancements over WPA2 is the following three areas: WPA3 Personal WPA3 Personal solves the problem of having to use complex passwords that are difficult to remember. The new robust replacement for PSK is resistant to dictionary attacks. Even if a password is compromised after the data is transmitted, the data remains protected. WPA3 Enterprise WPA3 Enterprise offers an enhanced suite of cryptographic tools, which build upon WPA2 and ensures the consistent application of security protocols across the network. WPA3 Open Authentication One enhancement we particularly like with WPA3 is the encryption of open networks. Currently, with WPA2, all open wi-fi networks are unencrypted, so anyone can easily capture your passwords, credit card details and all sorts of other personal data that you may be unwittingly sharing. WPA3 brings secure encryption while still having the convenience of an open network. Section 8: What is the future of Wi-Fi? It’s expected that Wi-Fi 6 devices will become more prevalent throughout 2020 and 2021. Wi-Fi 6E is also on the horizon, which has a significant improvement of having access to the 6GHz spectrum. This is highly significant as the last increase in spectrum was Wi-Fi 2 in 1999 when the 5GHz spectrum was made available. Devices are already being developed with increased numbers of radios to allow the use of the three radio bands. Ofcom officially made the statement regarding the release of the 6GHz spectrum in July 2020. A total of 500MHz of RF spectrum is being made available. Ofcom\'s Statements: \"Make the lower 6 GHz band (5925-6425 MHz) available for Wi-Fi and other RLAN technologies.\" Opening this band will make an additional 25 20MHz channels available. Bonding of these channels will also be possible with up to 3 160MHz channels, each providing theoretical peak data speeds of 9.6Gbps. This will increase capacity and reduce congestion across the existing frequency bands. \"The release of this spectrum will also enable very low power (VLP) outdoor use.\" This will enable the development of new and exciting innovative applications. \"Remove the Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) requirements from channels used by Wi-Fi in the 5.8 GHz band (5725-5850 MHz).\" The DFS requirement has long been a significant inhibitor of performance and reliability for Wi-Fi devices in the 5GHz band. The DFS requirement forces an access point to scan for radar signals and to switch channel if suspected radar transmissions are detected. All clients connected to the AP also have to change channels, causing significant disruption. Although this restriction will only be removed in the UNII 3 band at the top end of the 5GHz spectrum, this is still great news and will undoubtedly improve performance. Although the UK won’t get as much spectrum released as the US, this is still a significant development. We should remain optimistic that 6GHz Wi-Fi devices will be available soon, as they will use an enhanced version of the existing Wi-Fi 6 standard. No doubt vendors will be racing to take advantage of this fantastic boost to Wi-Fi performance. Wi-Fi 6E will bring data rates of up to 9.6Gbps. This is the same as the maximum available with Wi-Fi 6, meaning 6E is more about spectrum capacity than speed increases. However, if 9.6Gbps is not enough Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) is due in 2024 with data rates expected of up to 30Gbps! A possibility for Wi-Fi 7 is the removal of the legacy management overhead. This has not changed for over 20 years but is necessary for backwards compatibility. A note on data rates: Those rates quoted above are the maximum available. The data rate you can realistically achieve depends on the access point type, client type, signal strength and spectrum available. The actual data throughput will be less than half of the data rate and will be divided by the number of clients per AP radio. In reality - due to the legacy management overhead and the high number of low performing mobile devices - even a well-designed Wi-Fi 6 enterprise wireless network will only average around 80Mbps of throughput per AP. It’s important to note this when considering dual-cabling or multi-gigabit switching. Section 9: What is the Cisco Enterprise Wireless Network solution? The Cisco Enterprise Wireless Solution brings the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 and applies them to an enterprise network environment. The solution has the following Wi-Fi 6 technology components combined with next generation networking technologies found in Software Defined Access (SD-A). The Wi-Fi 6 components and their benefits are as follows: Cisco RF ASICs Programmable RF application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This is a fantastic addition. Previously this had to be done with a dedicated tool or by removing an AP from service to use the spectrum analysis functionality. The additional functionality is ideal for managing Wi-Fi networks in congested RF environments; particularly where the environment has several external influencers such as neighbouring networks, non-Wi-Fi interference and DFS events. It provides you with real-time analytics, as well as a platform for future innovation and capabilities. Combined with Cisco DNA Assurance, this gives you radiofrequency visibility and the intelligence to help you run your networks better. IoT gateway support Cisco offers multilingual support and application hosting of IoT protocols to better support IoT service and expansion. Intelligent Capture Built-in Intelligent Capture provides enhanced issue detection, root cause analysis, real-time troubleshooting and in-service access point monitoring with over-the-air packet capture. Cisco DNA Assurance with Active Sensor Cisco DNA Assurance with Active Sensor is a compact wireless device that lets you test real-world client experiences to validate wireless performance for any situation. Flexible Radio Assignment Cisco\'s Flexible Radio Assignment provides a better mobile user experience for high-density networks by automatically detecting when a large number of devices are connected to a network and adjusting its dual radios to serve more clients. Cisco CleanAir technology Cisco CleanAir® technology provides proactive protection against radio frequency interference and takes automatic action to avoid current and future interference. Section 10: What is Wireless SD Access? Next-generation wireless networks integrate into the software-defined access model. This provides a single network fabric from edge to cloud and allows you to set identity-based policy for users, devices and ‘things’. The SD model provides access to any application, without compromising on security, while also gaining insight into any attempt to access your network. Automatic segmentation of users, devices, and applications means you can deploy and secure your services faster. Mission-critical network The network is creating new opportunities for changing the way we work and helping us become more efficient. Forward-thinking organizations are investing in a wireless network to facilitate those opportunities for productivity, innovation, and growth. As they transition to digital-ready networks, they subsequently require advanced features and security. Mission-critical networks require advanced capabilities The approach of Wi-Fi 6 is creating anticipation for what’s possible. And we want you to be able to tackle all of the excitement head-on. When you upgrade your wireless network to the latest Cisco solutions, you’ll be prepared for Wi-Fi 6 so you can support more bandwidth-intensive applications, more IoT devices and more clients. You’ll also be able to offer advanced wireless capabilities that go well beyond traditional networking. Business insights For those with investment in wireless. Cisco DNA Spaces takes it one step further to combine wireless connectivity with location-based insights. Cisco DNA Spaces provides a simple, scalable and standardized approach to support wireless users with location analytics, business insights, customer engagement toolkits, asset management, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) management and location data APIs. Frictionless roaming Cisco is a founding member of the OpenRoaming consortium. OpenRoaming will let mobile users automatically and seamlessly roam between Wi-Fi and cellular networks, including Wi-Fi 6 and 5G. OpenRoaming is part of efforts by Cisco, together with other industry leaders to break down the barriers between Wi-Fi 6 and 5G to support connection everywhere, seamless onboarding, more choices for access and more secure connections. Cisco DNA Center How does an intent-based network support mission-critical deployment? Cisco DNA Center is the network management and Command Center for your intent-based network- both wired and wireless. Combining management, automation, analytics and security, Cisco DNA Center simplifies network management and speeds up innovation. Cisco DNA Assurance Your network is full of all the data you need to optimize it and manage it better. Cisco DNA Assurance lets you put that data to work without a complete network overhaul. While Cisco DNA Wireless Assurance gives you full network visibility, troubleshooting, time savings, efficiency, and insights based on real-time as well as historical data to make predictions and resolve issues. Section 11: Will 5G make Wi-Fi redundant? Some technology experts have tried to compare Wi-Fi 6 and 5G, with some even saying that one will negate the need for the other. Vendors, however, are looking to find ways of combining these technologies so that they complement each other. As discussed in the previous section, industry leaders including Cisco have formed the OpenRoaming consortium. The goal of OpenRoaming is to seamlessly integrate these two technologies. The integration of data networks and telecoms networks has long been an aspiration of technology vendors. Unfortunately, the challenges stem from the two technologies being born with two very different goals in mind. Data networks All data networks use the same 7-layer model. Each layer performs a different function but all with the same purpose. The goal is to package the data is such a way that - no matter what happens over the network - the data can be unpackaged and read reliably at the receiving end. There’s a lot of overhead with this model, but it does mean that it’s very rugged. For instance, the data can be received in sudden bursts or even in the wrong order, but it doesn’t matter because the higher-level protocols can sort everything out. This is ideal for the Internet, as there’s no way of knowing what sort of network the data will have to traverse to reach its destination. One significant advantage of Wi-Fi data networks over telecoms networks is that you own the data. This would be significant if you want to perform any traffic management or data analytics. Over a 5G network you may have the situation where you have to buy back your data in order to analyse it. Telecommunications networks Telecoms networks, on the other hand, are very different as they’re all built and managed by telecoms companies. Therefore, the performance of the network is much better controlled, and less technology is required to ensure reliable performance. Telecoms networks are like a racetrack, very well maintained and highly predictable. Race cars are designed to match their environment and perform well within it. Whereas, the Internet is more like the outback of Australia, completely wild and unpredictable. Roads are likely to be built by each local farmer with varying levels of quality. The 7-layer model is like an off-road truck, designed to cope with any terrain and still deliver its occupants comfortably and safely to their destination. Despite their differences, Wi-Fi 6 and 5G both have the same fundamental goals of high throughput, low latency and high capacity. They both provide higher data rates to support new applications and increase in network capacity to connect more users and devices. So, can they co-exist? Well, the vision is uninterrupted wireless access with Wi-Fi 6 and 5G being dominant in disparate environments. Wi-Fi 6 is ideal for indoor environments like your home, the office, conference centres and stadiums. 5G, on the other hand, is suitable for outdoor environments such as cities, towns and on the road in your car. The goal is that wireless network access is always available and devices are always connected, providing the same service in all locations. Section 12: What is RF Design and Wi-Fi analysis? A significant part of your wireless network is the RF environment. Getting this right ensures that your network has the fundamentals to perform to your expectations. RF Design A good RF Design considers the existing environment including external factors such as neighbouring networks and any potential interference sources. The applications planned for the network will define the requirements of the RF design. A correctly designed and managed RF environment is essential for good wireless network performance. Wi-Fi analysis Network monitoring tools such as Cisco DNA centre and 7 Signal can provide visibility of any problems on your wireless network. However, it’s often a deep dive analysis that’s required to unearth the root causes. This is where specialist tools and knowledge come in to analyse traffic flow and examine how the data is actually being passed through your network. Poor wireless network performance Wireless networking is unique among other networking technologies as you have very little control over what type of devices enter your network environment. Wireless networks are often open to guests or even the general public. Sometimes the devices in your network environment may not even be networking devices (non-WiFi) however, they can still have a significant effect on it. If you find that you have poor performance on your wireless network, the only way to get a full picture is to analyse the three main components of the network: the configuration, the RF environment and the client devices. At Forfusion, we offer a full wireless network assessment which consists of an analysis of the three main components. Section 13: Wireless network assessment The wireless network assessment offered by Forfusion is a service that provides a full analysis of your wireless network based on industry standard best practices and many years of professional experience. Network components The Assessment focuses on the three components of the wireless network. Wireless network infrastructure and configuration The wireless network configuration is analysed, and your infrastructure is audited to ensure that it follows the best practices and is optimised for your network and applications. RF environment RF data is captured for all wireless devices in the area. This includes both Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi devices. Wireless clients Details of the type of wireless clients on the network are captured and analysed. Often poorly performing clients can cause the whole network to run slower. Assessment components The wireless network assessment will be bespoke for your network. We’ll discuss your requirements, any current issues with your network and your plans for future developments. Generally, the assessment comprises the following components: Network audit A capture of all network components and their configuration. Also included is an audit of AP placement and orientation. RF survey An RF survey consists of RF data gathering of the current wireless network coverage, including signal strength, noise floor, capacity and interference. An audit of user density and expected application usage is also included. Wi-Fi analysis Wi-Fi Analysis captures all of the Wi-Fi environment, including neighbouring networks and rogue networks. Identification of problem areas, for example, high utilisation, poor performance and sources of interference. Wi-Fi Client analysis. Further analysis components If issues are identified from the assessment components, further analysis may be required using the following. Protocol analysis Protocol analysis involves a deep dive data gathering of wireless traffic, focusing on the identified problem areas. Wireless packets are captured and analysed. Problem areas are analysed to ensure efficient network performance, such as data capture of the client roaming process. Spectrum analysis Spectrum analysis is the deep dive data gathering of non-Wi-Fi signals. Those that are causing performance degradation on the network are identified. Further data gathering of spectrum utilisation for both Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi devices is also completed. Assessment deliverables After the data is gathered and analysed, the results are collated into a report and presented in the following format. Wireless network audit The network audit will provide an update to your current documentation. This has time-saving value for your support teams. Having a detailed and up to date picture of your network will allow your support teams to be more efficient in resolving issues and administration. Issues identified Identifying issues in advance of them occurring will save the time and effort of troubleshooting down the line. There’s also the advantage of user perception. A few simple issues can cause users to perceive the network as poorly performing and unreliable. Remediation plan The remediation plan will provide several options for improvement. Often these will be inexpensive ‘quick wins’. The plan will also identify the most cost-effective ways of improving your network, so that expenditure is focussed on the areas that provide the most efficient returns in performance. Interested in discussing Wireless Networking with one of our experts? Arrange your free, 30-minute consultation today. Book free consultation Sign up to the mailing list Keep up to date with the latest news, insights & events Join Mailing List Expertise Collaboration Intelligent Workspace Enterprise Networking Data Centre & Cloud Secure Workplace Services Consulting Services Technical Services Project Services Managed Services Knowledge GuidesWhite PapersCase Studies Industries FinancePublic SectorRetailLegal Company AboutBlogCareersContactPolicies & Statements Social LinkedIn Twitter © Forfusion 2020 Designed and Built by Precept × Mailing List Signup Confirm Subscription We want to make sure we\'ve got your correct email address. Please check your email and click the link we\'ve sent to confirm your subscription. × Mailing List Signup Subscription Confirmed Thanks for taking the time to confirm your subscription. We look forward to keeping in touch with you! ', 'layout' => '', 'url' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), 'User' => array( 'password' => '*****', 'id' => '1', 'role_id' => '1', 'username' => 'PaulPrecept', 'name' => 'PaulPrecept', 'first_name' => '', 'last_name' => '', 'email' => 'paul@precept.co.uk', 'website' => null, 'activation_key' => 'a98cd5ca68162fc76db9b9d0b1291775', 'image' => null, 'bio' => null, 'status' => '1', 'updated' => '2018-05-04 09:17:41', 'updated_by' => null, 'created' => '2016-10-12 16:25:43', 'timezone' => '0', 'created_by' => null ), 'AuthorNode' => array( 'id' => null, 'parent_id' => null, 'user_id' => null, 'title' => null, 'slug' => null, 'body' => null, 'excerpt' => null, 'status' => null, 'mime_type' => null, 'comment_status' => null, 'comment_count' => null, 'promote' => null, 'path' => null, 'terms' => null, 'sticky' => null, 'lft' => null, 'rght' => null, 'visibility_roles' => null, 'type' => null, 'publish_start' => null, 'publish_end' => null, 'updated' => null, 'updated_by' => null, 'created' => null, 'created_by' => null, 'author_id' => null, 'is_leadership_team' => null, 'plain_text_content' => null, 'layout' => null, 'AuthorNode' => array([maximum depth reached]) ), 'Meta' => array(), 'CmsFormSection' => array( (int) 0 => array( [maximum depth reached] ), (int) 1 => array( [maximum depth reached] ), (int) 2 => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), 'Taxonomy' => array(), 'CustomFields' => array() ), (int) 4 => array( 'Node' => array( 'id' => '218', 'parent_id' => null, 'user_id' => '1', 'title' => 'The Definitive Guide to Zero Trust Security', 'slug' => 'zero-trust-security', 'body' => '', 'excerpt' => 'In this definitive guide to Zero Trust Security, we'll discuss the concept of Zero Trust, what it means architecturally and how it applies to your business.', 'status' => '1', 'mime_type' => null, 'comment_status' => '1', 'comment_count' => '0', 'promote' => false, 'path' => '/insights/guides/zero-trust-security', 'terms' => '', 'sticky' => false, 'lft' => '3', 'rght' => '4', 'visibility_roles' => '', 'type' => 'guides', 'publish_start' => null, 'publish_end' => null, 'updated' => '2020-11-24 14:55:42', 'updated_by' => '1', 'created' => '2020-09-21 10:00:13', 'created_by' => '1', 'author_id' => '0', 'is_leadership_team' => '0', 'plain_text_content' => ' The Definitive Guide to Zero Trust Security - Forfusion ExpertiseServicesInsightsCase StudiesContactSearch Expertise CollaborationIntelligent WorkspaceEnterprise NetworkingData Centre & CloudSecure WorkplaceServices Consulting ServicesTechnical ServicesProject ServicesManaged ServicesInsights GuidesWhite PapersCase StudiesContactSearch HomeInsightsGuidesThe Definitive Guide to Zero Trust Security Guide The Definitive Guide to Zero Trust Security Read time 10 mins The Definitive Guide to Zero Trust Security Contents Contents 01 Section 1: What is a Zero Trust Security Model? 02 Section 2: Who created Zero Trust? 03 Section 3: What is Secure Access Service Edge? 04 Section 4: Why do modern organisations need to consider implementing a zero-trust security approach? 05 Section 5: How do you achieve Zero Trust? Stakeholder Engagement Discovery & Inventory Design & Policy Creation Lab Environment Testing Phased Testing Deployment Full Review of the Phased Deployments Business Communication & User Training Production Rollout Data Gathering 06 Section 6: Our approach to Zero Trust Intent Based Campus Fabric Identity Management Next Generation Firewalls Endpoint Protection Multi-Factor Authentication Network Visibility Web & Email Security Cloud Security Integration SaaS Applications Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Book Consultation Simply enter your details below and we’ll contact you to arrange your free 30 minute consultation. Full Name*Email Address*Company*Job Title*I would like to recieve the latest news and insights from Forfusion.Book now In this definitive guide to Zero Trust Security, we\'ll discuss the concept of Zero Trust, what it means architecturally and how it applies to your business. As well as talking through the concept, we will offer context around the importance of this topic and the processes and technology we can put in place to achieve Zero Trust. In this guide: Section 1: What is a Zero Trust Security Model? Section 2: Who created Zero Trust? Section 3: What is Secure Access Service Edge? Section 4: Why do modern organisations need to consider implementing a zero-trust security approach? Section 5: How do you achieve Zero Trust? Section 6: Our approach to Zero Trust Section 1: What is a Zero Trust security model? If you’ve worked in the IT industry long enough, you’ll no doubt have seen various models and methodologies covering a wide range of technology sets. Zero Trust is at the core of an IT security framework that covers the following key concepts: Of course, there are many moving parts here. But the key concept to take away from this diagram is that each part of the Zero Trust model works in unison to provide the protection businesses require in the Information Age. According to the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 86% of breaches analysed were financially motivated and 58% of victims had personal data compromised. What is also concerning is that ‘since 2017, Misconfiguration errors have been increasing. This can be, in large part, associated with internet-exposed storage discovered by security researchers and unrelated third parties. In part - due to the increase in cloud usage and remote working - we need to understand and protect our data. The methods we used previously are no longer sufficient. Section 2: Who created Zero Trust? The term Zero Trust was coined in 2010 by Forrester Research Inc. Prior to this, in 2009, Google suffered a breach which resulted in the loss of intellectual property (IP). Google understood that the traditional enterprise security model was problematic and developed its own Zero Trust model – BeyondCorp. The attack against Google was part of Operation Aurora, a series of Cyber-attacks conducted by advanced persistent threats. Google described the attack as ‘a \"highly sophisticated\" and coordinated hack attack against its corporate network.’ Google also stated that ‘hackers had stolen intellectual property and sought access to the Gmail accounts’ and that ‘the attackers used nearly a dozen pieces of malware and several levels of encryption to burrow deeply into the bowels of company networks and obscure their activity’ Google’s focus on Zero Trust provided the impetus required to bring this approach to the modern enterprise. In 2019, Gartner understood that the future is in the ‘cloud’ and coined the term secure access service edge (SASE). Section 3: What is Secure Access Service Edge? Secure access service edge (SASE) is the unification of Zero Trust security and Wide area network (WAN) capabilities to support dynamic, secure access. With the explosive growth of public cloud apps and services, more and more data is being stored outside of the traditional network boundaries. In the 2019 ‘The Rise of Direct Internet Access’ report by ESG, 60% of respondents claim that SaaS applications will account for 50% or more of their organisations business applications by 2021 and that 48% of European workers will be considered remote users in the same timeframe. With the decentralisation of the mechanisms we use to connect to our data, the common point of access is the cloud itself and traditional security enforcement points are no longer sufficient. SASE (pronounced ‘sassy’) is an approach to securing this distributed access outside of the traditional network perimeter. The SASE security cloud sits between the users and cloud services, providing all the controls and capabilities required. Section 4: Why do modern organisations need to consider implementing a Zero Trust Security approach? New threats are continually emerging, and existing threats are evolving. These threats can come from a variety of sources, both internally and externally. The approach of protecting your business at the boundary no longer provides sufficient protection in today’s threat landscape. If you head off on holiday and leave your car in long-term parking, you feel content in the knowledge it’s safe. You’ve closed the windows, locked the doors and put all your valuables out of sight. Zero Trust extends to all parts of the enterprise security strategy, so we need to ensure a holistic approach is taken to ensure end to end protection. This will range from the network itself, applications, data access and more. But would you feel quite as content if you’d locked the doors but left the windows open and the keys in the ignition? The 2019 Zero Trust Adoption Report from Cybersecurity Insiders states that 78% of respondents are looking to adopt zero trust and 15% already have. The report also states that 47% lack confidence in their existing technology, with 37% saying that their number 1 user case is securing access to multi-cloud environments Section 5: How do you achieve Zero Trust? Achieving Zero Trust is a multi-stage process involving several teams. In this section, we’ll discuss the key steps your business needs to take. Stakeholder engagement The first step in the path to Zero Trust is crucial. Without the support of your key stakeholders, promoting the shift to a Zero Trust environment will be extremely difficult. Therefore, it’s important to outline the business benefits and the critical goals of the Zero Trust Security Model to align teams and strategy. Your applications may have been developed in house or evolved over time and may not have the required security controls inbuilt. Discovering these limitations can lead to further considerations – is it more secure to move to a cloud-based SaaS architecture or utilise VDI solutions? Discovery & inventory Zero Trust is not only focused on the security teams. There’s going to be a lot of input from several departments within the business. So, you must have full visibility into all the moving parts required. After all, you cannot protect what you cannot see or have no knowledge of. Understanding the devices, applications, flows and permissions in your existing estate will go a long way towards improving your network security. Design & policy creation With stakeholder buy-in and a full inventory of your existing estate, you can now begin to create the overall design that will lead you to implement Zero Trust. Be prepared, it’s going to be a large piece of work with input from several teams. Each section of the design requires careful consideration, giving specific attention to the potential impact that each component will have on one another. Within the design, it will be essential to understand and call out the new components required for the shift to Zero Trust. Examples are identity management, multi-factor authentication (MFA), segmentation, encryption, SSO, certificates as shown below: User authentication = ‘Passwordless’, MFA, Biometric, Certificates Devices = Integrity, compliance Applications = Additional development to increase security, ‘VPNless’ access, work to retire legacy apps Data = Data Access method & Policies Network = Group and microsegment with policy If you don’t have the technologies required, consider engaging with vendors who offer the solutions and can help you understand them fully. Within the design, keep a focus on integration and avoid the use of standalone, disparate solutions that increase the workload of relevant support staff and decrease the efficacy of the data produced. Lab environment testing Where possible, all solutions should be thoroughly tested in a lab environment before any production rollout. The key to lab testing is to have a representative environment that mimics your production environment as closely as possible. Build out the components required for Zero Trust and have a detailed plan in place to test all possible scenarios. It’s important to understand what the business impact would be if one part of the Zero Trust architecture fails – will this mean users cannot access the resources they require and what mitigations are in place for this? Use the lab testing to make informed design decisions and revise the overall design if needed. If the design is modified, test some more. Phased testing deployment Only once full lab testing has been completed and design decisions have been taken, can you then move on to the phased deployment of the Zero Trust Security Model. New hardware, and applications can stand up during this phase and key test users should be selected. The critical test users will need to undertake training on the use and impact of the new solution and have a clear reporting structure to record any issues. The tests-users must make use of their machines and applications as they would on a typical business day. You can then use the feedback from this initial phased deployment to fine-tune the solution and iron out any issues. Once you’ve completed this, you can move on to phase two of the testing and bring in more users. Full review of the phased deployments Once the phased deployment stages are complete, you need to take time to review all the results. You should understand any design decisions that were taken as part of the testing process and create a plan for the production rollout based on these results. Business communication & user training Manage your business expectations by ensuring that key stakeholders are aware of the progress at every stage. Before the production rollout, we recommend having a detailed, structured plan in place, as well as back-out strategies and company-approved timescales. As with phased testing deployment, user training is also vital. Users need to be fully aware of what will change, what the new requirements are, how they report issues and receive the required level of support. Production rollout Your production rollout should follow a similar methodology to the phased testing deployment. For example, if you have 50 sites – deploy one at a time and have a clear structure in place to rollout to the least critical locations first. Be sure not to deploy all components of the Zero Trust solution at once. Instead, take the time to rollout individual pieces and gather as much feedback and data as you can. You could stagger the rollout of least privileged access and MFA, begin to bring in some micro-segmentation and network access policy enforcement. Data gathering Data gathering is critical to enable a successful Zero Trust deployment. It should take place at all stages of the deployment, so that any issues can be proactively identified and managed to create the best user experience possible. Ensure that what you’re attempting to protect is being protected, and the new measures you’ve put in place have the desired effect. Section 6: Our approach to Zero Trust Here at Forfusion, we focus primarily on the Cisco portfolio of networking and security products, but there is a lot more to a Zero Trust strategy than utilising a single vendor. Within this section we will focus on Cisco, Citrix and Microsoft. Keep an eye out for our new blog posts that will go into further detail on the technologies mentioned in this section. But in the meantime, you can find a brief overview below. Intent-based Campus Fabric Cisco Software Defined-Access delivers policy-based automation of users and devices, from the edge to the cloud. Microsegmentation is made possible by the coupling of the SD-Access fabric and Identity Services Engine. You can read our white paper on intent-based Campus Fabrics with Software Defined Access here . Identity management Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is a policy management and control platform for wired, wireless and VPN. It supports BYOD, guest access and Cisco TrustSec services. Cisco TrustSec simplifies policy management by providing a unified tag to sessions enabling the ability to provide access based on a tag irrespective of user location, rather than constantly changing IP addresses. Next generation firewalls Cisco Firepower Threat Defence (FTD) combines the Cisco ASA and FirePOWER feature sets into one unified image. Traditional ASA features are now complemented by NGIPS, Application Visibility & Control, Advanced Malware Protection, URL and DNS filtering – and much more. Firepower Threat Defence also provides remote access VPN features utilising the AnyConnect client, as well as site-to-site VPN connectivity. It’s all managed through the Firepower Management Centre, a single pane of glass view into your FTD estate. Endpoint protection Cisco Advanced Malware Protection is an integrated, intelligence-powered, enterprise-class malware analysis and protection solution. You get comprehensive protection for your organization across the attack continuum: before, during and after an attack. Multi-factor authentication Cisco Duo is a user-centric access security platform that provides two-factor authentication, endpoint security, remote access solutions and more. Network visibility Cisco Stealthwatch provides enterprise-wide visibility, from the private network to the public cloud. It applies advanced security analytics to detect and respond to threats in real-time. Using a combination of behavioural modelling, machine learning and global threat intelligence, Stealthwatch can quickly and confidently detect threats such as C&C attacks, ransomware, DDoS attacks, illicit crypto mining, unknown malware and insider threats. With a single, agentless solution, you receive comprehensive threat monitoring across your data centre, branch, endpoint, cloud and even encrypted traffic. Web & email security Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA) addresses the need for a corporate web security policy by offering a combination of web usage controls with category and reputation-based control, malware filtering and data protection. Cisco Email Security is your defence against phishing, business email compromise and ransomware. Get threat intelligence updates every three to five minutes through Cisco Talos for the most up-to-date protection. Data centre Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) is the SDN of the data centre world. Offering a holistic architecture with centralised automation and policy-driven application profiles, ACI delivers software flexibility with the scalability of hardware performance. By using segmentation, Cisco Tetration enables a zero-trust model that offers comprehensive workload protection for multi-cloud data centres. Cloud security Cisco Umbrella unifies firewall, secure web gateway, DNS-layer security cloud access security broker (CASB) and threat intelligence solutions into a single cloud service to help businesses of all sizes secure their network. Cisco also offers Cloudlock, featuring data loss prevention (DLP) technology that continuously monitors cloud environments to detect and secure sensitive information. It provides countless out-of-the-box policies, as well as highly tuneable custom policies. Integration Cisco SecureX is the broadest, most integrated security platform that connects the breadth of Cisco\'s integrated security portfolio and the customer\'s infrastructure for a consistent experience. It unifies visibility, enables automation and strengthens your security across network, endpoints, cloud, and applications - all without replacing your current security infrastructure or layering on new technology. SaaS Applications With the continued growth in the SaaS market, it is key to secure not only your network estate but your applications themselves. Focusing on Microsoft Office 365 and Teams, it is clear we need to protect the users & data but also provide policy and monitoring. Microsoft has done a great job of building security into their platforms, but you must ensure the access to the applications and the data available is always appropriate. The benefits of SaaS applications are large and diverse, and if you include them as part of your Zero Trust strategy you should reap the benefits they provide. We can integrate access to O365 and Teams with Cisco Duo, providing MFA, visibility and role-based access control. You can also utilise the Cisco Cloudlock CASB to provide Data Loss Prevention, detect confidential information and detect shadow IT. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) If your business has made the choice to move to a VDI based architecture utilising Citrix Workspace then you have already taken the first step to simplify management, security and policy. Citrix has several Citrix Ready partners that enhance and complement your Zero Trust security strategy, with one of these being Cisco Duo for MFA and contextual access to resources. Contextual access is key to the Citrix Zero Trust approach, because after all, only allowing users access to the data they require is key to securing your data. Citrix Workspace also employs anti-key logging and screen capture technology, as well as URL filtering. Another important feature in the security of Citrix Workspace is Data Loss Prevention (DLP). With contextual DLP controls you can ensure the safety of your data. Arrange your 30-minute consultation Transform your business today Book a consultation Sign up to the mailing list Keep up to date with the latest news, insights & events Join mailing list Expertise Collaboration Intelligent Workspace Enterprise Networking Data Centre & Cloud Secure Workplace Services Consulting Services Technical Services Project Services Managed Services Knowledge GuidesWhite PapersCase Studies Industries FinancePublic SectorRetailLegal Company AboutBlogCareersContactPolicies & Statements Social LinkedIn Twitter © Forfusion 2020 | Designed and Built by Precept × Mailing List Signup Confirm Subscription We want to make sure we\'ve got your correct email address. 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From Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to Zero Trust Security, discover the latest guides curated by our team of technology experts.
Simply enter your details below and we’ll contact you to arrange your free 30 minute consultation.
Read time: 37 mins
In this guide to IT Managed Services and Network Managed Service, we’ll describe the concept of Managed Service, including why it exists, how the various process outcomes work, and how to use these services to improve the core and context activities within your business.
Read time: 16 mins
In this guide to Secure Remote Working, we’ll present information to help you gain a better understanding of the concept, how this is interpreted by market leading vendors, and ways it can serve as an enabler for your workforce.
Read time: 22 mins
In this guide to Software Defined Networking (SDN), we’ll describe the concept of SDN, including why it has been developed, how the various technologies work together and the new ways in which it can be used to improve the deployment and operation of your network.
Read time: 21 mins
In this guide, you’ll discover what a Wi-Fi or Wireless Network actually is, how a Wi-Fi Wireless Network works, what the three types of Wi-Fi Wireless Network are - and much more.
Read time: 10 mins
In this definitive guide to Zero Trust Security, we'll discuss the concept of Zero Trust, what it means architecturally and how it applies to your business.
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