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GFI Digital

Cisco SD-WAN Security

Right Security, Right Place




Cisco® SD-WAN (Software Defined-Wide Area Network) is a cloud-delivered overlay WAN architecture connecting branches to data centers and multicloud environments through a single fabric and single pane of glass. Cisco SD-WAN helps ensure a predictable user experience for applications optimized for SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS (Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, and Platform as a Service) connections.



Protect users, connected devices, and all traffic across the WAN


To help with the ever-increasing adoption of multicloud environments, SD-WAN offers total transport flexibility to connect directly with the cloud using the internet. The network efficiency that comes with SD-WAN creates a better user application experience and reduces cost for organizations. Unfortunately, all these benefits have a tradeoff – rearchitecting the enterprise WAN and branch networks into SD-WAN creates exposure to threats and additional security complexity.


How do you protect your newly implemented SD-WAN against internal and external threats? If you plan to deploy additional security devices or services on-premises, in the cloud, or both, could you scale easily for future traffic growth? How do you reduce the complexity of deploying and managing security solutions from multiple vendors? How about your visibility into traffic to or across branches and data centers?


Cisco® SD-WAN offer engineering leadership in both networking and security to include full-stack multilayer security capabilities on the platform and in the cloud. Its integrated on-premises and cloud security arms IT with advanced threat defense wherever it is needed – for branches connecting to multiple SaaS or IaaS clouds, to data centers, or everything on the internet.




Built-in Full Edge Security Stack


Cloud Security: Integrated connectivity and cloud-delivered security provides secure access to the internet and SaaS applications and scales for future traffic growth.



On-Premises Security: Embedded enterprise firewall and intrusion prevention in addition to URL filtering and malware sandboxing provide secure WAN access and meet compliance demands onsite.




Cisco’s open, integrated SD-WAN security architecture


Cisco SD-WAN offers an integrated on-premises and cloud security solution spanning four security categories: network segmentation, enterprise firewall, secure web gateway, and DNS-layer security. Each security category itself spans a different combination of security features. These security features are:


IPsec encryption: An underlying WAN fabric for securing on-premises WAN access and direct internet access


IPS: A built-in intrusion prevention system within an on-premises enterprise firewall


App controls: A built-in security practice within every part of the security stack, able to control 1400+ apps using on-premises enterprise firewall


Malware protection: An extended security feature across both on-premises and cloud security to prevent/detect malicious files with sandboxing


SSL/TLS decryption: A security feature with unlimited scale for either cloud security or on-premises security with sufficient resources


URL filtering: An extended security feature across both on-premises and cloud platforms with 80+ web categories covering millions of domains and billions of web pages




Key SD-WAN security use cases


Secure direct internet access: Cisco SD-WAN provides centralized control of the flow of internet-bound traffic using built-in security features. The integrated security solutions provide the best balance of security and user experience for direct internet access.


Secure end-to-end segmentation, at scale: In addition to extending branch segmentation into the data center and the cloud, Cisco SD-WAN protects users and devices within a specific segment from any internal and external threats. With Cisco SD-WAN you are able to manage segmentation policies across the entire network from a single pane of glass and to adapt automatically to any network’s changes.


Enforce regulatory compliance: Cisco SD-WAN addresses compliance in a holistic way by offering a comprehensive set of security controls.


Components Security Controls

Control plane Zero Trust security model

Data plane Integrated on-premises and cloud security layers

Management plane Role-based access control and ACLs

Platform Trustworthy hardware, software, and solution





Security benefits of Cisco SD-WAN


• Constant protection against all internal and external threats from branches to IaaS

• Improved user experience via secure direct internet and cloud access

• Centralized visibility and control for all internal, inbound and outbound traffic

• Reduced cost and complexity using a single product for networking, security, and cloud


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