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APM in 2020: Prepare for Security and WAN Technology to Take Center Stage

Michael Cabra
Cybera

Many variables must align for optimum Application Performance Management (APM), and security is certainly among them. I offer the following APM predictions for 2020, which revolve around the reality that we will definitely begin to see much deeper integration of WAN technology on the security front. Look for this integration to take shape in the following ways:

First, connectivity and security will continue to become more reliably seamless — so that companies will be able to function with greater agility across application ecosystems — with the help of SD-WAN technology. SD-WAN won't just link devices with sites but will also help with security needs and application requirements for the enterprise.

In addition to boosting performance and security, software-based networking will reduce both the complexity of new app and service delivery, as well as the cost. I predict this year more and more IT departments will merge their networking and security groups into one united team. There will also be heightened IT focus on analytics tools and machine learning.

Second, the Zero Trust model will gain traction this year, spurred on by ongoing security issues that result from virtual private network (VPN) systems. The Zero Trust model safeguards against VPN vulnerabilities by allowing only authorized users access to specific applications, rather than giving all users the run of the network or exposing apps to the Internet. One result of these built-in Zero Trust precautions is a surface that's safe from the type of attacks that frequently plague VPNs. Think of Zero Trust as offering a distinct "protect surface" for your company's most sensitive apps and services. With a microperimeter around this protect surface, the only users that can get their mitts on this critical data are the ones that IT has specifically approved.

Third, expect digital transformation to grow legs in the New Year, moving beyond the buzzword to become a true business advantage, driven by the expansion of IoT. Enterprises can now finally effectively deliver optimized personal experiences to consumers by leveraging the seamless security mentioned above through a plethora of connected devices with speedy connectivity.

To summarize, 2020 will advance past the historical pattern of the network coming first, with security a mere protective appendage. We're rapidly entering a time — spurred along by the deeper integration of security with WAN technology — where security will become the enterprise's top priority, even ahead of connectivity. This is very different than the original intention of the Internet!

All in all, it's good news for the enterprise in 2020, as the security shortfalls of VPNs gradually take a backseat to the zero-attack surface of the Zero Trust model, and businesses can take greater advantage of the digital transformation and IoT through the integration of WAN technology with security.

Michael Cabra is Senior Product Manager, Global and Emerging Markets, at Cybera

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APM in 2020: Prepare for Security and WAN Technology to Take Center Stage

Michael Cabra
Cybera

Many variables must align for optimum Application Performance Management (APM), and security is certainly among them. I offer the following APM predictions for 2020, which revolve around the reality that we will definitely begin to see much deeper integration of WAN technology on the security front. Look for this integration to take shape in the following ways:

First, connectivity and security will continue to become more reliably seamless — so that companies will be able to function with greater agility across application ecosystems — with the help of SD-WAN technology. SD-WAN won't just link devices with sites but will also help with security needs and application requirements for the enterprise.

In addition to boosting performance and security, software-based networking will reduce both the complexity of new app and service delivery, as well as the cost. I predict this year more and more IT departments will merge their networking and security groups into one united team. There will also be heightened IT focus on analytics tools and machine learning.

Second, the Zero Trust model will gain traction this year, spurred on by ongoing security issues that result from virtual private network (VPN) systems. The Zero Trust model safeguards against VPN vulnerabilities by allowing only authorized users access to specific applications, rather than giving all users the run of the network or exposing apps to the Internet. One result of these built-in Zero Trust precautions is a surface that's safe from the type of attacks that frequently plague VPNs. Think of Zero Trust as offering a distinct "protect surface" for your company's most sensitive apps and services. With a microperimeter around this protect surface, the only users that can get their mitts on this critical data are the ones that IT has specifically approved.

Third, expect digital transformation to grow legs in the New Year, moving beyond the buzzword to become a true business advantage, driven by the expansion of IoT. Enterprises can now finally effectively deliver optimized personal experiences to consumers by leveraging the seamless security mentioned above through a plethora of connected devices with speedy connectivity.

To summarize, 2020 will advance past the historical pattern of the network coming first, with security a mere protective appendage. We're rapidly entering a time — spurred along by the deeper integration of security with WAN technology — where security will become the enterprise's top priority, even ahead of connectivity. This is very different than the original intention of the Internet!

All in all, it's good news for the enterprise in 2020, as the security shortfalls of VPNs gradually take a backseat to the zero-attack surface of the Zero Trust model, and businesses can take greater advantage of the digital transformation and IoT through the integration of WAN technology with security.

Michael Cabra is Senior Product Manager, Global and Emerging Markets, at Cybera

Hot Topics

The Latest

Enterprises today operate in a real-time environment where uninterrupted access to trusted data has become a baseline expectation for users, applications and automated systems. Traditional DataOps models, built on manual effort and human triage, cannot keep pace with this always active demand. AI agents are emerging as the operational backbone, ensuring consistent data availability, reinforcing trustworthiness and enabling a level of scale that manual processes cannot achieve ...

For decades, trust in the digital workplace rested on familiar signals. We trusted faces on video calls, voices on the phone, and emails that appeared to come from people we knew. These cues felt human and intuitive. They anchored how decisions were made, approvals were granted, and access was authorized. AI-powered deepfakes have quietly broken that model ...

Cloud migration was supposed to be a one-way door. For most enterprises, it turns out it isn't. Cloud data repatriation is a real and growing trend. A new survey ... finds that 89% of organizations plan to expand their on-premises infrastructure footprint over the next two years — and 75% have already moved at least some workloads back from public cloud in the past 24 months. The findings point to a broad rethinking of where data belongs ...

Over the past few years, large language models (LLMs) have revolutionized the software industry. Given their ability to excel at multi-step reasoning, LLMs have helped enterprises streamline workflows and adapt to the unknown. However, employing such models comes with sky-high costs, latency issues, and limited flexibility. In the realm of IT operations, it is generally wiser to employ smaller, domain-specific models instead ...

For years, DevOps teams operated under a simple assumption: collect enough telemetry, and you can find and fix any problem. That assumption is breaking down. Modern enterprises now operate across microservices, hybrid cloud environments, APIs, Kubernetes, and highly automated delivery pipelines. Releases happen continuously, dependencies shift constantly, and failures spread faster than teams can diagnose them ...

New Relic surveyed IT and engineering leaders from the media and entertainment (M&E) sector to understand what's working — and where challenges persist with their observability practices. The findings reveal how M&E organizations are navigating rising platform complexity, audience expectations, and AI-driven change. Below are five takeaways that stand out ...

Let me start with something I've seen play out more times than I can count. A team hits a wall with the cloud. Costs creep up, then spike. Performance starts to feel inconsistent. Someone in finance asks a simple question like "why did this double?" and nobody has a clean answer ... Maybe this isn't the right place for everything. That realization feels like a breakthrough, like you've identified the problem. In reality, you've just identified the starting line ...

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 24, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses network observability tool sprawl ... 

In cloud-native systems, scaling is often as simple as moving a slider. For on-premise databases, the stakes are different. Over-provisioning hardware is expensive. Under-provisioning leads to performance bottlenecks that are difficult to fix once the equipment is in the rack ...

When most people think about cybersecurity, they picture firewalls, encryption, and access controls — technical tools designed to protect systems and data. But beneath the technology lies a deeper set of principles about trust, decision-making, and resilience ... The best leaders don't eliminate risk. They manage it intelligently. And in many ways, cybersecurity offers a surprisingly useful playbook for doing exactly that ...