Cisco introduces Cisco Umbrella, a new, unique product category that provides security directly from the cloud, enabling protection in this new era of mobile and cloud-first environments.
The way of working has changed, people are moving around more and more, and there is an increasing tendency to use SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications. And this trend, according to Gartner, seems destined to continue, with a predicted growth in the use of SaaS applications of 70% by 2018. And that’s why a large part of company branches connect directly to the internet, bypassing the protection provided by corporate networks. This new way of working, while providing the required flexibility to continue to be operational and productive, means that a large part of users are not protected by the traditional network controls and web security guaranteed by corporate networks. And this also means that companies no longer have visibility of the threats directed at a significant part of their company, their employees.
Companies must therefore protect themselves from the dangers that this new way of working entails, and largely do so by relying on VPNs (virtual private networks), although, according to IDG, 82% of mobile employees do not always use them. Others rely on on-premise gateway solutions for secure web browsing and a series of associated agents, which however create complexity and latency. Current challenges therefore require a new approach to security, and for Cisco, cloud protection is the new front line of defense for companies, providing full visibility and the right control along the “borders” of the internet.
And Cisco was the first to grasp and understand this paradigm shift, focusing on cloud protection and creating a new technology and product category – the Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) – to provide the necessary protection for this new way of working. The Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) allows indeed to access the Internet in total security wherever you are, even without a VPN. The SIG acts as a secure “ramp” to the Internet and provides visibility and protection regardless of where the user is or what device they are connecting from.
Cisco Umbrella – a secure internet gateway – is therefore a security platform that provides a first line of defense to protect employees inside and outside the corporate network. Umbrella blocks threats to all ports and protocols, thus ensuring total protection. It blocks access to malicious domains, URLs, IPs, and files before a connection is established or a file is downloaded, ensuring coverage of all traffic. With Umbrella, protecting yourself has never been easier. Since everything happens in the cloud, there is no hardware to install and no software to manually update. Companies can thus protect all devices in minutes and leverage investments in Cisco solutions – including the AnyConnect® client, the 4K series of Integrated Services Routers, and wireless LAN controllers – to route internet traffic to Umbrella both inside and outside the corporate network.
Cisco Umbrella offers:
- Visibility and protection everywhere: Umbrella provides the necessary visibility to protect internet access from any device on the network, all office workstations, and all users on the move. Thanks to the combination of Umbrella and Cisco Cloudlock’s Cloud Access Security Broker technology, Cisco allows companies to identify which SaaS application is being used and block risky or inappropriate ones.
- Intelligence to stop attacks before they happen: Umbrella resolves over 100 billion internet requests daily and correlates this data with over 11 billion past events – All of this is analyzed to identify patterns, detect anomalies, and create models that can uncover attacker infrastructures prepared for threats.
- Complete coverage against malicious destinations and files: Umbrella leverages powerful Cisco security tools to gain complete visibility and identify and block threats from the outset. This includes:
- Machine learning models to uncover known and emerging threats, blocking connections to malicious destinations at the DNS and IP level.
- Cisco Talos threat intelligence to block malicious URLs at the HTTP/S level.
- Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) to detect malicious files and block them in the cloud.
- An open platform for easy integration: Umbrella integrates with all systems, including security appliances, intelligence feeds or platforms, and custom in-house tools that extend protection to devices and workstations beyond the perimeter.
- Detection and control of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps: Umbrella, together with Cloudlock, allows for the detection and control of sensitive data residing in apps both inside and outside the network.
- Fast and secure connection for a better experience: no more slow or interrupted connections. Umbrella uses Anycast routing – each data center has the same IP address so that requests are transparently sent to the fastest available data center with automatic failover to maintain full operation.
Be the first to comment