Four Security Questions You Need to Answer for SD-WAN Success

Before you select an SD-WAN vendor, read this.

Lets presume that its time for your enterprise to choose and implement an SD-WAN solution. Youve done the research, and have decided that SD-WAN makes sense, perhaps to supplement existing wide-area networks, perhaps to replace them. Maybe youll use SD-WAN for expansion. Before you more forward, into the vendor-selection phase, here are four security questions you should think about.
But first, let me cross one specific question off your list: Encryption. Because they are fighting the (accurate) perception that traffic going over the public Internet is inherently vulnerable, SD-WAN vendors stress their strong encryption: gazillion-bit, end-to-end, military-grade, hardware-based, quantum-proof, blah blah blah. Thats table stakes, my friends: Every name-brand SD-WAN encrypts traffic, and encrypts it really well. Data transiting over an Internet-based SD-WAN is encrypted in basically the same way as the traffic going over an Internet-based virtual private network (VPN) tunnel. So, dont worry about that.
1. How secure is the remote endpoint client?
With every SD-WAN, there must be some type of client on each end of the connection. In some cases, its a hardware appliance. Often, its pure software -- thats what you’ll find in the cloud, for example. How secure is that client against hacking, or against unauthorized remote configuration? If the SD-WAN provider can remotely manage the endpoint hardware or software, perhaps a hacker will be able to break in. Ask how well protected is that endpoint against a rogue employee at the SD-WAN provider, or the provider itself being hacked. Expect good answers to those questions, and others regarding the service providers security practices.
2. Are you securing SD-WAN endpoints to the cloud, in the enterprise data center, or both?
This makes a huge difference. In my experience, SD-WAN excels at tying small and remote offices to cloud service providers, whether software-as-a-service (SaaS) or infrastructure or platform-as-a-service (IaaS or PaaS). Many cloud providers already support secure endpoint clients for the major SD-WAN services, just as they do for MPLS. When it comes to bringing traffic back to the enterprise data center, some solutions are pretty weak -- and only talk about their encryption strength. Be sure to research your specific use cases, and determine how well they tie into your overall WAN security requirements.
3. How much of SD-WAN security do you want to manage?
SD-WAN solutions are available just about any way you want them. If you want a turnkey solution, where the service provider handles everything for you, including provisioning raw bandwidth, setting up new endpoints, optimizing performance through compression, installing fault-tolerance, and managing security, thats available. If your existing WAN and network teams would prefer to secure the SD-WAN themselves, including full management of all access control lists (ACLs), make sure thats an option right out of the box.
4. Does the SD-WAN play well with your existing ITOps and SecOps tools?
Lets say that a bad actor tries to break into your cloud hosts SD-WAN endpoint. Will that register on your security incident and event management (SIEM) console? I hope so. What if theres a DDoS attack against your SD-WAN providers authentication middleman service? That should raise an alert as well. Even if the SD-WAN is a fully managed service, you cant outsource security -- and that means full transparency on the part of the SD-WAN provider, and appropriate integration with your IT and security operations tools, including logs, reports, trend analysis, and predictive analytics. Dont settle for anything less. If possible, test the integration, and ask to see recent outage and security-incident reports before signing the contract.
SD-WAN is real, its mature, and its generally secure. But like with any technology, its not one-size-fits-all, and its up to you to make sure that you can trust it. Be sure you know what you need before signing that contract. And again, dont simply choose the one that has the most bits in its encryption algorithms. While impressive, thats arguably the least important bullet-point in SD-WAN security.
—
Alan Zeichick is principal analyst at
Camden Associates
, a technology consultancy in Phoenix, Arizona, specializing in enterprise networking, cybersecurity, and software development. Follow him
@zeichick
.

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Four Security Questions You Need to Answer for SD-WAN Success