Cisco Meraki provides Umbrella SD-WAN connector to enhance cloud security across the SD-WAN network

Networks are becoming decentralised as workers increasingly log in from various devices and locations. Cisco Meraki is seeing the network transform as more applications move to the cloud, fundamentally changing the way they work.

The number of remote workers has dramatically increased and branch offices are adopting direct internet access (DIA) to provide workers with reliable and secure connections to the workplace. As organisations refresh their network, they are adopting SD-WAN or software-defined wide area network technology to better enable DIA.

Important security considerations

As such, there are important security considerations to keep in mind:

• Users can no longer depend on their existing, on-premises security
• Users need a way to secure their branch edge and cloud

Additionally, according to research by ESG:

• Traditional security approaches are not effective in securing remote/branch offices and remote users—especially when connecting directly to the internet.
• 68% of remote users have been targeted in recent attacks—hackers know which users are most vulnerable and will look for the path of least resistance when attempting to infiltrate an organisation.
• To address these issues, they are seeing the emergence of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), which enables the convergence of networking and security in the cloud to deliver secure access to applications, anywhere users work.

Intelligent path selection

Users' business needs the right solutions to adapt their network to the new hybrid work paradigm

Users' business needs the right solutions to adapt their network to the new hybrid work paradigm, while maintaining security and reliability for workers. That’s why Cisco Meraki is announcing the general availability of the Meraki Umbrella SD-WAN connector, which integrates the Meraki MX security and SD-WAN appliance with Cisco Umbrella to enable rapid deployment of cloud security across the SD-WAN network.

Users no longer need to spend hours on manual configurations or building complex routing tables with redundancy. With dynamic policies, intelligent path selection, automatic load balancing, and failover provided by the Meraki Umbrella SD-WAN connector, users can now maximise performance and reliability while consistently protecting users against internet-based threats, both on- and off-network.

Deeply integrated networking

The Meraki Umbrella SD-WAN connector offers a scalable, accelerated step for their SASE journey with a deeply integrated networking and security solution. It significantly reduces the cost, time, and complexity previously associated with configuring and managing SD-WAN connectivity to Cisco Umbrella cloud security.

The Meraki MX security and SD-WAN appliance are core components of the Cisco SASE architecture

The Meraki MX security and SD-WAN appliance, along with Umbrella, are core components of the Cisco SASE architecture. Umbrella unifies multiple security functions that were once services or stand-alone appliances into a single, cloud-native solution. It integrates DNS-layer security, secure web gateway, cloud-delivered firewall, malware protection, data loss prevention, and remote browser isolation for improved security efficacy.

Global cloud architecture

The global cloud architecture delivers network resilience and reliability to provide high-performance and secure connections. Combined, this makes it easier to extend the Meraki MX SD-WAN fabric into the Umbrella cloud. Meraki MX security and SD-WAN appliances elegantly create a framework by securely auto-provisioning IPsec VPN tunnels between sites. The Meraki dashboard automatically negotiates VPN routes, authentication and encryption protocols, and critical exchange for all the organisation’s Meraki MX appliances.

Meraki is ready to support the SASE journey wherever the starting point is and whatever the security and connectivity needs are. Whether the user is looking to the on-ramp to cloud architecture, securely connect hybrid or remote users, or move security from on-premises to the cloud, they can help.