Palo Alto, Cisco, Fortinet top WAN security vendors

Around one-third of WAN managers implemented at least one zero-trust security feature and secure access service edge (SASE) on their networks last year, and Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, and Fortinet are the most used security vendors, according to a recent TeleGeography report.

The firm surveyed WAN managers from 185 companies. It found that zero-trust security adoption increased 27% compared to its 2019 survey.

The research also found that almost all of the respondents who claimed they adopted zero-trust security had multi-factor authentication (MFA) in place. Other widely adopted features include single sign-on (SSO), remote user and device access policies, privileged access management, and user behavior analytics.

TeleGeography Senior Manager Greg Bryan said remote work models were driving zero trust adoption. “It’s definitely driving up demand for zero-trust solutions,” he explained. “With many companies making remote work a permanent structure, we expect zero trust adoption to continue to grow.”

Bryan also noted that cloud adoption, local internet breakouts, and SD-WAN have been driving adoption.

WAN Security Vendor Parade
One-third of those surveyed sourced their security features from a mix of vendors in an attempt to retain agility. Palo Alto, Cisco, and Fortinet were most cited as security vendors selected for hardware-based internet security.

Bryan also noted increased zero-trust awareness and adoption, as only 8% of the surveyed were unfamiliar with the term “zero trust” compared with 20% in 2019.

“It’s worth noting that as adoption grows we’re seeing the knowledge gap narrow,” he said in a statement. “We also see fewer respondents who either had not started or were just beginning their implementation journey when asked about their deployment pipeline.”

“Without a doubt, zero trust has not just progressed in awareness, but in adoption,” Bryan concluded. sdxcentral