Extending SD-WAN To OT Environments: Challenges and Solutions

The convergence of operational technology (OT) environments with enterprise-grade information technology (IT) solutions is offering many breakthrough capabilities across industrial businesses, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure. Software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) is one such solution. SD-WAN can replace traditional WAN across distributed and remote deployment infrastructures with higher-performing and more affordable commodity internet connections. But this performance and cost savings comes at the cost of losing traditional WAN’s centralized security.

For vulnerable (and increasingly targeted) OT-based organizations to gain the benefits of adopting SD-WAN, they need to look for a solution with robust, integrated security that’s designed for the unique needs of these sensitive environments. A next-generation firewall (NGFW) solution that combines networking and OT-native protection offers an ideal tool for these sorts of deployments.