NetOps, Security Pros Overwhelmed by Network Updates
Network operations and security professionals are overwhelmed by constant updates and need more support from leadership to keep network and security devices updated and backed up.
These were among the key results of a BackBox survey conducted by Wakefield Research of 250 network operations and security professionals.
The survey found that while 61% of companies only upgrade network and security devices quarterly or less frequently, almost half (48%) said their company has not implemented or invested deeply in network automation.
Even among those businesses that have invested in automation, the vast majority (93%) said there is something they dislike about their company’s approach, while a third of respondents said their leadership is skeptical of automation.
Broken Promises
“Many network automation tools sound good at the executive level but break the promises that automation is expected to deliver on,” said Josh Stephens, CTO of BackBox. “Automation, at its heart, is intended to save time and increase the velocity of operations.” However, many people have experienced products that do quite the opposite by requiring a dedicated staff with specialized skill sets.
“What concerns me is that so many network professionals have had previous experience with automation solutions that were labor-intensive,” he added.
Stephens noted that while NetOps pros inherently know that automation would allow their team to focus on more strategic work–over 90% said their mission is impossible without network automation–35% said they had a previous negative experience with automation.
Nearly all—98% of respondents—said that proper automation would allow their team to focus on more strategic work.
Focusing on Update Velocity
Stephens pointed out there are many things contributing to network update velocity.
“First and foremost, vendors are investing heavily in the identification and remediation of vulnerabilities,” he said. “Not only are they funding internal teams to do this work, but often they’re offering bug bounties and searching the dark web for vulnerabilities discovered by bad actors.”
Additionally, AI tools are being used to rapidly test operating systems and discover vulnerabilities.
“As it relates to tech sprawl, very few organizations rely on a single vendor for firewall and network infrastructure devices,” Stephens added.
This, combined with the rapid deployment of cloud-native capabilities and IaaS, forces teams to consider multi-vendor automation platforms that are capable of being API-driven and enabling the physical network to be fully programmable and operate like a modern DevOps-managed cloud network.
“Network security has historically been about locking down the perimeters and limiting change,” he said. “However, modern networks require constant, fluid changes and require an automation system that can progressively improve security hygiene over time.”
The survey also found 64% of respondents have experienced breaches and/or data loss due to a previously known CVE.
“It’s incredibly frustrating to know that no matter how hard you work, at the end of the week, you’ll likely have more work to do than when you started,” Stephens said. “For me, it would be hard to sleep at night knowing that I have hundreds of unpatched firewalls with known high-severity CVEs—especially once I realize that the right network automation platform could make the problem go away completely.”
He pointed out that network security teams are more frequently being pulled into public cloud and OT networks.
These types of networks require specialized considerations for security and are often managed outside of the normal NetOps team.
“This means that network security teams will have to learn to work with DevOps and BD teams in order to ensure that security is maintained even within multi-cloud scenarios,” Stephens noted.
