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Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) is widely adopted by businesses as a cost-effective means of connecting branch offices to data centers, SaaS, and cloud-based applications.

SD-WAN provides centralized network control – it abstracts and automates tasks traditionally programmed manually on individual edge devices. The SD-WAN architecture adds a network overlay, allowing IT to remotely manage, configure, secure, and monitor most WAN aspects, including network traffic and edge devices. 

SD-WAN abstracts the transport layer, moving from hardware to a software-based infrastructure management approach – this makes it easier to prioritize traffic, allowing IT to replace expensive, private MPLS links with inexpensive public broadband and wireless connections. SD-WAN enables a more flexible WAN environment, both for small businesses and large enterprises.

SD-WAN provides redundancy between WAN connections and automatically fails over to an alternate path if the primary path fails or becomes unavailable. SD-WAN can also use load balancing over multiple connections to enhance network and application performance.

As SD-WAN matures, many vendors have moved SD-WAN controllers to the cloud. By removing controllers from the data center, networks can be even more flexible and scalable, enabling easier management across the hybrid enterprise.

How Does SD-WAN Benefit SAP Deployments?

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud (SAP HEC) is a managed service for privately hosting SAP HANA and related applications in the cloud. SAP manages this service and provides the infrastructure.

SAP HEC supports Internet connectivity via IPsec or MPLS tunnels. However, MPLS connections can be expensive, and IPsec often creates a single point of failure and degrades performance. Businesses need to adapt their existing wide area network (WAN) infrastructure to enable Internet connectivity using IPsec.

Many organizations are looking for more reliable alternatives to IPsec and MPLS. With the growing interest in FinOps and cloud cost optimization, the cost of high bandwidth is a major concern for most organizations. One such alternative is a combination of the cloud and software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN).

What is SASE?

SASE is an evolving framework that addresses the challenges of traditional security and networking solutions such as SD-WAN. As hybrid workloads and cloud adoption grow, traditional security and networking approaches are no longer sufficient.

Perimeter-based security is not suitable for a distributed workforce or remote locations. This leaves organizations vulnerable to an expanding attack surface, caused by a disconnected security stack with visibility gaps between tiers.

SASE provides a simplified, integrated solution for most networking and security needs in a more efficient, manageable, and cost-effective model. SASE can be divided into several key elements in terms of functionality and technology:

• Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), described above.
• • Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) – a technology solution that provides remote users with secure access to applications on a corporate network or in the cloud. The zero trust model denies access by default, and grants least-privileged access based on fine-grained policies. It enables secure connections without connecting remote users to a network or exposing applications to the Internet.

• Secure Web Gateway (SWG) – SWG prevents unprotected Internet traffic from entering a corporate network. It prevents users from accessing malicious or vulnerable websites, Internet-based malware, and other cyber threats, and thus can block these threats from penetrating the network.

• Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) – CASB helps prevent data breaches, malware infections, compliance violations, and lack of visibility, by ensuring the safe use of cloud applications and services. It protects cloud applications hosted on public cloud (IaaS), running in a private cloud, or delivered in a software as a service (SaaS) model.

• Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) – FWaaS transforms a physical firewall appliance into a cloud-based service that provides advanced next generation firewall (NGFW) features. These include URL filtering, advanced threat protection, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and DNS security.

•  Central management – a centralized management console allows teams to manage the above components from a single console, eliminating many of the challenges of change management, patch management, and policy management, while ensuring consistent policies across the organization.

Securing SAP Environments with SASE

Easier DevSecOps Implementation

SASE can help secure SAP applications and their interactions. As a result, the burden on SAP infrastructure and DevSecOps teams is reduced. Teams can use zero trust network access (ZTNA) technology to further secure the applications running on SD-WAN networks. These technologies help secure all interactions between applications and endpoints.

The SASE model can also help protect SAP applications, for example by restricting access to information that should not be shared on the public Internet. SASE protects this data by restricting access with a zero trust architecture, obfuscating traffic, and securing all entry points with next generation firewalls (NGFW). It continuously checks all internal application traffic for cybersecurity threats.

Reducing Collaboration Challenges

SAP teams require remote collaboration over a reliable and secure connection, and prefer to reduce their reliance on network and security teams. The SASE model can help solve these problems.

SASE helps reduce team collaboration issues by unifying WAN and network security. SASE solutions provide strong security and optimized performance, so SAP teams don’t depend on infrastructure staff to provision resources. SASE gives teams control over operations without compromising security and performance.

Built-In Security

SASE provides teams the basic network security features they need to secure SAP applications. It allows teams to integrate different security technologies into the networking stack, integrating all security services. This closes loopholes in traditional security architectures, which are frequently exploited by attackers.

SASE provides many network security features, including SWG, NGFW, antivirus, managed detection and response (MDR) services, and intrusion prevention systems (IPSs), all integrated into a unified architecture.

Enhanced Incident Response

SASE helps block many attack vectors immediately using security controls embedded in the network. This strongly supports incident response efforts. SASE also increases visibility into anomalies and security incidents in hybrid environments.

By integrating data from SASE solutions into a security information and event management (SIEM) system, the incident response team can gain visibility into anomalous traffic and track automated security measures, across both SAP and other environments. SASE features like NGFW, SWG, IPS, and anti-malware can contain or eliminate some incidents, and if they don’t, security teams can take action.

More Reliable Infrastructure

SASE solutions provide integrated failover and load balancing functions that can significantly enhance the network’s overall performance, and can help SAP teams maintain application uptime and performance.

The SASE architecture connects all users, edge devices, data centers, and cloud resources to a self-healing, fully optimized, secure global network. If a circuit fails or the path becomes congested, the fabric automatically switches to a second path. As a result, SAP teams no longer have to worry about network performance.