Devices, computing, security. It’s all about the edge.

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Nov. 13, 2024

Barracuda was recently recognized in the CRN Edge Computing 100 as one of the 25 Hottest Edge Security Companies of 2024. This is a great accomplishment in this fast-growing market, and it’s based on the strength of Barracuda SecureEdge, our cloud-first secure access service edge (SASE) platform that can connect and secure a company’s users, sites, devices, apps, and workloads.

CRN Edge Computing 100

We have a ton of content about SASE and Barracuda SecureEdge. We’ll include those links at the end of the article.

Nearly every economic sector and industry incorporates edge devices, edge computing, and edge security. The three are distinct but integral parts of a cohesive system in modern distributed computer networks. To better understand this system, let’s break down each of the parts.

Edge devices

You can think of edge devices as an entry point into a network or a system. Twenty years ago, they were usually things like main firewalls that secured the perimeter of a business network. The perimeter was ‘the edge’ because most networks followed the castle-and-moat security model.

Castle with fortified walls and a single point of entry, surrounded by moat

The castle-and-moat model uses a strong perimeter defense with a single point of entry into the network. All the company resources are behind the firewall. This model was effective at preventing intrusion through the perimeter, but it left some attack vectors exposed. With the security focused on the perimeter, IT teams often had fewer resources for internal security. Network segmentation and least-privilege access have always been best practices, but they were an absolute must in the castle-and-moat model. Perimeter defense cannot prevent internal attacks or insider threats.

Another castle-and-moat vulnerability was the way it handled remote access. Virtual private networks (VPNs) enabled remote users to connect to the network and operate as though they were physically at the office. VPNs do offer encryption and protection from eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks, but again, there is little internal security. Authentication of a VPN user exposes the network.

There were many ways to deploy the castle-and-moat security model, but they’re all based on that strong perimeter defense.

Castle-and-moat is an outdated model and is ineffective for most business uses. We now have billions of internet-connected devices and millions of remote workers, and most companies are using one or more public cloud services.

Edge computing

Let’s look at what those billions of internet-connected devices are doing each day. The internet of things, or IoT, is a broad concept that describes ‘smart’ devices, but not all smart devices are capable of edge computing. Hurricane monitoring systems, for example, collect environmental data and transmit hourly or by demand. These collection points are distributed across buoys, lighthouses, and land-based weather stations. They have connectivity and enough programming to call home with their data, but they don’t make decisions or learn from the data.

Offshore wind resource assessment buoys

In the above example, the collection points are edge devices, but they have to send data to another computing system and human specialists before that data can be used. The power of edge computing is that it puts data processing closer to the source of the data. With enhancements like machine learning (ML) and other artificial intelligence (AI), these devices and their supporting infrastructures can make data-driven decisions faster than the humans who monitor the systems. Here are a few of the benefits:

Processing data closer to the source significantly reduces the time to transmit and analyze information.
Edge computing devices support AI and ML on edge devices. This makes it possible for the devices to learn and improve based on the data it has collected.
On-site processing and machine learning provide instant insights. This supports immediate decision-making based on the new data.
Sensitive information can be processed locally rather than transmitted to centralized servers. This reduces the attack surface where this data can be breached.
Edge computing systems can function and process data even when connectivity is limited or unavailable.

Edge security

Edge computing comes with some risks. Threat actors target these devices with botnet and cryptomining malware, which consumes bandwidth and processing power. System intrusion attacks often start with these devices since they have limited built-in security.

There’s no big perimeter castle-and-moat defense for these devices. Edge security looks more like a country that governs and protects hundreds of little islands spread across the globe.

This is where Barracuda can help. Our industrial security solutions protect each device from cyberattack and harsh environments, and support reliable connectivity to the network. Barracuda Secure Connector appliances provide a container image so you can deploy custom logic to the protected device.

Now let’s look at Barracuda SecureEdge and why it’s caught the attention of CRN and so many others. This security platform is cloud-managed, cloud-delivered, and easy to deploy and use. Administrators can automate the deployment and management of edge computing devices, infrastructure, and applications.

Barracuda SecureEdge dashboard showing edge services and devices

And although we’ve been talking about devices, remote users, software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, and cloud workloads are also critical components in edge security. Barracuda SecureEdge defends the entire edge against multiple threat vectors.

Devices, computing, security. It’s all about the edge.

Edge devices

Edge computing

Edge security

Related reading on SASE and Barracuda SecureEdge