Harness the power of 4G/LTE while eliminating risks with a cloud-based security architecture!

The proliferation of mobile computing devices in the workplace opens up a significant opportunity for organizations and individuals to innovate and improve productivity in today’s ‘always-on’ connected world. On the flip side, ensuring ‘always on’ access to web resources can also open companies up to significant risk when it comes to keeping web resources, corporate data and networks secure. Companies need to find the right balance between providing unfettered access to those productivity-enhancing cloud-based apps employees need, and protecting corporate assets from the malicious content or suspicious activity.

To get there, companies should first consider that traditional, perimeter-based security appliances are flawed when used in today’s network environment. That’s basically because users (i.e., employees and partners) are no longer working from inside the perimeter of corporate headquarters, safely behind a firewall. You’re most productive employees who used to be hard at work down the hall are now, more than likely, working remotely from customer sites, airports or coffee shops. Also, today’s most prominent apps like Salesforce.com, Office 365, AWS, etc.− all reside offsite in the cloud and are accessed through an internet connection. This highly-mobile and decentralized corporate environment call for a new focus on fast, extremely reliable internet and a modern corporate security architecture. Today’s top companies are finding smarter ways to leverage cloud security options to help bridge this gap. Consider a cloud-based security architecture and the reliability of 4G/LTE internet to keep employees connected and to keep corporate networks secure regardless of where work is being done.

• Airtight web and email security– Email spam messages account for almost 57% of the total email traffic worldwide today. Not only that in 2016, but the United States also accounted for most of the unsolicited spam e-mails with over 12% of global spam volume. (Source: Statista). That means you need an email and web content filtering solution that can scale and keep pace protecting the organization. The organization should also look for options that provide granular control of mail flow and prevent data loss over email. Look for in-line content filtering technology that inspects each outbound and inbound byte, even including SSL traffic. When evaluating content filtering solutions look for those that are hosted in the cloud. By eliminating the cost and complexity of traditional secure web gateway appliances, your company can scale protection to all mobile users or offices via internet connections and minimize hardware and appliance infrastructure investments. When filtering policies can be managed and administrated in the cloud for a centralized console, mobile assets and the on-the-go workforce will be protected.
• Controlled connections– When it comes to mission-critical enterprise apps, losing an internet connection− even for one hour−can mean a drain on productivity. While costs vary by industry, a 2014 Gartner study tells us the cost of downtime is as much as $5600 per minute (Source: Gartner). It also helps explain why the wide area network (WAN) is so critical in the enterprise today and why companies require reliable wireless connections like 4G/LTE to be productive and efficient. Reliable failover options are key to client connectivity, but security regarding cloud options and content filtering must be of paramount concern. When evaluating enterprise-grade internet and security options, look for cloud-based solutions that let you control connections and prioritize business-critical traffic, like Office 365. With more control over connections, companies can ensure business critical apps are the top priority.
• Ease of Deployment – The beauty of a cloud-based security architecture is that deployment is simplified. The systems can be configured in minutes, and they can filter domains for all internet connection requests immediately. Look for those that can intelligently route traffic to permissible internet sites while also blocking access to known malicious websites. Not only that with a cloud-managed security solution, but managers can even centrally manage corporate policies and set tolerance settings as needed, without hesitation because 4G/LTE connectivity is ideal for running mission-critical networks as well as a backup.
• Device agnostic – When moving away from appliance-based security, be sure that cloud-based options are genuinely device agnostic and they function across multiple hardware and operating systems. It’s also essential that they can perform regardless of the type of network components used, user devices or operating systems selected. This kind of security solution will deliver the highest ROI over time, and it will provide peace of mind that users are protected wherever they are working from, as long as they are going through the cloud network.

If your business needs to harness the power of 4G/LTE connectivity but wants a more reliable and modern approach to enterprise security that includes antivirus, firewalls, sandboxes, URL filters, SSL inspection, it’s time to consider the benefits of adopting a cloud-based security architecture. If you’d like to learn more about how Broad Sky Networks and Zscaler can help, email Partners@Broadskynetworks.net or give us a call at (877) 291-9575.