Rethink of Security Architecture Means Opportunity for Channel Partners

Updated October 28, 2021.

The massive data breaches that are dominating headlines nearly daily are forcing a reimagining of security architecture. Most organizations have accepted that existing network protection methods at the perimeter are being evaded and are looking to beef up their insider threat detection capabilities with the latest technologies. This creates an opportunity for channel partners to provide security administrators and architects with expert advice in both the redesign of security and the best ways to implement and scale advanced threat detection and analytics.

Gigamon’s channel partners are uniquely qualified to bring together application, network and security stakeholders within their client base and help them reorganize existing security tools to work more efficiently. For years Gigamon valued partners have been helping clients streamline their networks for better application and network performance through pervasive visibility to network traffic. This approach as it is now understood is the best way to improve network security as well.

Experts spanning industry and government agree that lack of visibility to the inside of networks is the key culprit behind successful network breach and reorienting security focus and investment toward eliminating blind spots is what is needed.

Prevention Is Futile in 2020: Protect Information Via Pervasive Monitoring and Collective Intelligence

_{– Gartner, Neil MacDonald, Vice President, Distinguished Analyst and Gartner Fellow Emeritus}

“Cybersecurity is now a persistent business risk. The impact has extended to the C-suite and boardroom.”

_{– PWC Global State of Info Security Survey, 2015}

We should not prioritize closing and locking doors and windows while there are intruders in the house. Accordingly, I recommend a “Detect and Respond” strategy first and foremost.

_{– FireEye, Richard Bejtilch, Chief Security Strategist}

Our joint clients in financial services, government, retail, online services and manufacturing, among others, are looking at their sizeable distributed networks that are a mixture of physical and virtualized workloads and they see massive challenge to re-architecting for compromise detection and response. This is where the Security Delivery Platform (SDP) and partners adept in its deployment and leverage can offer significant value-add. An SDP is the natural starting point to restoring network visibility for security applications both inline and out of band. By connecting all security tools in the environment to an SDP, organizations can go from a disordered state of ad-hoc security deployment to a streamlined and manageable architecture that has full visibility to network traffic and best of all is agile enough for scaling and augmentation without network disruption.

With the GigaSECURE Security Delivery Platform in their offerings channel partners have the means to help clients achieve on their goals for revamping security and can dramatically improve the customers’ security posture in a very short amount of time. Examples of guidance and services that channel partners can offer include:

• Traffic visibility for branch offices and virtualized network segments through installation of TAPs and traffic visibility nodes in those locations
• Upgrading of dated security tools like IDSes to next-gen context aware IPSes for more granular egress filtering without network disruption
• Conducting side by side PoCs of new technologies for advanced threat detection and sandboxing that can identify zero day attacks
• Augmentation of feeds to security analytics and forensics tools with unsampled NetFlow/IPFIX and traffic metadata
• Security gateway (i.e. email and Web) and Web App firewall SSL decryption offload for better performance and faster time to detection

Supporting this, Gigamon has built a leading channel partner program. In the last year we announced and launched the Gigamon Partner Program – a value add reseller program that rewards partners with discounts and incentives. As evidence of our strong channel commitment Gigamon was awarded both the CRN 5 Star Partner Program and CRN Channel Chief awards in 2015.

Gigamon channel partners are in a unique place to offer organizations the path to higher security and better threat detection while preserving the flexibility of best-of-breed security and network architecture choices. The challenge and the opportunity is to educate customers on the many ways that centralizing security deployment on a security delivery platform can make their network safer from inside threats now and for the long term.