Artificial intelligence (AI) is making traditional hardware-based WAN security obsolete, according to the CEO of networking vendor NetFoundry. Galeal Zino has argued that, in an AI-accelerated world, the only trustworthy network security is software-enabled.
“In a hyperconnected and digitally transformed world, holes have been exposed in the old network security model,” he said, at the announcement of a $12m investment in NetFoundry from cybersecurity venture capitalist SYN Ventures. “That old model is shredded by an AI-accelerated world. It was built to secure the WAN, but new workflows live outside that perimeter – APIs, multicloud, Internet of Things (IoT). The SASE WAN gets connected to the Internet via open firewall ports and vulnerable VPNs in order for the business to run. That’s like building a strong boat and then punching holes in it to get a better look at the water.”
AI, he argued, is the final nail in the WAN coffin because it multiplies and accelerates all workflows which exist outside the WAN: “It makes them less predictable and more dynamic,” he added. “Good luck connecting AI agents via VPNs and firewall ACLs.”
NetFoundry delivers network as code, based on the open-source zero-trust software framework OpenZiti. According to Zino, this enables business velocity, agility, extensibility and reliability: “Day two, bolted-on, configuration-centric, infrastructure-dependent networking is both a barrier to business velocity and harms reliability in modern business topologies,” he said. “Leading service providers, MSPs, clouds and SIs will monetise network as code. It will be a part of their managed services. This new round of funding will enable us to further scale globally.”
Businesses that require both strong security and rapid deployment, such as financial services, have led the charge towards this new secure-by-design, network-as-code model, said Zino, but the emerging AI era is making it important for all businesses.
Josh Schertzer, the CTO of enterprise technology at NetFoundry customer Blackstone, the world’s largest asset manager, said: “Finance firms benefited from being the infrastructure-as-code leaders, and are now taking the final step by completing the platform with network-as-code deployments. NetFoundry’s reinvention of secure networking was the missing link – the way to complete the journey to an infrastructure independent, secure-by-design enterprise platform.”
Dan Burns, a partner at SYN Ventures and former CEO of cybersecurity leader Optiv, added: “Only software can keep up with software. Dependencies on infrastructure, IP addresses, underlay networks, specific clouds and firewall ACLs are barriers to business velocity, security and agility. By eliminating these barriers, NetFoundry enables enterprises to simplify, secure and accelerate digital transformation.”
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