{"id":16865,"date":"2019-06-12T11:50:56","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T11:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lavellenetworks.com\/?p=16865"},"modified":"2021-04-15T09:29:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T09:29:38","slug":"network-segmentation-best-practices-to-secure-the-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lavellenetworks.com\/blog\/network-segmentation-best-practices-to-secure-the-portal\/","title":{"rendered":"Network Segmentation: Best practices to secure the portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the marvellous world of digital, enterprises are in a constant hunt for all the infinity stones \u2013\u00a0The Internet, The Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things and Software Defined Networks<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 to become invincible –\u00a0Agile, Flexible, Fast and Software-Defined \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>and seek success in the race to digital. Although the analogy may sound cinematic, for networking teams its true to life.<\/p>\n

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Enterprises have well realized the fact that to invade the digital world further, they first need to secure and upgrade the only portal – The Network – which connects both worlds together. In doing so, enterprises are already going through a drastic change in infrastructure, business models, and functions. IT\u2019s are turning dynamic, and no more they work under silos. The real challenge for IT today is to protect and prevent the only portal \u2013 The Network \u2013 from unknown and known alien attacks \u2013 Cyberthreats. It\u2019s an uphill battle that keeps networking teams on their toes all the time. Like any other powerful defence mechanism, the guardians of this portal \u00a0– the networking teams \u2013 are well equipped and evolving their arsenal. And, topping the – armoury list for network engineers, is Network Segmentation. By segmenting enterprise networks, networking teams confine the impacts of well planned attacks within limited zones. \u00a0It prevents attackers to delve deeper into the network.<\/p>\n

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The network is the reality of the world of digital \u2013 and is no less than an infinity stone. The advance Network mechanism of the digital world is nothing but a mesh of Software Defined and Traditional Networks working in sync with the cloud. And segmenting such advance networking mechanism, well poised with high tech solutions, requires a comprehensive strategy. As a result, in today\u2019s ever evolving networking paradigm, networking teams find themselves amidst a chaotic din in order to manage all the infinity stones-\u00a0 too many high tech solutions and services.<\/p>\n

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Network \u2013 The Reality Stone<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Connectivity is the bedrock of the digital world. Carrying one of the crucial resources \u2013\u00a0Data and Information\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 of both worlds, networks today play a huge role in life and business. Data and information of all sorts generated by \u2013 Citizens, Governments, and Businesses \u2013 the digital world is all over the network. And, each body \u2013 Citizens, Businesses, and Governments- is responsible to protect information and data which are confidential. For example, your office laptop\u2019s password for bank accounts, customer ID, Password, etc. For enterprises protecting data and information is not as simple as how you protect your personal data and information on devices, and on different networks.<\/p>\n

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For enterprise business, employee’s data, stakeholder’s data and most importantly customer\u2019s data, make networks much more accountable to carry, prevent, and protect data. And just when the networking world clamored for next generation network architecture, SDN emerged as a boon. The flexibility, operational simplicity, the ability to defend next-gen threats, and the option to address digital traffic (workloads) within a definite cloud based virtual environment.<\/p>\n

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\"Network<\/a><\/p>\n

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To manage and monitor networks carrying data and information of all sorts globally requires a high level of visibility and reduced complexity. Modern network architectures (SDN and Cloud-based) help networking teams to segment networks at a micro level. Centralized management and monitoring, backed with intent-based networks driven by policies and other next-gen networking solutions – like NFV, AI, ML, Containers, Dockers, Kubernetes \u2013 make networks \u2013 The Portal \u2013 powerful enough to meet the demands of today and the future needs of the digital world.<\/p>\n

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With Power Comes Responsibility and \u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Too many integrated network solutions and services in today\u2019s dynamic IT environment are making it difficult for networking teams to manage and monitor networks. The sheer size of networks, new technology additions in the IT tech stack, collaboration with different other functions (DevOps, Security, Management and Monitoring teams) and the new norm of BYOD among employees over the years has catered in making managing and monitoring networks tough for IT.<\/p>\n

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No doubt, with power like SDN and other infinity stones \u2013\u00a0next-gen technologies<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 comes responsibility-\u00a0to address the rising complexity securely, following comprehensive management and monitoring strategy.<\/strong>\u00a0Visibility is the first challenge that comes to mind when talking about complexity. It\u2019s one of IT\u2019s topmost priority today.<\/p>\n

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Overall network visibility, in the form of analytics and insights, is one of topmost priority for enterprise networking teams. It\u2019s obvious because one must be able to see – devices, users and applications \u2013 in order to discover, act and implement security measures.<\/p>\n

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A microscopic view of Segmented Networks<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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End to end network visibility is one of the major network management challenges networking teams face today. For dynamic IT teams, effective network management starts with empowering networking teams with powerful monitoring and analytics capabilities.\u00a0\u00a090%<\/a>\u00a0of enterprise network teams indicated that they need an end-to-end management environment that covers WAN networking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s enterprise networks are subjected to meet sudden business changes and requirements. In doing so, networks become vulnerable. Ever evolving traffic patterns of the cloud era, demands more focus on network security. Not so surprisingly, Gartner highlights a rise in security investments for cyber\/information security by 55%. And as security measures proliferate, network segmentation hits a new radar in the IT security tech stack.<\/p>\n

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\"Network<\/a><\/p>\n

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In most enterprises, network segmentation is used with a perimeter firewall. In addition, Intrusion\u00a0Prevention System (IPS), Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP) is applied to guard the network perimeter. vLANs and vRFs are the two most common types of network segmentation methods used by networking teams. VLANs provide only site-specific segmentation and on the other hand, VRFs are used for complex wider deployments. Regardless of the technologies chosen for network segmentation and segregation, there are five common themes for best practice implementations:<\/p>\n