A few years back, it was quite easy to secure an enterprise application. The majority of systems were deployed on-premises in a company’s data center, access to those systems was limited to a corporate network that was monitored and controlled, and the security teams dedicated their time to securing the perimeter of those networks.
The way applications now run has changed from a single-site model to multiple environments, with applications now split between public and private cloud platforms, private data centers, and in, many cases, being run from ‘edge’ computing infrastructures to support global users.
As a consequence, employees, partners, and customers are all accessing these applications via many different devices and where they are located.
This transformation towards a distributed architecture has resulted in major opportunities for both innovation and scalability; however, it has also created an entirely new set of security challenges.
As a result, securing the data network has become one of the core building blocks of any modern application architecture.
In this article, we will discuss how distributed applications have changed the security landscape, why protecting data while in motion is necessary, and how incorporating a data network security strategy can help organizations secure their applications through a variety of complex infrastructures.
Why is there a rise in distributed application environments?
The growth of distributed application environments has caused an evolution from monolithic application development to a distributed environment or system made up of many connected service elements.
However, this change in direction has created an increase in complexity related to development, operations, and maintenance.
Some of the complexities associated with distributed environments include:
- Services in applications communicate continuously across networks;
- Data in applications travel to multiple locations and platforms;
- Dynamic changes occur to infrastructure when developing applications that scale.
The continuous communication between services located in multiple locations and platforms makes the network the primary pathway for the application service to operate. Because of this fact, protecting the pathway from both security and reliability issues is vital as per Netpicker.
How do distributed environments increase security risk?
With applications existing in more than one environment, an increase in the number of pathways that allow communication and exchange of information between application components exists.
Every connection made between two sets of applications, including service-to-service connection, application-to-service, and user-to-service, introduces another possibility for security compromises as per data network security as per Netpicker.
There are several factors that contribute to increased security vulnerabilities caused by or associated with distributed applications:
- One factor contributing to this challenge is that as distributed applications scale, their physical infrastructure will become difficult to monitor and audit.
- For example, applications may interact with services hosted on multiple cloud providers or managed by different groups within an organization.
- The second factor is decreasing visibility into traditional network boundaries.
- Distributed applications can communicate and transfer data between multiple sources and destinations.
- Lastly, distributed applications allow for the implementation of new services and technologies at a swift pace.
What actually is data network security?
The primary goal of security for data networks is to safeguard the flow of data between systems. In contrast to a device-based or perimeter-based approach, data network security focuses on the communication portion of a network as per Netpicker.
The major objectives included in a security strategy for data networks are:
- To protect sensitive or confidential data during transmission and at rest.
- To grant access to network resources to only those authorized.
- To identify the presence of anomalies or malicious patterns in traffic.
- To provide a full view of how data travels through an environment.
The strategy and objectives of data network security follow the design of most contemporary applications, which all have constant and dynamic service connectivity.
Let’s see the strategic role of data network security.
Data network security supports the same basic goals as traditional network security but encompasses not just protecting the infrastructure devices themselves and the various external and internal security boundaries in data network security.
By ensuring that your communication paths are secure, controlled, and visible, you provide a means for all parties to access your communication path and provide them with a mechanism for doing so as per Netpicker.
When data travels from point to point, the security of the connection is no longer reliant on a single security boundary; rather, it is now dependent on protecting every possible connection where your data travels.
Some examples of this would be the following:
- Application service connections
- Cloud services and data center connections
- Internal system connections to external APIs
- User connections to enterprise applications
Each of these types of connections represents a point where an attacker can either gain access to your data and “manipulate” or “exploit” it.
To conclude, applications have become increasingly distributed compared to past applications. Data now flows between service providers and users on many services and products. The continuous flow of data between services, platform providers, and users in these complex networks is critical to keeping both operational and secure. To know more about data network security, contact us at Netpicker!