The demands for business agility and tighter security are in conflict. The first requires quick and responsive implementation of whatever is needed to take advantage of business opportunity. But that runs headlong into the management of network access and security policies. Automation and orchestration are the keys to overcoming this conflict, but the inherent flaws of IP networking are the fly in the ointment.
It’s no surprise that businesses are overwhelmed by the challenge of cyber security. In the 2017 Network World State of the Network report, protecting against data breaches and leaks was the top challenge cited by both enterprise and small to medium-sized business (SMB) IT decision makers. Part of the problem lies with lack of automation to augment understaffed Security Operations Centers (SOCs).
