VMware Inc. announced several product updates to its networking and security products at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, in the first major update for the company since Broadcom Inc. acquired it. Before the event, I had a preview of the developments with Abe Ankumah, head of SASE/SD-WAN, and Padma Sudarsan, the chief of architecture for telco, both leaders in Broadcom’s software-defined edge division.
The rise of hybrid work and distributed applications has created a problem that’s not so new but has been exacerbated. On-premises security has been the de facto deployment model for decades, but as businesses have become more distributed, on-premises have struggled to meet security demands. The pandemic-induced hybrid work model underscores the difficulty of putting corporate-grade security wherever a user is.
Our research shows that an average enterprise uses 68 security tools from 32 vendors, so the platform concept has become the preferred deployment model in this world of multiple security and networking vendors since it helps simplify operations.
This week, security vendor Fortinet announced several updates to its SASE platform to address the security needs of hybrid work.
The pandemic gave many workers a sense of what it’s like to work from home and most want to continue to do so, just not all the time. My research shows that 86% of users want to work from home but only 9% want to be 100% remote. Also, 51% of employees will work from home 2-4 days a week and 14% one day a week. These numbers point to a world where most businesses must think hybrid.