When it comes to the networking industry, security has long been the domain of firewalls and IPS devices. The modern reality of network security is that network hardware alone isn’t enough, which is why Juniper Networks is building out its Software Defined Secure Network (SDSN) approach.
Helping to push the SDSN effort forward is Juniper’s CTO for Security, Kevin Walker. In a video interview, Walker explains that the networking industry keeps selling firewall and IPS devices year after year, and the only thing that changes are the names. Walker is looking to change the dialogue.
“The notion of having an enforcement zone wrapped around a firewall, although sound, is not optimum,” Walker said. “That’s where Juniper announced the Software Defined Secure Network, to flip the paradigm from network security, to building a secure a network leveraging the network itself.”
Walker explained that SDSN encompasses Juniper’s entire portfolio of products, including Spotlight secure technology for threat intelligence. That said, Walker noted that SDSN supports an open API such that if an organization has its own threat feeds, they can also be used. The analytics engine, which is part of Juniper’s SkyATP, will continue to grow as part of the SDSN effort as well.
While software is key to SDSN, Walker explained that the effort has enforcement capabilities enabled by switches, routers and firewalls.
“It’s not just a firewall-focused framework,” Walker said. “In fact, it’s far more impactful if we can detect and stop an event as close to the device as possible without allowing it to permeate the network.”
Watch the video interview with Kevin Walker below:
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Enterprise Networking Planet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
