Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a network architecture that separates the control plane and the data plane in a network. The control plane is responsible for making decisions about how the network should operate, such as how data should flow and which routes should be used. The data plane is responsible for forwarding packets of data according to the decisions made by the control plane. In tr
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a cryptographic protocol that was widely used to provide security for Internet communications. It was originally developed to secure the transfer of sensitive information such as credit card numbers and other personal data over the Internet. However, SSL has been replaced by a newer protocol, TLS (Transport Layer Security), which provides equivalent security features
Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a technology in cybersecurity that creates a secure, encrypted connection between a device and a remote server over the internet. VPNs are used to provide secure remote access to a private network, such as an organization's internal network, by encapsulating and encrypting all data transmitted between the device and the remote server. This helps to protect sensitiv
Meta Commentary: SD-WAN providers are starting to bundle up their services into SASE solutions. While this is an understandable evolution, practitioners and decisionmakers are encouraged to read our Buyer's Guide to better evaluate vendors selling SASE. Definition: A Software-Defined Wide Area Network is a network architecture that uses software-defined networking (SDN) technologies to manage the
The OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model is a 7-layer reference model for network communications, used to describe the different levels of abstraction and functions in a network system. Physical layer: responsible for the physical transmission of data over a network medium (e.g. copper or fiber cables). Data link layer: responsible for reliable delivery of data frames over the physical layer.
A bastion host is a server or a device that is deliberately exposed to the Internet and used to access an internal network. It serves as a secure gateway or entry point for remote access to the internal network, typically via SSH or RDP. It often hosts a single application for this purpose, usually a reverse proxy or load balancer. Bastion hosts are often hardened and secured with additional secur